Development of a transdermal technology to deliver analgesia to cattle undergoing surgical husbandry procedures

Summary

Cattle undergo a range of necessary surgical husbandry procedures, including dehorning, castration and ovariectomy. Analgesia may be insufficient during these procedures, especially in extensively managed properties where access to veterinary assistance is limited. Therefore, development of practical and effective methods of delivering pain relief to cattle undergoing painful husbandry procedures is a high priority.

This project sought to develop a new vehicle formulation to drive a registered non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) through bovine skin to provide analgesia to cattle for at least 24 hr after undergoing surgical husbandry procedures.

A transdermal NSAID has been developed that produces rapid and therapeutically effective concentrations of active drug in cattle. The analgesia provided would appear to be similar to or better than intramuscular administration of the same drug, which in turn would suggest analgesia for 24 hr following a surgical husbandry procedure.

Objectives

The main objectives of this project were to:

• confirm transdermal penetration of candidate formulataions using in vitro techniques
• determine the efficacy of candidate transdermal formulations to control pain associated with surgical husbandry formulations
• develop a formulation containing an NSAID to control pain associated with routine surgical interventions for up to 24 hours.

Key findings

• The outcome from this project was that a formulation has been developed to effectively move NSAID through cattle skin. 
• Pharmacokinetic modelling also demonstrated a similar extent and duration of active drug following topical administration as from IM, in itself providing strong support for efficacy.
• Cattle producers and veterinarians can now have access to an inexpensive (particularly compared to parenteral) and effective form of analgesia that can be administered by lay users under veterinary supervision when performing surgical husbandry procedures.
• Effective analgesia will be able to be administered prior to any surgical husbandry procedure or if required for clinical analgesia.
• The outcomes from this project may have relevant and application to other species.
• Potentially new quantitative and objectives approaches to assessing pain, inflammation and stress have been identified.

Benefits to industry

This is the first analgesic product that has been developed for topical administration to cattle that has been shown to have clinical efficacy and has the potential to revolutionize provision of analgesia to cattle undergoing painful husbandry procedures.