Table 3.

Mean serum amyloid-A, haptoglobin, and blood cell count of non-castrated, band and knife castrated with or without a single injection of s.c. meloxicam in Angus crossbreed calves castrated at 1 wk of age from d 7 post-castration until the end of the study (d 56)

	Treatment1
	CT		BA		KN			P-value2
Item5	NM	M	NM	M	NM	M	SEM	CAS	MED	CAS × MED	T
Serum amyloid-A3 d 7 to d 35, g/liter	55.9	59.3	82.1	71.7	47.8	55.5	0.16	0.03	0.68	0.39	<0.001
Serum amyloid-A3 d 42 to d 56, g/liter	66.0	55.5	62.6	51.8	44.8	45.3	0.24	0.41	0.75	0.85	<0.001
Haptoglobin3, g/liter	0.19	0.21	0.19	0.19	0.19	0.18	0.038	0.52	0.45	0.52	<0.001
Blood cell count4
WBC, 103/μL	10.8	10.8	11.3	11.0	10.8	10.4	0.751	0.50	0.57	0.88	<0.001
RBC, 106/μL	9.3	8.9	9.3	9.2	9.6	9.3	0.201	0.23	0.07	0.55	<0.001
Platelet, 103/μL	573	507	474	517	490	510	39.8	0.32	0.95	0.19	<0.001
N:L ratio	0.64	0.64	0.62	0.57	0.53	0.65	0.113	0.58	0.76	0.49	<0.001
Rectal temperature, °C	39.2	39.3	39.2	39.3	39.3	39.3	0.09	0.67	0.06	0.21	<0.001
Maximum scrotal temperature, °C	36.7ab	36.7ab	36.1c	36.5ab	36.8a	36.4bc	0.22	0.05	0.96	0.05	<0.001
Circumference to d 35, cm	11.5	11.7	11.5	11.5	12.2	13.1	0.47	0.02	0.35	0.61	0.12

¹CT = non-castrated but handled as castrated; BA = calves castrated with rubber rings; KN = calves castrated with a Newberry knife; NM = single s.c. injection of lactated ringer’s at castration time; M = single injection of s.c. meloxicam (0.5 mg/kg) at castration time.

²CAS = castration effect; MED = medication effect T = time effect.

³Data transformed to Napierian logarithm. Data presented herein are LSmeans without transformation, SEM and P-values form transformed values.

⁴Blood cell count: WBC = white blood cells; RBC = red blood cells; N:L = neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio.

⁵Within rows, values with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).