Relationship between quantitative measures of temperament and other observed behaviors in growing cattle

Bruno, Kelsey; Vanzant, E.S.; Vanzant, K. A.; Altman, A. W.; Kudupoje, Manoj B.; McLeod, K. R.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2017.10.009

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Social behaviour and resulting hierarchies have been shown to have a high impact on performance and survival in terrestrial animals and in their performance in production systems (Bruno et al, 2018;Burrow, 1997;Hayne and Gonyou, 2006) and a growing body of information from aquatic species (Jobling, 1983;Martins et al, 2008;Montero et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agonistic behaviour and feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

et al. 2019

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Given the strong effects of behavioural hierarchies on growth in many cultured species and the key role of feed efficiency in aquaculture economics, understanding the nature of the interaction of these variables is important for the sustainability of aquaculture. The relationship between agonistic behaviour, growth and feed efficiency in Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, was studied by rearing 120 fish in eight aquaria. Fish were video-recorded to estimate the occurrence of agonistic behaviour during a fasting and a refeeding period. Growth, feed intake and feed conversion efficiency (FCE-calculated as the inverse of feed conversion ratio (FCR)) were subsequently measured individually for each fish. Fish showed 58% less agonistic traits during the fasting period compared to the feeding period, but generally, an aggressive fish during the fasting period was also aggressive during the refeeding period. The nature of agonistic behaviours between individuals was used to assess the presence of hierarchical relationships between fish. There were dominance hierarchies established in each experimental aquarium that despite minor shifts were maintained throughout the experiment. Agonistic behaviours were strongly correlated with each other, the aggression Index (AI) and with hierarchy rank. PCA analysis of the agonistic behaviours summarising the behavioural information showed little or no correlation between agonistic behaviour, fish growth or FCE. FCE was correlated with body weight gain (BWG). These results suggest that agonistic interactions in juvenile Nile tilapia do not have a large impact on growth and feed conversion efficiency. Highlights ► This is the first study to estimate agonistic behaviour, feed efficiency and growth at the individual on juvenile Nile tilapia reared in groups for an extended and continuous period of time. ► Estimates the relationships between agonistic behaviour, growth and feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia. ► Hierarchical rank and agonistic behaviour do not affect Nile tilapia growth and feed efficiency. ► Aggressiveness and hierarchy are not good indicators of the feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia when fish receive enough feed and using a dispersed feed supply.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agonistic behaviour and feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

et al. 2019

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“…This is supported by previous studies which found flight time was not related to responses to novel objects [ 32 ] and is not impacted by pharmacological manipulation of fear and anxiety [ 36 ]. Differences in temperament between the First and Last Movement Groups may have contributed to the variation in growth rate observed post weaning, as temperament is known to relate favourably to growth rate, feed intake and feed efficiency in beef cattle [ 5 , 18 , 19 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. It should be noted that many of these studies employed flight time for temperament assessment but that they all used at least one other behavioural measure in conjunction with flight time, such as agitation scores in a crush or small yard.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Protocol to Assess Acclimation Rate in Bos taurus Heifers during Yard Weaning

Monk

Hine

Colditz

et al. 2018

Animals

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Simple SummaryAcclimation protocols for cattle are expected to have benefits for animal handling and production, but the rate at which cattle acclimate has not yet been studied. The current study describes a novel method for assessing the acclimation rate of cattle at a group level during yard weaning. A standardised measure of acclimation rate in cattle will allow further research to be undertaken to identify management practices and selection tools which enhance the capacity of cattle to acclimate to new environments.AbstractThe speed with which animals acclimate to a new environment could be an important measure of ability to cope with management induced stress. This study developed a measure of acclimation rate in a group of 50 Bos taurus heifers during yard weaning over nine days. We recorded the time and order in which heifers moved through a novel funnel structure into a feeding yard daily. We hypothesised that addition of an obstacle at the entrance would increase the time it took heifers to move through the funnel, but that they would acclimate to the obstacle over a three-day period. The change in latency to move through could then be used as a measure of acclimation rate. We hypothesised that individuals which acclimated to obstacles at a faster rate might display favourable temperament as assessed by flight time. All heifers took longer to move through the funnel after a novel object was introduced, then latency decreased over the following two days while the object was present. This indicates the protocol could be useful for measuring acclimation rate at a group level. Individual acclimation rate variables, measured as change in times and orders of heifers between test days, did not appear to have any consistent relationships with flight time or weight change during or post-weaning (p > 0.05). We concluded that the protocol was inappropriate for assessing acclimation rate at an individual level, due to social effects while testing heifers as a group. Heifers which were consistently one of the first 20 to move through the funnel had a significantly greater average weight 5 and 10 months post-weaning (345 ± 9 kg and 518 ± 10 kg respectively) than heifers which were consistently one of the last 20 through the funnel (311 ± 8 kg and 484 ± 8 kg respectively; p < 0.001). This may indicate order of movement through the funnel was related to feeding motivation or another aspect of temperament not reflected by flight time.

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“…Bruno et al [15], indicating that replacement of DS with a cost-effective movement-based measure is feasible for genetic selection purposes. Even though DS and FPSS measures identify similar selection on difficult and easy attributes based on pedigree, it is unclear if similar biological pathways or systems are being selected on.…”

Section: Temperament Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, there is a concern with evaluation bias in subjective methods, which makes comparison of temperament scoring methods across experiments difficult. Due to this, measurements without human interpretation, such as exit velocity [11], movementmeasuring-device [12,13], strain gauges [14], and objective chute score [15], have been tested to provide objective and quantifiable temperament measurements. Understanding how these objective measures relate to behavioral attributes is of interest, where most studies have only compared a few common subjective methods with objective methods using a standard multi-trait model [11][12][13]15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deciphering cattle temperament measures derived from a four-platform standing scale using genetic factor analytic modeling

Hyeong-keun

Morota

Celestino

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: The animal's reaction to human handling, also known as temperament, is critical for work safety, productivity, and welfare. Subjective phenotyping methods, such as docility score, have been traditionally used in cattle production as a means for improving the safety, productivity, and welfare of animals. Even so, subjective scales rely on the evaluator's knowledge and interpretation of temperament, which may require substantial experience. With that being said, selection based on such subjective scores may not precisely impact temperament preferences in cattle.Results: We investigated the statistical relationships among subjective methods including docility score (DS), temperament score (TS), 12 qualitative behavior assessment (QBA) attributes along with a movement-based objective method (four-platform standing scale, FPSS) including the standard deviation of total weight on FPSS over time (SSD) and coefficient of variation of SSD (CVSSD) using 1,528 calves at weaning age. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified two underlying latent variables contribute to TS and 12 QBA attributes that were named difficult and easy according to their characteristics. As DS is evaluated under constraint and other measures are not, inclusion of DS in EFA of subjective methods was not a good fit.A Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis inferred the factor scores of difficult and easy using the latent structure discovered in EFA. This was followed by fitting a pedigree-based Bayesian multi-trait model using difficult, easy, DS, SSD, and CVSSD to characterize the genetic interrelationships between subjective and FPSS measures. The estimates of heritability range from 0.17 to 0.4 with the posterior standard deviation averaging 0.06. The factors of difficult and easy exhibited a large negative genetic correlation of -0.92. DS displayed a moderate genetic correlation with difficult (0.36), easy (-0.31), SSD (0.42), and CVSSD (0.34).FPSS and DS were found to have a moderate genetic correlation with difficult (0.35 to 0.41) and easy (-0.39 to -0.31), indicating selection could be performed with either and have similar outcomes.Conclusions: The application of genetic factor analytic model for temperament measures provided a new approach to unravel the complexity of animal behaviors. In summary, we contend that FPSS measures could increase the efficiency of genetic selection by providing automatic, objective, and consistent phenotyping measures with a lower cost, and may potentially become an alternative of DS which has been widely used in beef production.3

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Relationship between quantitative measures of temperament and other observed behaviors in growing cattle

Cited by 24 publications

References 29 publications

Agonistic behaviour and feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

Agonistic behaviour and feed efficiency in juvenile Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

A Novel Protocol to Assess Acclimation Rate in Bos taurus Heifers during Yard Weaning

Deciphering cattle temperament measures derived from a four-platform standing scale using genetic factor analytic modeling

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