LAUSR

Abstract One hundred and seventy-four Angus bull calves (248 ± 27.1 kg of body weight (BW), 6-mo-old) were used in a 71 d study to assess the efficacy of the combination of flunixin meglumine and lidocaine in mitigating pain associated with band and knife castration. The experiment consisted of a 3 × 2 factorial design that included castration method -sham (C), band (B) or knife (K); and medication – lidocaine (scrotal ring block 30 mL, 2% HCl lidocaine) and flunixin meglumine (single s.c. dose of 2.2 mg/kg BW) (M), or saline solution (NM). Animals were weighed on d 0 and weekly until d 71 (final BW) post-castration to obtain ADG. Physiological indicators included salivary cortisol collected on d 0 (30, 60, 120 and 240 min), d 2, 8, and weekly until d 48 post-castration; scrotal and eye temperature assessed on d 1, 2, 6, 8, and weekly until d 36 post-castration; fecal samples for E. coli collected on d 0, 2, 6, 8, and 22 post-castration. Behavioral measures included stride length on d 0, 8, and weekly until d 36, visual analog scale (VAS) evaluated during castration, and feeding behavior collected daily from d 0 to d 71 post-castration. Final BW and ADG were greater (P   0.10) were observed for stride length. The VAS scores were greater (P = 0.01) in K than C and B calves, while NM had greater scores (P