Maja Söderlind

PhD student at the department of Animal Biosciences since 2023. Preliminary title of thesis: Exploring pain-related behaviours and facial expressions in dairy cattle.

Lecturer in anatomy since 2017. Course leader of the Structure and Function of the Body Systems (VM0111) between 2019 and 2023. Mainly involved in teaching students at the veterinary program, but also at the agronomy and veterinary nurse programs. Currently teaching 20%.  

From both welfare and economic perspectives, early detection and mitigation of pain are essential. There's a lack of consensus among veterinarians in recognizing pain in cattle and analgesia is inconsistently used for lameness, highlighting the need for standardized pain assessment tools. Pain may induce injury-specific behavioural changes, such as altered posture, reduced activity, or wound attention, that can aid assessment. Facial expression analysis is well established in non-verbal humans and has also been shown to indicate acute pain in several domestic species, e.g. horses, sheep, piglets, and cattle. Studies in humans and horses show that pain-related facial features do not always occur simultaneously, emphasizing the importance of capturing the temporal dynamics of facial expressions. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) describes facial movements based on underlying muscle actions, breaking expressions into discrete Action Units (AUs) that can be coded individually or in combination and analyzed over time. FACS is objective, as it does not infer emotional states. Originally developed for humans, FACS has since been adapted for several species, including non-human primates, dogs, horses, and cats, but not cattle. Developing a cattle-specific FACS, adapted to species-specific facial morphology and musculature, could enable objective and systematic assessment of pain-related facial expressions.

The aim of this project is to investigate whether pain-related behaviours, including facial expressions, can be used as an indicator of orthopedic pain in cattle. Furthermore, the aim is to develop a cattle-specific Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which is a comprehensive and systematic tool for registration of facial activities in cattle.

Main supervisor: Marie Rhodin

Assistant supervisors: Elin Hernlund (SLU), Jean-Francois Valarcher (SLU), Katrina Ask (SLU)

Graduated as a veterinarian at Copenhage University in 2013. Between 2013 and 2017 I worked as a field veterinarian in mixed practice and at small animal clinics. 

Söderlind, M., Ask, K., Leclercq, A., Åkesson, T., Valarcher, J. F., Hernlund, E., Haubro Andersen, P., and Rhodin, M. (2025). Evaluation of a composite pain scale including facial expressions for detecting orthopedic pain in lame dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-25692

Leclercq, A., Ask, K., Mellbin, Y., Byström, A., Söderlind, M., Telezhenko, E., Bergsten, C., Haubro Andersen, P., Rhodin, M., and Hernlund, E. (2025). Kinematic changes in dairy cows with induced, unilateral forelimb lameness during straight line walk. animal, 19(5), 101482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2025.101482 

Leclercq, A., Ask, K., Mellbin, Y., Byström, A., Bragança, F. S., Söderlind, M., Telezhenko, E., Bergsten, C., Haubro Andersen, P., Rhodin, M., and Hernlund, E. (2024). Kinematic changes in dairy cows with induced hindlimb lameness: transferring methodology from the field of equine biomechanics. animal, 18(9), 101269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2024.101269 

Leclercq A, Byström A, Söderlind M, Persson E, Rhodin M, Engell MT and Hernlund E (2022) Evaluation of feedback methods for improved detection of hindlimb lameness in horses among riding instructors and trainers. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Volume 9, https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.992954

Christoffersen M, Söderlind M, Rydemann Rudefalk S, Gervi Pedersen H, Allen J, Krekeler N (2015) Risk factors associated with uterine fluid after breeding caused by Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Theriogenology, Volume 84, Issue 8, Pages 1283-1290, ISSN 0093-691X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2015.07.007.

https://www.slu.se/om-slu/organisation/institutioner/husdjurens-biovetenskaper/forskningsprojekt/for-ett-langt-djurliv/