Calf-directed affiliative behaviour of dairy cows in two types of cow-calf contact systems

Wenker, Margret L.; Reenen, C.G. van; Oliveira, Daiana de; McCrea, Kirste; Verwer, Cynthia; Bokkers, E.A.M.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105461

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, it would be interesting to observe how ewe–lamb contacts influence the affiliative behaviors of ewes and what the results may imply for our understanding of positive effects in sheep. Studies of this type are already underway in other species [ 69 ].…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sheep can demonstrate positive (affiliative relationships) and negative personalities (aggressive relationships) in their social environments, and these personalities can influence social learning and cognition [ 70 ]. The affiliative personalities are positive, providing opportunities for social support in challenging situations, and are accompanied by calming and rewarding physiological responses [ 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ].…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Muhammad

Stokes

Manning

2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of positive welfare is an expansion of the traditional understanding that animal welfare is defined by minimizing stress, pain, suffering, and disease. Positive welfare shifts the animal welfare narrative from a focus on reducing negative experiences to proactively providing animals with opportunities to have positive experiences and feelings. The concept, although around for several decades, is in its infancy in terms of developing ways of assessing positive welfare on farms, especially in extensive systems, and there are challenges in the adoption of positive welfare practices and the monitoring of continuous improvement at the farm level. Using an iterative approach, this critical review aims to explore the extent to which positive welfare interventions and indicators are positioned and have been developed within the animal welfare literature for sheep. This paper critiques existing positive welfare indicators, such as choices in food and the physical environment, conspecific social synchronization, maternal bonds, intergenerational knowledge transfer, positive human–animal relationships, etc., as currently assessed by the ‘good life framework’. It also reviews the characteristics of scientific measures for (positive) affective states in the current sheep literature and their potential contribution to understanding positive welfare states in sheep. In conclusion, this paper provides recommendations for future research regarding sheep welfare.

show abstract

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Muhammad

Stokes

Manning

2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…All NC calves were removed from the dam within 1.5 h after birth (median: 6 min, range: 1–63 min) and placed in an individual straw-bedded calf box (Topcalf Duo-Flex, Schrijver, the Netherlands; see Housing and feeding for details) in an indoor calf barn. PC calves were placed in a cuddle-box [consisting of four plywood plates of 1.2 m wide × 0.8 m high; see ( 27 ) for details] inside the maternity pen. The cuddle-box prevented suckling, while still allowing tactile, visual, audible, and olfactory contact and was placed in one of the corners across the feeding rack.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All PC calves were kept in similar calf boxes as NC calves, but were housed inside the free-stall barn behind a wall (1.2 m high) adjacent to the PC cow group pen. This set-up prevented suckling, direct contact with manure of adult cows, and housing calves within the cow herd, while it allowed for individual feeding of calves, as well as visual, auditory, olfactory, and limited tactile contact between cow-calf pairs [see ( 27 ) for an illustration]. Cows could move their head over the wall and when the calf was standing, cow-calf pairs could sniff and lick each other.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Type of Cow-Calf Contact on Health, Blood Parameters, and Performance of Dairy Cows and Calves

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prolonged cow-calf contact (CCC) could potentially improve dairy calf welfare. However, it is currently unknown how different types of CCC affect animals' biological functions. We evaluated health and performance parameters of dairy calves and their dams, where calves: (i) had no contact with their dam (NC), in which the calf was removed from the dam directly after birth (n = 10); (ii) were allowed to have partial contact (PC) with their dam, in which the calf was housed in a calf pen adjacent to the cow area allowing physical contact on the initiative of the dam but no suckling (n = 18); (iii) were allowed to have full contact (FC) with their dam, including suckling, in which calves were housed together with their dams in a free-stall barn (n = 20). Throughout the first 7 weeks postpartum, data were collected on the health status, fecal microbiota, hematological profile, immune and hormonal parameters, and growth rates of calves, and on the health status, metabolic responses, and performance of dams. Overall, FC calves had more health issues (P = 0.02) and a tendency for higher antibiotic usage (P = 0.07) than NC calves. Additionally, FC calves showed elevated levels of erythrocytes, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and leukocytes on day 49 compared to NC calves (P < 0.001). Calf fecal microbiota changed over time, and we found preliminary evidence that fecal microbiota is affected by the type of CCC, as reflected by differences in relative abundances of taxa including Lactobacillus in FC calves compared to NC and PC calves except on days 7 and 66. The FC calves had a greater average daily gain in body weight than NC and PC calves (P = 0.002). Cow health was not affected by the type of CCC, although in the first 7 weeks of lactation FC cows had a lower machine-gained milk yield accompanied by a lower fat percentage than NC and PC cows (P < 0.001). These results indicate that full contact posed a challenge for calf health, presumably because the housing conditions of FC calves in this experimental context were suboptimal. Secondly, ad libitum suckling leads to higher weight gains and negatively affected milk fat content besides machine-gained yields. More research into strategies to improve cow-calf housing and management in CCC systems is warranted.

show abstract

“…Public concern for early separation of the calf from the dam has increased in recent years as well as research on cow-calf contact systems as valid alternatives ( 16 – 18 ). Several studies investigating different aspects of cow-calf contact systems proved beneficial effects of the expression of their natural bonding for both dam and calf ( 17 , 19 , 20 ). Additionally, perspective papers including socio-economic aspects were published to bridge consumer’s demands ( 21 , 22 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A methodological approach to compare continuous and instantaneous sampling and two methods to deal with animals out of sight on dairy cattle behavior and interaction with their calf in the first hours post-partum

Manfrè,

Battini,

Simonetto

et al. 2024

Front. Vet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Animal behavior can provide useful information about animal welfare, but methods and tools used to gather behavioral data and data treatment can influence the results. Therefore, this study was carried out on dairy cow (Bos taurus) behavior and interaction with calves early post-partum aiming at comparing two sampling rules, namely continuous and instantaneous sampling at scan intervals of 30 s, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 min, and of two methods to deal with out of sight animals. The study was based on three assumptions: (1) continuous sampling provides the most complete and accurate data, allowing the observation of seldom behaviors and short events; (2) instantaneous sampling can provide accurate measurements of frequency and duration, especially at short scan intervals; (3) differences in behavioral results may occur depending on whether a correction for time out of sight is applied or not. Thus, 10 dams were observed from videos in the 2 h post-parturition. Ruminating, stereotypies, calf-biting and calf-butting were not recorded during the observation period. Other behaviors were observed only with continuous sampling or with continuous and instantaneous at 30-s scan intervals. The recoding of several behaviors was less accurate when applying longer scan intervals. Data from continuous and instantaneous sampling at 30-s scan intervals were compared with Wilcoxon test. Results showed no significant differences for posture, position in the pen and all behaviors (p > 0.05) except vocalizing (p = 0.003). The same test did not highlight significant differences due to method of dealing with out of sight for both sampling rules (p > 0.05). Correlation between continuous and instantaneous sampling were prevalently high at 30-s intervals and they decreased as the length of scan intervals increased for most behaviors. Results confirmed the first two assumptions suggesting that continuous sampling is more accurate, in particular for short and rare behaviors, and caution against the suitability of dam behavioral data collected using instantaneous sampling at scan intervals of minutes. The third assumption was not proven by this study. Results should be considered in light of the development of new technologies that relies on data acquired by sensors and imaging to monitor cow-calf welfare and behavior post-parturition.

show abstract

Calf-directed affiliative behaviour of dairy cows in two types of cow-calf contact systems

Cited by 17 publications

References 36 publications

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Effect of Type of Cow-Calf Contact on Health, Blood Parameters, and Performance of Dairy Cows and Calves

A methodological approach to compare continuous and instantaneous sampling and two methods to deal with animals out of sight on dairy cattle behavior and interaction with their calf in the first hours post-partum

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About