UdeC Veterinary Academic highlights better work methodologies in buiatrics

The professor of the Department of Pathology and Preventive Medicine, who is also Director of the Chillán Veterinary School UdeC, Dr. Paula Gädicke, presented two research lines. One of them was carried out with the Clinical Sciences area of ​​the Faculty, referring to a work on evaluation and castration in bovines, as a testicular sclerosant.

“We tested this product in a study carried out on steers from Coyhaique, where we evaluated the behavior and growth of these steers in relation to surgically castrated and non-castrated steers. This was a joint effort with the Hospital’s Older Animals Unit and the important thing is that it is a much faster methodology, since it does not involve an operation. Sometimes a little anesthesia is applied depending on the situation or a tranquilizer and this intra-testicular solution is applied, therefore, it has a much lower impact on animal welfare than castration, which is an operation and is more invasive.”

Another of the advantages of this methodology presented at the Congress developed some time ago is that it is significantly cheaper to carry out. “It is much cheaper and faster to do and these are jobs that have been done for a long time, what happens is that different products are tested, such as sclerosants that produce a special type of fibrosis in the testicle so that it stops producing testosterone and with that it causes the same effect as castration”, specified the academic who emphasized that products that generate less pain or less impact on the animal are constantly being sought.

The second topic presented was the characterization of bruises in bovine carcasses from slaughterhouses in the Ñuble region. This was a job with the work team of the Department of Pathology and Preventive Medicine. “Here we refer to how the bruises found in the animals are once they are slaughtered, in order to determine if the bovine has been mistreated during transport or in the waiting pens, which subsequently affects the quality of the meat, for this reason it is also important to mention that for about a decade there has been legislation in Chile that regulates how the transport of animals should be carried out, the types of trucks, the transfer time, among other aspects.

It should be noted that this congress that is held annually has the purpose of publicizing and discussing advances in health, management, production, reproduction and genetics of ruminants.