Doing nothing and what it looks like: inactivity in fattening cattle

Abstract

Background Animals kept in barren environments often show increased levels of inactivity and first studies indicate that inactive behaviour may reflect boredom or depression-like states. However, to date, knowledge of what inactivity looks like in different species is scarce and methods to precisely describe and analyse inactive behaviour are thus warranted. Methods We developed an Inactivity Ethogram including detailed information on the postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears, Eyes, Tail) for fattening cattle, a farm animal category often kept in barren environments. The Inactivity Ethogram was applied to Austrian Fleckvieh heifers kept in intensive, semi-intensive and pasture-based husbandry systems to record inactive behaviour in a range of different contexts. Three farms per husbandry system were visited twice; once in the morning and once in the afternoon to cover most of the daylight hours. During each visit, 16 focal animals were continuously observed for 15 minutes each (96 heifers per husbandry system, 288 in total). Moreover, the focal animals’ groups were video recorded to later determine inactivity on the group level. Since our study was explorative in nature, we refrained from statistical hypothesis testing, but analysed both the individual- and group-level data descriptively. Moreover, simultaneous occurrences of postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears and Eyes) were analysed using the machine learning algorithm cspade to provide insight into co-occurring postures of inactivity. Results Inspection of graphs indicated that with increasing intensity of the husbandry system, more animals were inactive (group-level data) and the time the focal animals were inactive increased (individual-level data). Frequently co-occurring postures were generally similar between husbandry systems, but with subtle differences. The most frequently observed combination on farms with intensive and semi-intensive systems was lying with head up, ears backwards and eyes open whereas on pasture it was standing with head up, ears forwards and eyes open. Conclusion Our study is the first to explore inactive behaviour in cattle by applying a detailed description of postures from an Inactivity Ethogram and by using the machine learning algorithm cspade to identify frequently co-occurring posture combinations. Both the ethogram created in this study and the cspade algorithm may be valuable tools in future studies aiming to better understand different forms of inactivity and how they are associated with different affective states.

Waking inactivity as a welfare indicator in laboratory mice: investigating postures, facial expressions and depression-like states

“…the low responsiveness of ‘withdrawn’ horses [11]). This would parallel similar, fruitful, investigations of the physical characteristics of welfare-significant inactivity by Fureix et al on horses [10,11], Hennessy et al on laboratory macaques [7,8], Hintze et al on cattle [85] and Meagher et al on mink [48,86]. The resulting refined ethograms could then enhance the validity and practical value of mouse IBA as a welfare indicator: important as these animals are used extensively in research, and their welfare is attracting growing scrutiny [87].…”

The Correlation between Play Behavior, Serum Cortisol and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Welfare Assessment of Dairy Calves within the First Month of Life

“…Dairy calves' play behavior is easy to recognize, it can be measured noninvasively and it is a cause and, at the same time, a consequence of good welfare [16,32]. Therefore, to improve the wellbeing of these mammals, play behavior should be allowed to be expressed to a greater extent, by ensuring a more gradual cow-calf separation and/or larger pens to keep calves together, ensuring them an adequate environmental and social stimulation [24]. For the present study, we excluded some behaviors reported as possible play behaviors [11,22]: head shaking, rubbing or scratching, ear flicking, tail swishing, quick transition from standing to lying and vocalization, because those behaviors could be also markers of stress or pain [32,43,[57][58][59].…”

“…Locomotor play emerges a few hours after birth, but newborn dairy calves are usually placed in individual pens, where they remain up to 8 weeks of age [23]. The percentage of inactive calves is higher on intensive farms than both pasture and semiintensive farms [24], because the lack of stimuli and, in particular, the deprivation of maternal care and social contacts may compromise the animal welfare and consequently the expression of locomotor activity [25].…”

Personality of individually housed dairy-beef crossbred calves is related to performance and behavior

“…A lack of behavioral response to novel or unexpected stimulation may indicate a break-down in attentional processes arising from housing in impoverished environments (Wemelsfelder, 1991) and this lack of arousal can be an indicator of boredom (Burn, 2017). The fact that calves of the "inactive" personality tended to also show reduced activity in the home pen (measured using motion index and steps from accelerometers) may further support inactivity as a reflection of boredom in these calves (Hintze et al, 2020). Consequently, redirected behaviors toward immediately available stimuli in the housing environment may arise from a need to 'do something' (Wemelsfelder, 1993) and we suggest this may have manifested in more non-nutritive oral behaviors in calves of the "inactive" personality.…”