Effects of surgical or banding castration on stress responses and behaviour of bulls

Objective To compare the effects of surgical and latex banding methods of c astration in 14- and 9-month-old bulls. Design Two randomised, controlled experiments. Procedure In Experiment 1,following administration of local anaesthetic, 14 -month-old bulls were castrated by either surgical or banding methods, or l eft entire. Behavioural, plasma cortisol, plasma haptoglobin and bodyweight responses were recorded. A group of steers from the same mob was used as a n additional comparison for bodyweight data. In Experiment 2, following adm inistration of local anaesthetic, 9-month-old bulls were castrated by eithe r surgical or banding methods and cortisol, haptoglobin and bodyweight resp onses were recorded. Entire bulls from the same group were used as an addit ional comparison for bodyweight data. Results In Experiment 1, surgical castrates exhibited more leg stamping and tail swishing than banded or entire animals in the hours after castration. Surgical castrates in both experiments also showed an increase in plasma h aptoglobin, which resolved after 4 days. Plasma cortisol was generally not affected by castration. Surgical castrates grew more slowly than entire bul ls, but faster than banded animals, in the 56 days after treatment. In Expe riment 1, after 56 days, the bodyweights of surgical and banded castrates w ere not different from the bodyweights of the steers. Fourteen-month-old ba nded cattle developed persistent wounds above the latex band which remained for several weeks after scrotal dehiscence, but this did not occur in the 9-month-old animals. Conclusion The banding procedure produced fewer acute effects, but a greate r suppression of growth than surgical castration and induced prolonged woun d formation in the older age group, suggesting that this procedure may not be as suitable for yearling cattle.