Cutaneous nociceptive test in horses by alternative method

Pain is a complex phenomenon defined as an aversive sensory or emotional experience, where there is awareness of tissue damage or tissue integrity threat, with physiological and behavioral changes that aim to reduce or avoid occurrence of such damage. This study aimed to develop and evaluate an alternative low cost assessment method of the cutaneous nociceptive threshold in horses. The device used to assess the nociceptive threshold was constructed using an infrared 250W, 220V light bulb equipped with a mechanism to standardize the distance between the light bulb and the cutaneous surface of the animals. Six adult horses, males and females, were submitted to three evaluations. The results were submitted to analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s Multiple Comparison Test as post-test. No differences were observed among the evaluations (p>0,05), indicating that this method fulfills the aim to emit a standard nociceptive stimulus able to trigger a regular and qualitatively similar response between the tested subjects. We concluded that the studied equipment can be constructed at an accessible cost and it has potential to be applied in models of experimental pain, although some improvements are needed