Expression Of Normal Behavior Research Articles

Effects of different husbandry systems and attitudes of cattle farmers on the behavior and welfare of cattle in Germany

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between the attitude of cattle farmers toward their animals and the occurrence of behavioral and health problems in cattle. Various factors, including animal behavior, husbandry conditions and the frequency of diseases, are taken into account. The results of an online survey of 1,242 German cattle farmers indicated that a range of factors, including the husbandry system, the number of cattle, grazing practices and the human-animal relationship, can influence the occurrence of abnormal behavior in cattle, such as tongue play, mutual sucking, horse-like sitting and standing up as well as diseases, especially musculoskeletal disorders. Additionally, the study identified two distinct types of basic attitudes among livestock farmers toward cattle: emotional and utilitarian attitudes. A robust foundation between the attitude of the livestock owner and the husbandry conditions can therefore facilitate the welfare of cattle in terms of freedom from pain, disease and psychological suffering, as well as the expression of normal behavior. This, in turn, can reduce the occurrence of abnormal behavior.

Is shade for horses a comfort resource or a minimum requirement?1

Shade or shelter as protection from extremes of weather is required for horses at agricultural research and teaching facilities and is recommended or required by many states, professional organizations, and industry groups. The focus of this paper is the recent research on the responses of horses to hot, sunny weather, which has begun to provide scientific evidence that characterizes how and when shade is used and any benefits shade confers on horses. These behavioral and physiological findings support provision of shade as a resource for thermal comfort and the expression of normal behavior that should be included as a standard of best care practices for healthy adult horses living in the environmental conditions reviewed, rather than an absolute minimum care requirement. Additional research is required for horses living under other environmental conditions, for very young or old horses, horses in very poor body condition, or those with compromised health to determine if their responses to hot, sunny weather differ from those presented here.

Locomotion characteristics of dairy cows walking on pasture and the effect of artificial flooring systems on locomotion comfort

The locomotion comfort of dairy cows depends on the floor of the walking alleys. Optimal locomotion comfort is given when cows walk on pasture, allowing freedom from discomfort and pain and the expression of normal behavior. This study examined the characteristics of locomotion behavior on pasture (gold standard with optimal locomotion comfort) and compared it with behaviors of cows walking on mastic asphalt or solid rubber mats before and after a routine claw trimming session. Our hypotheses were (1) that gait variables were different on pasture versus mastic asphalt and on mastic asphalt versus rubber, and (2) that claw trimming had an effect on gait variables of cows walking on mastic asphalt. Twenty-four dairy cows kept in a tiestall facility were enrolled in this experimental trial. The pedogram was measured using 2 standalone 3-dimensional accelerometers (400 Hz), attached to the metatarsus of both hind limbs. The extracted pedogram variables included temporal events (kinematic outcome = gait cycle and stance-phase and swing-phase durations) and peaks (kinetic outcome = foot load, toe-off). The cows were further video-recorded to calculate walking speed and stride length. Locomotion score was performed on mastic asphalt to enroll only nonlame cows (locomotion score <3). For comparison between different floor types, repeated-measures ANOVA was performed with the cow as a subject variable, session time of measurement as within-subject variable, and flooring type as a fixed effect. Three separate analyses were performed: pasture versus mastic asphalt (analysis I), solid rubber versus mastic asphalt (analysis II), and the effect of claw trimming on the kinematic and kinetic variables on mastic asphalt (analysis III). All tested gait variables were significantly different between pasture and mastic asphalt floor. The optimal characteristics of locomotion comfort on pasture included shorter duration of gait cycle, longer stance-phase duration, shorter swing-phase duration, higher walking speed, longer stride length, and higher peaks of foot load and toe-off. However, gait variables of cows walking on rubber mats did not show any significant difference compared with the mastic asphalt floor; only stride length tended to be longer on rubber mats. In addition, the stance- and swing-phase durations significantly improved shortly after trimming. The left-right differences of the stance- and swing-phase durations tended to decrease after claw trimming when cows walked on asphalt floor. The results of this study show that solid rubber flooring does not result in significant improvement of the evaluated variables of locomotion comfort compared with mastic asphalt.

Is shade for horses a comfort resource or a minimum requirement?

Shade or shelter as protection from extremes of weather is required for horses at agricultural research and teaching facilities and is recommended or required by many states, professional organizations, and industry groups. The focus of this paper is the recent research on the responses of horses to hot, sunny weather, which has begun to provide scientific evidence that characterizes how and when shade is used and any benefits shade confers on horses. These behavioral and physiological findings support provision of shade as a resource for thermal comfort and the expression of normal behavior that should be included as a standard of best care practices for healthy adult horses living in the environmental conditions reviewed, rather than an absolute minimum care requirement. Additional research is required for horses living under other environmental conditions, for very young or old horses, horses in very poor body condition, or those with compromised health to determine if their responses to hot, sunny weather differ from those presented here.

Temporary Depletion of Microglia during the Early Postnatal Period Induces Lasting Sex-Dependent and Sex-Independent Effects on Behavior in Rats.

Microglia are the primary immune cells of the brain and function in multiple ways to facilitate proper brain development. However, our current understanding of how these cells influence the later expression of normal behaviors is lacking. Using the laboratory rat, we administered liposomal clodronate centrally to selectively deplete microglia in the developing postnatal brain. We then assessed a range of developmental, juvenile, and adult behaviors. Liposomal clodronate treatment on postnatal days 0, 2, and 4 depleted microglia with recovery by about 10 days of age and induced a hyperlocomotive phenotype, observable in the second postnatal week. Temporary microglia depletion also increased juvenile locomotion in the open field test and decreased anxiety-like behaviors in the open field and elevated plus maze. These same rats displayed reductions in predator odor–induced avoidance behavior, but increased their risk assessment behaviors compared with vehicle-treated controls. In adulthood, postnatal microglia depletion resulted in significant deficits in male-specific sex behaviors. Using factor analysis, we identified two underlying traits—behavioral disinhibition and locomotion—as being significantly altered by postnatal microglia depletion. These findings further implicate microglia as being critically important to the development of juvenile and adult behavior.

Successful intracerebroventricular cannulation of a eusocial mammal.

Manipulating neural activity in live animals within a colony would allow researchers to more fully explore the neurobiology of complex social behaviors. However, some colony-living animals like the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) cannot be reintroduced to a colony after the extended recovery time required following cranial surgery. Furthermore, the colony setting creates increased risk of infection and interruption of cranial surgical sites. A protocol for intracerebroventricular cannulations was developed for securing and minimizing exposure of the intracranial apparatus. We tested whether animals could be reintroduced to the colony immediately following surgery and whether they showed full recovery and expression of normal behavior a week later, after intracerebroventricular infusion of saline. Animals were successfully reincorporated into their home colony and showed normal behavior. No animals lost guide cannulae within their colony and loss of dummy cannulae was minimized. Any loss of animals was due to surgical complications or multiple intracerebroventricular infusions of saline rather than recovery in the colony, per se. Standard cranial cannulation methods for small rodents were used with the addition of implanting a shortened guide cannula under the skin for limited exposure of cannulae to the external environment. Furthermore, dummy cannulae were sealed to guides to avoid loss in-colony. The use of intracranial cannulations is a viable option for colony-living rodents when the proper care is taken to minimize cannula exposure and when animals are carefully and promptly reintroduced to the colony setting after surgery.

Farm Animal Welfare and Handling in the Tropics: The Ethiopia Case

The issue of farm animal welfare has become increasingly of essence in many countries these days. Farm animal welfare concerns are expressed about the conditions in which farm animals are kept and management practices, particularly in systems where animals are kept in confinement for most of their lives, feed methods, health care, and expression of normal behaviors. The use of an ethical basis for animal welfare standards requires some generally accepted principles on how animals should be treated and used by humans. Animals have enormous capacity to feel a huge range of emotions, to learn from their experiences, to adapt to challenges, and to suffer when their needs are either ignored or disrespected. It is now time, in the evolution of the relationship between humans and animals, to move forward with this knowledge and take real action to improve the lives of farm animals. The use of behavioral principles should improve efficiency of livestock handling and reduce stress on animals. Changing public opinion about the importance of good animal welfare and applying legislative actions will be important in animal production systems especially in developing countries where the poor animal welfare is immense and production management is below substandards.

Preference of dairy cows: Indoor cubicle housing with access to a total mixed ration vs. access to pasture

Cattle are grazing animals so it is generally assumed that pasture is a welfare friendly system as it is natural and allows the expression of normal behaviour, which may be restricted indoors. However, high yielding dairy cows may not be able to fulfil their nutritional demands from grass alone resulting in them becoming hungry, compromising their welfare. As indoor housing and pasture may both have positive and negative effects on the welfare of dairy cattle a study was conducted to determine the preference of high genetic merit Holstein dairy cows ( n = 32) in mid to late lactation to be indoors or on pasture and to establish the factors that influenced their decision. Twice a day, after milking, cows were taken to a choice point equidistant (48 m) from indoor housing and pasture, where cows chose whether to go indoors or to pasture. After their initial choice, cows could then move between indoors and pasture until the next milking. Indoors, a total mixed ration (TMR) was available ad libitum. At pasture, sward dry matter (DM) was maintained between 1800 and 3000 kg DM/ha. Decision at the choice point and time spent in each location were recorded. To determine what influenced the cow's decision, behaviour, weather conditions, milk yield, lameness, body condition score (BCS) and liveweight were recorded. From the choice point cows chose to go indoors almost twice as often as to pasture (66.2 ± 5.02% vs. 33.8 ± 5.02%, respectively) which was significantly different from 100% ( P < 0.001), 50% ( P = 0.004) and 0% ( P < 0.001), and spent more time indoors compared to pasture (91.9 ± 2.33% vs. 8.1 ± 2.33%, respectively) which was significantly different from 100% ( P = 0.001), 50% ( P < 0.001) and 0% ( P < 0.001). Milk yield affected preference ( P = 0.005) with high yielding cows (>26.9 kg/day; n = 12) spending more time indoors than low yielding dairy cows (≤26.9 kg/day; n = 12), and there was a tendency for cows with a higher BCS (>2.7; n = 12) to spend more time at pasture ( P = 0.058). Of the weather conditions rainfall influenced preference ( P = 0.015) with cows spending more time indoors on days when it rained. Indoor and outdoor temperature–humidity index (THI), lameness and liveweight had no effect on preference. The results indicate that the cows in this study had a partial preference to be indoors which is likely to be influenced by the TMR, allowing high yielding cows to meet their nutritional demands. However, this partial preference does not mean that pasture is not important for the welfare of dairy cows.