Towards better pain management in mammals and fish intended for human consumption – Part 1: Concepts, mechanisms, causes, detection

Abstract

This article addresses scientific knowledge on pain in livestock species intended for human consumption. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with or resembling that associated with actual or potential tissue damage. It has three components: sensory, emotional and cognitive. The mechanisms of pain are similar in most species: elaboration, transmission, integration. Throughout their lives, farm animals are confronted with various contexts that can generate pain, with a significant impact on their production and economic performances, as well as on their health and welfare. Pain caused by some farming practices is predictable and its management can be anticipated, unlike accidents or diseases whose occurrence is not or hardly predictable. When in pain, farm animals change their behaviour and physiological response. To detect it, we can mobilize observations focusing on the animals (e.g. posture, facial expression, reaction to palpation, etc.) but also on the way they interact with their physical environment (activities, locomotion, space use, etc.) and social environment (proximity, social interactions, synchronization).