**6. Sheathed of horns**

*Animal Reproduction in Veterinary Medicine*

**5.3 Health management**

(Royal Decree 186/2011).

gering the survival of certain *encastes*.

recent years.

It usually begins with a weekly session, increasing the pace until reaching 3 sessions/week in the second month. The intensity is progressive, each session begins with the first minute to the step, to warm the animals, increasing the pace until they are trotted or lightly galloped, to return to the initial point in a progressive cooling. The orography of the land is usually flat, but there are farmers who prefer to exercise the cattle on sloping terrain to increase the intensity of the session. This

Each breeder has been carrying out a particular training protocol, adapted to their availability of time and cowboys, the number of animals they intend to prepare, and the date of their fight. Generally, a more intense preparation is usually carried out with bulls whose destiny is first or second category arena. In turn, the orographic characteristics of the farm, its distribution of fenced areas, and its

Considering the high economic value of the Lidia breed animals, the number of farmers who establish a health management program in their livestock as a control system against infectious or parasitic diseases, and to increase fertility and pregnancy rates as well as to decrease mortality rates in new-born calves, is rising in

Problems related to infectious and contagious diseases represent the main source of economic losses. The pathogens that have tropism for the reproductive, respiratory, or digestive system stand out. Therefore, reproductive and respiratory alterations and neonatal diarrhea are the main problems we find in these cattle [93]. Currently, there are several emerging diseases that could affect these animals during the last decade such as blue tongue, foot and mouth disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which have joined those that already have an eradication program in our country (brucellosis and tuberculosis), which require periodic official livestock checking on farms (Order DES/6/2011). On many occasions, the health problem itself is linked to a cumbersome legislation that hinders the transit of animals through the various communities of the national territory and between intracommunity countries such as Spain, France, and Portugal

The official campaigns of eradication of brucellosis and tuberculosis are based on hard controls of the herds and on the application of a legal regulation on these aspects that makes, in certain cases, the movement of animals from the infected cattle ranches, including sales for bullfighting, impossible [94]. It is essential to consider the peculiar factors of this cattle production system. One of them is the level of consanguinity within some farms with a very small number of individuals, which works against disease resistance. It is also necessary to consider the complexity of handling these animals, which coexist in extensive systems with species of different sanitary categories (hunting and/or wild) that could be reservoir for numerous

In addition, cross-reactions with paratuberculosis (a widespread disease in the Spanish countryside) compromise the reliability of diagnostic analytical tests, posing serious problems when addressing eradication plans [95]. The fight against diseases, both endemic (tuberculosis and brucellosis) and emerging (bluetongue), to achieve eradication and control, will be one of the workhorses for the Lidia sector. This should not entail, in any case, any risk to the maintenance of the diversity of *encastes* and genetic lines that characterize this breed. Important and unique farms for their genealogy are being decimated by this cause, to the point of endan-

training is interrupted approximately 15 days before the fight [92].

extension will have an important influence on the programmed exercise.

**124**

diseases.

One of the most valued and delicate body parts of the bull is its horns. They suffer a risk of deterioration, mainly in the last year of life, as a result of potential fights, friction, contacts, or blows with the ground, with trees, fencing, feeders, or the walls of the handling facilities [96]. Therefore, to protect the horns during the last year of animal live, a fiberglass bandage is placed on the horns, easy to handle, porous and that hardens quickly by polymerization with water, providing good consistency (**Figure 8**). The technique consists of immobilizing the animal in the restraining facilities and wrapping the horn with this bandage to protect it from any aggression or friction. The distal part of the horn is reinforced in many cases with metal tubes or similar hard materials, in order to reduce the wear of the apical zone [97, 98].

The horn is increased in thickness by the sheath, and the end of the horn is blunt, which decreases the effect of the lesions of horns between animals by 90% and, in addition, improves their handling for vaccinations, deworming, and other treatments, due to the risks of deterioration of the defenses when the animals pass through the handling facilities minimized [99]. In spite of the obvious advantages of the sheathing mentioned above, and the answer to many questions about the influence of this management practice on the structure and corneal anatomy and the ethological performance of the animal in the arena provided by Alonso et al. [100], there is still some controversy about its usefulness.

**Figure 8.** *Lidia bull with protected horns.*
