Sex, age, or genetic differences related to play behaviors in Japanese Black calves

Abstract

Play behavior in young animals has been used to evaluate the condition (health) of livestock. We investigated age, sex, and genetic differences of Japanese Black calves in relation to frequency of play behaviors (galloping, leaping, turning, bucking, head butting objects, and head shaking) and examined how these relationships might affect growth during the suckling stage. Locomotor play behaviors (galloping, leaping, turning, and bucking) and head butting objects gradually declined with the age for both sexes. The frequency of head butting was significantly higher in males than females. We found that significant interaction effects (age × MAOA polymorphism) in play behaviors (except head shaking) and the frequencies of locomotor play in calves without the wild‐type allele were significantly higher than those in younger calves (2 and 6 weeks of age). Weight gain was significantly correlated with the frequency of locomotor play in females, but not in males. This study suggests that play in Japanese Black calves gradually declines as they mature and that play may be controlled by variations in the MAOA gene. In addition, the frequency of locomotor play may be an indicator of health in female calves.

The effect of age when group housed and other management factors on playing and non-nutritive sucking behaviour in dairy calves: a cross sectional observational study

“…Frequency of head butting has previously been found to be higher for 2-to 6-week-old bull calves than heifer calves [33]. In the current study, there was no significant association between play and sex of the calf, and the behaviours were not divided into subcategories either.…”

“…Many studies have found associations between energy intake and play. Here amongst that weight gain is positively correlated with frequency of locomotor play for 2-and 6-week-old heifer calves [33], and that low energy intake for calves 6 weeks of age is associated with reduced locomotor play [35]. In accordance with this, it has also been found that calves that got milk from an automatic milk feeder eight times a day initiated more social play than calves that got milk four times a day [17].…”

“…Play behaviour was used as a measure of welfare in this study, since it has been found to be associated with animals experiencing positive emotions [18,19,31], and being healthy [33]. However, play behaviour as a welfare measure has also been criticized because the behaviour is performed too rarely to be able to draw any conclusions, and because of the uncertainty regarding whether play reflects a positive emotion or if calves use it as a coping strategy [36].…”

“…Another source of bias could be the behavioural video observations, as some of the calves' movements could be misinterpreted as play behaviour. One example could be head shake, which in theory could be both a play behaviour, but also caused by en ear infection in the calf, or a sign of frustration [33]. This could lead to a small over-or underestimated recording of play behaviour.…”

Quantification of play behaviour in calves using automated ultra-wideband location data and its association with age, weaning and health status

“…Play behaviour in animals can be categorised as either social play, object play, or solitary locomotor/rotational play 11 and varies between and within species 12 , 13 . In farmed calves, locomotor play behaviour has been shown to be influenced by a range of factors including age and sex 14 , nutrition and weaning 8 , 15 , social environment 16 , 17 , and health status 18 . Typically, these studies measure behaviour using video recordings scored by researchers, which can be time consuming and, as a result, limit the amount of time and the number of animals in which the behaviour can be assessed.…”