Expressões faciais de dor em equinos: comparação interobservador

• Autor(a) principal: Saran, Amanda Lima Carvalho
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Trabalho de conclusão de curso
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/213944
• topic: Horse; Welfare; Pain; Bem-estar; Cavalo; Dor

Animal welfare has gained space worldwide, and this broad concept is present in ethical codes, becoming a requirement among consumers, guardians and breeders and even within society. Thus, investigations were carried out that tried to identify sensations to which the animal was exposed. Facial expressions were identified as an effective and reliable tool to characterize the emotional state of horses in relation to painful sensations. In order to maintain the quality of the quantitative pain diagnosis, it is important that the choice of evaluation methods is based on within-observer and between-observer reliability, which ends up depending on the experience and skill of each evaluator. Given the above, the aim of this study was to investigate the between-observer reliability of five inexperienced evaluators among themselves and also with an experienced evaluator in the evaluation of facial expressions in horses undergoing subcutaneous implantation of polymers. Six horses were used, which were submitted to implantation of polymers on the lateral side of the neck, comprising 3 experimental groups. Each group received an implant, the PLA group (n=6) on the right cervical lateral face of the neck, the PLA/PCL group (n=6) on the left cervical lateral face and the negative implant IN group (n=12) which was submitted only to surgical incision, similarly to the groups. The videos were recorded one hour before, 24 and 48 hours after the procedure, totaling 142 video clips, which were evaluated by the observers over the course of 30 days. Inexperienced evaluators received training containing an introduction to facial expressions, as well as demonstrations of how the evaluations of each facial feature are carried out. This training lasted around 4 hours, being given remotely by the experienced evaluator. During the evaluation, scores were applied for each characteristic observed: ear positioning, orbicularis muscle contraction, eye opening, nostril dilation, muzzle tension and masticatory muscle tension. Scores were given as follows: 0, 1 and 2, in which the highest score (2) represents the maximum pain, and the lowest score (0), the absence of pain. To estimate the intra-observer reliability of the scores for each facial expression, the weighted kappa coefficient was used and for the sum total of the facial expressions, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used. between-observer reliability in general was mild to moderate, and the facial characteristics that showed good reliability were ear positioning and eye opening. Our findings elucidate the complexity in scoring facial evaluations in horses, demonstrating the need for comprehensive training for inexperienced evaluators and for having experience with horses for the evaluation of facial expressions, so that there are no failures in the determination of pain, and consequently, mistakes in the treatment of the animal.