CALF CARE
A Pain-Free Alternative to Disbudding in Dairy Herds
Welfare Concepts are developing a groundbreaking alternative to the painful disbudding procedure for young calves
Horns pose a risk to both animals and humans on dairy farms and disbudding is a routine but necessary animal husbandry practice worldwide. The current methods cause significant pain and distress even with the best pain relief protocols in place (sedation, local anaesthetic, and NSAIDs) and cause negative impacts to calf wellbeing, growth rates and result in protracted recovery from disbudding wounds. With over 52 million calves disbudded globally each year, disbudding remains a major animal welfare concern, and improving that is currently an unmet need in production animal medicine.
Our mission is to develop an innovative veterinary product which prevents horn bud development from a single painless injection without the need for invasive and more painful methods. Progress to-date has been promising with the proprietary technology having shown efficacy and safety in proof-of-concept studies. This innovation promises a more comfortable and humane approach setting a new standard in calf rearing, not just for dairy cattle but possibly also for beef cattle, sheep, and goat kids.