Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 2021, 11, 165-176 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojvm ISSN Online: 2165-3364 ISSN Print: 2165-3356 DOI: 10.4236/ojvm.2021.116012 Jun. 18, 2021 165 Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine Clinical and Radiographic Evaluation of Cattle Tail before and after the Vaquejada Race Raíssa Karolliny Salgueiro Cruz 1* , Maria Luiza Albuquerque Ribeiro 2 , Juliano Sarmento Macedo 2 , Brunno Aguiar Ferreira 2 , Marcelo Araújo Silva 2 , Anaemília das Neves Diniz 3 , Helena Emília Cavalcanti da Costa Cordeiro Manso 4 , Helio Cordeiro Manso Filho 4 1 Professor of the Veterinary Medicine course, Cesmac University Center (CESMAC), Maceió-AL, Brazil 2 Veterinarian and Member of the Association of Veterinarians of Equidae and Bovids of Alagoas (AMVEBAL), Maceió-AL, Brazil 3 Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Alagoas, Maceió-AL, Brazil 4 Equine Research Center, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife-PE, Brazil Abstract The vaquejada race is a sport with animals which has the greatest so- cio-economic impact in Brazil and is responsible for generating an intense cultural and economic movement. However, this activity has been the subject of questions about well-being involving the environmental and mental com- fort conditions offered to equine and cattle interactions. It is necessary to perform technical evaluations of the cattle involved on the basis of scientific study to better understand the processes of sport and, with this, promote their evolution on good welfare practices in the 21 st century. Therefore, to test the hypothesis that the use of the official rules of the vaquejada where cattle use a protective harness on the tail protects the cattle’s tail from injuries in this re- gion that compromise health. Before, during and after races, a study was de- veloped that aimed to perform a general and radiological clinical evaluation in the proximal coccygeal region in cattle that ran in a modern cattle stall. Forty male bovines were evaluated (average: 2 year-old and 420 kg). Oxen were subjected to clinical and radiological examination before and after rac- ing with official rules. Results of the clinical and radiological evaluations per- formed by veterinarians, did not observe clinical occurrences before and after the races in the 40 cattle evaluated. The increase in heart and respiratory rates was a reflection of temporary management stressors, as the animals returned to the feeding/rumination/interaction pattern after running in the rest pen. The radiographic findings in the tail, represented by the reduction of the in- tervertebral space and areas of subcutaneous radiolucency, suggest technical artifacts derived from the manipulation of the tail for proper positioning to perform the tests in the condition of retention in the corral. The partial frac- How to cite this paper: Cruz, R.K.S., Ri- beiro, M.L.A., Macedo, J.S., Ferreira, B.A., Silva, M.A., das Neves Diniz, A., da Costa Cordeiro Manso, H.E.C. and Filho, H. C.M. (2021) Clinical and Radiographic Evalua- tion of Cattle Tail before and after the Va- quejada Race. Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 11, 165-176. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojvm.2021.116012 Received: April 23, 2021 Accepted: June 15, 2021 Published: June 18, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access