DOI: 10.25338/b8ns56
title: Data from: Conditioned place preference reveals ongoing pain in calves 3 weeks after disbudding

description: The authors initiated a retraction over concerns relating to
 irregularities found in the raw data. Concerns relating to the data can be
 found in the retraction notice:
 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-88692-z Hot-iron disbudding, a
 routine procedure that prevents horn bud growth through cauterization, is
 painful for calves. The resulting burns remain sensitive to touch for
 weeks, but it is unknown whether calves experience ongoing, non-evoked
 pain. We evaluated conditioned place preference for analgesia in 44 calves
 disbudded or sham-disbudded 6 hours (Day 0) or 20 days (Day 20) before
 testing (n = 11/treatment). Calves were conditioned to associate the
 effects of a lidocaine cornual nerve block with the location and pattern
 of a visual stimulus, and a control injection of saline with the
 contrasting stimulus. On Day 0, disbudded calves tended to prefer the
 lidocaine-paired stimulus over the saline-paired one, suggesting that they
 found analgesia rewarding. On Day 20, sham calves avoided the
 lidocaine-paired stimulus, consistent with humans’ experience of this drug
 being painful. Disbudded calves on Day 20 did not show this aversion,
 suggesting that they traded off the short-term pain of the lidocaine with
 the longer-term analgesia provided. Day 0 sham calves did not avoid the
 lidocaine-paired stimulus, likely because they received less than half the
 dose of Day 20 calves during conditioning. Thus, higher doses of lidocaine
 are aversive to uninjured animals, but disbudded calves are willing to
 engage in this cost. We conclude that calves experience ongoing pain 3
 weeks after disbudding, raising additional welfare concerns about this
 procedure.
description: These details are provided in the orginal article, but please
 note that this has been retracted. 
description: <strong>We do not
 recommend use of these data. This article has been
 retracted. </strong> Data were collected from the
 University of California Davis Dairy Facility on 44 calves in 2017.
 Variables are defined in Sheet 2 of each Excel file. The R script used to
 analyze each dataset is provided.
description: # Data from: Conditioned place preference reveals ongoing pain in calves 3
 weeks after disbudding
 [https://doi.org/10.25338/B8NS56](https://doi.org/10.25338/B8NS56) ##
 Description of the data and file structure These are data and code from a
 conditioned place preference study with dairy calves.  ### Files and
 variables #### File:
 Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Conditioning\_Trials\_Data\_Analysis.R
 **Description:** R script for conditioning trials #### File:
 Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Preference\_Test\_and\_Wound\_Sensitivity\_Data\_Analysis.R **Description:** R script for preference and wound sensitivity data #### File: Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Conditioning\_Trials\_Data.xlsx **Description:** Sheet 1 contains data; Sheet 2 is the key explaining each column name  ##### Variables * #### File: Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Preference\_Test\_and\_Wound\_Sensitivity\_Data.xlsx **Description:** Sheet 1 contains data; Sheet 2 is the key explaining each column name  ##### Variables * #### File: Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Wound\_Tissue\_Data\_Analysis.R **Description:** R script for wound tissue analysis  #### File: Adcock\_Tucker\_2020\_Wound\_Tissue\_Data.xlsx **Description:** Sheet 1 contains data; Sheet 2 is the key explaining each column name  ##### Variables *