General anesthesia in young piglets would also be possible using inhalation anesthesia, but the inhalation anesthesia used isoflurane is not approved for food-producing animals in Austria and not only damages the environment, but can also cause harm to humans (teratogenicity, mutagenicity). Intravenous injection anesthesia cannot be performed on piglets one week old because the ear veins are still too small for intravenous administration.
For this reason, injection anesthesia is of great importance in older piglets (approx. 3 weeks). However, the long duration of sleep and possible loss rates make many farmers hesitate. In addition, it is known from studies that during this anesthesia not all animals are in a surgical tolerance state in which pain is not felt and consciousness is sufficiently switched off.
The present project aims to investigate the effect of ketamine/azaperone on its effectiveness in 3-4 week old piglets. In addition, it is being investigated whether the addition of a synthetic opioid can improve the effect of the anesthesia and possibly reduce the total dose. For example, opioids are used to enhance anesthesia in dogs and cats.