The social behaviour of cattle.

Bouissou, Marie‐France; Boissy, Alain; Neindre, Pierre Le; Veissier, Isabelle

doi:10.1079/9780851993973.0113

Cited by 143 publications

(147 citation statements)

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“…A lower number of non-agonistic social interactions, such as sniffing and rubbing, have been also observed by Krohn (1994) in extensively kept dairy cows as compared with animals in intensive systems. The mean number of agonistic events recorded in this study was much lower than that reported in previous experiments (Wierenga, 1984;Miller and Wood-Gush, 1991), possibly because the bulls were all part of one herd since their birth, consequently their social status was well established, whereas agonistic interactions prominently occur in occasion of establishing the social order in dynamic groups (Bouissou et al, 2001;Bouissou and Boissy, 2005).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 82%

Podolian beef production on pasture and in confinement

Braghieri

Pacelli

Rosa

et al. 2011

Animal

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the effect of rearing system (confined (C) v. free ranging (FR)) and season (spring v. summer) was evaluated on behaviour, immune and blood parameters and beef production (experiment 1). From February to August 2008, the effect of rearing system was only evaluated on beef production (experiment 2). A total of 12 Podolian young bulls were used each year. They were slaughtered at 18 and 15 months of age in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Herbage mass and pasture composition were monitored during the 2 years. Pasture availability, in terms of herbage mass and composition, as well as its seasonal development, was similar in the 2 years. In the first experiment, FR animals spent more time walking ( P , 0.05), feeding ( P , 0.001) and standing ( P , 0.01) and showed a lower number of agonistic ( P , 0.05) and non-agonistic social interaction than C animals ( P , 0.01). Significant lower concentrations of serum urea nitrogen ( P , 0.001) and creatinine ( P , 0.10) in FR animals indicated a lower protein nutritional status due to inadequate protein availability at pasture. As a consequence, average daily gains ( P , 0.05), slaughter weight ( P , 0.05) and body condition score ( P , 0.01) were lower in grazing animals as compared with C bulls. Cellular immune responsiveness was higher in FR animals ( P , 0.05). Similarly, antibody titre to keyhole limpet hemocyanin was higher in FR bulls at the 2nd and 3rd month after antigen injection ( P , 0.05), whereas it tended to be higher at the 4th month ( P , 0.10). In both experiments, grazing negatively affected meat colour in terms of lightness. Eighteenmonth-old bulls also showed lower final weight, weight gain and body conditions when kept outdoor: a possible consequence of nutrient deficits, as suggested by the metabolic status of FR animals. The same animals, however, benefited from FR in terms of natural behaviour expression and immune responsiveness. When the experiment was replicated the subsequent year, on animals slaughtered at 15 months of age, no differences between the performances of FR and C animals were detected. The earlier slaughter age system was also proportionally less dependent on external inputs as grazing was not extended to the dry season when herbage mass availability was lower.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 82%

Podolian beef production on pasture and in confinement

Braghieri

Pacelli

Rosa

et al. 2011

Animal

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“…This result agreed with those of Bouissou et al (2001) who showed that among cows that had free access to food, lower-social ranking cows ate less food and had smaller weight than higher-ranking cows. Phillips and Rind (2002) found that weight gain of the dominant cows increased more than subordinates in dairy cattle.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Factors influencing the priority of access to food and their effects on the carcass traits for Japanese Black (Wagyu) cattle

Takanishi

Oishi

Kumagai

et al. 2015

Animal

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The factors influencing the priority of access to food and the effects of the priority of access to food on their carcass traits were analyzed for Japanese Black (Wagyu) cattle in a semi-intensive fattening production system. The records of 96 clinically healthy steers and heifers were analyzed. The calves at ∼ 3 to 4 months of age were allocated to pens with four animals per pen; all four animals in the same pen were of the same sex and of similar body size. The ranking of the animals' priority of access to food (1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th ), which was determined by the farm manager, was used as an indicator of social dominance in the present study. Four models including sire line, maternal grandsire line and the difference in the animals' birth dates as fixed effects were used to analyze factors influencing the priority of access to food. Ranking was represented by ordinal scores (highest = 4, lowest = 1) in Model 1, and the binary scores were assigned in Model 2 (highest = 1; 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th = 0), Model 3 (1 st and 2 nd = 1; 3 rd and 4 th = 0) and Model 4 (1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd = 1; lowest = 0). The results showed that the difference in the animals' birth dates had a significant effect on the establishment of the priority of access to food in Model 3 ( P < 0.05), suggesting that animals born earlier may become more dominant in the pen. The maternal grandsire line tended to affect the social rank score in Models 2 and 3 ( P < 0.10). Our results indicated that the maternal grandsire line may affect the temperament of calves through their mothers' genetic performance and thereby more aggressive calves may be more dominant and have higher priority of access to food. On the other hand, there was a significant effect of the priority of access to food on beef marbling score (BMS; P < 0.05), and the priority of access to food also tended to influence the carcass weight ( P = 0.09). The highest BMS was observed for animals with the first rank of the priority of access to food ( P < 0.05), and the higher-ranking animals had the tendency to be heavier carcass than the lower-ranking animals. Our findings emphasized the importance of information about the priority of access to food determined by farmers' own observation on implementing best management practices in small-scaled semi-intensive beef cattle production systems.

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“…For example in livestock, routine management procedures such as shearing, castration and transportation can trigger fear and anxiety [21,22,48]. Even if they generally require brief social isolation, they can be highly stressful for domestic ruminants [5] which are gregarious [7,17]. Moreover, excessive fear may lead to the development of chronic stress and decreased productivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic analysis of emotional reactivity in sheep: effects of the genotypes of the lambs and of their dams

et al. 2005

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-A total of 1347 weaned lambs from eight genotypes were tested over five consecutive years: Romanov (ROM) and Lacaune (LAC) pure breeds, the two F1 crossbreeds (RL and LR) and the offspring of ewes from these four genotypes sired with Berrichon-du-Cher rams (BCF). The lambs were individually exposed to three challenging tests involving novelty, human contact and social isolation. Ten synthetic variables were used to express social reactivity (i.e., active vs. passive strategy), exploratory activity and reactivity to humans. BCF crossbreds were more active (i.e., high bleats, locomotion and attempts to escape) than purebreds and F1. In contrast, ROM expressed more passive responses (i.e., low bleats and vigilance postures) than LAC and BCF crossbreds. In addition, ROM approached a motionless human less and had longer flight distances to an approaching human than did LAC and BCF crossbreds. When restrained, ROM, and to a lesser extent B×ROM and B×LR, avoided human contact more than did LAC, RL and B×LAC. Most of these differences were explained by direct additive genetic effects while maternal influences or heterosis effects were rarely significant. The highest heritability was for high bleats (h 2 = 0.48). Females were more active and avoided human contact more than did males.genetics / emotional reactivity / human contact / social isolation / sheep

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The social behaviour of cattle.

Cited by 143 publications

References 0 publications

Podolian beef production on pasture and in confinement

Podolian beef production on pasture and in confinement

Factors influencing the priority of access to food and their effects on the carcass traits for Japanese Black (Wagyu) cattle

Genetic analysis of emotional reactivity in sheep: effects of the genotypes of the lambs and of their dams

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