EFFECT OF LOCAL ANESTHESIA ON WEIGHT GAIN OF PRE-WEANING PIGLETS SUBMITTED TO CASTRATION/EFEITO DA ANESTESIA LOCAL NO GANHO DE PESO DO NASCIMENTO A DESMAMA EM LEITOES SUBMETIDOS A ORQUIECTOMIA/EFECTO DE LA ANESTESIA LOCAL EN LA GANANCIA DE PESO DEL NACIMIENTO HASTA EL DESMAME DE LECHONES SOMETIDOS A ORQUIECTOMIA

The policies of welfare on animal production have been expanded to improve the animal needs and match the demands of the consumer market. Castration represents a questionable welfare factor related to pig production. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the use of local anesthesia before castration on productive performance in pre-weaning piglets, assessed by weight gain. Animals were divided into two treatments: 1) castration without local anesthesia (SURG; n = 52) and 2) castration after intra-testicular local anesthesia (SURG+LA; n = 52) when animals were three to seven days old. Piglets were weighed before (W0) and at seven (W1) and 14 days (W2) after orchiectomy, when they were weaned. Statistical analysis was performed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Student-Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test to investigate differences between groups. There were no differences in Weight (W2) and weight gain at weaning between SURG+LA animals compared to SURG animals (3.57 [+ or -] 0.60 kg and 3.74 [+ or -] 0.71 kg, respectively; p = 0.17). According to the experimental conditions of this study, local anesthesia before castration of piglets does not affect weight gain at weaning, warranting further investigation following the effect of local anesthesia prior to castration until the slaughtering phase.