Behavioural and physiological reactions of goats confronted with an unfamiliar group either when alone or with two peers

Patt, Antonia; Gygax, Lorenz; Wechsler, Beat; Hillmann, Edna; Palme, Rupert; Keil, Nina M.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2013.03.009

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The number of agonistic interactions displayed by one DR kid toward one AR kid, or between two AR kids, was highest immediately after weaning and decreased over time. A peak in agonistic interaction between unfamiliar animals after weaning is in agreement with the literature in goats as mixing unfamiliar animals leads to an increased number of agonistic interactions in adults until new relationships are established (Correa et al, 2010;Fernández et al, 2007;Patt et al, 2012Patt et al, , 2013bPatt et al, , 2013aWaiblinger et al, 2017). The number of agonistic interactions displayed between two DR kids was stable across the weeks, whereas the number of agonistic interactions displayed by an AR kid toward a DR kid increased across weeks.…”

Section: After Weaningsupporting

confidence: 80%

Maternal deprivation affects goat kids’ social behavior before and after weaning

Toinon

Waiblinger

Rault

2022

Developmental Psychobiology

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Maternal deprivation has been shown to disrupt the development of neonates. Nevertheless, separating the young animals from their dams soon after birth is a common practice in dairy farming. We investigated the effects of maternal deprivation on goat kids' (Capra hircus) social behavior and social ontogeny before and after weaning.Twenty female kids were raised together with their dams (DR kids) and other lactating goats and kids, whereas 20 female kids were separated from their dams 3 days after birth and artificially reared together (AR kids). At weaning, each treatment group was split in half and moved into two new pens where they were mixed with the other treatment group. Social behaviors were recorded before and after weaning. Before weaning, AR kids were observed performing more play-fighting, racing, stepping on each other, and standing in contact with each other than DR kids, but AR allogroomed less and spent less time resting alone than DR kids. After weaning and mixing of the treatments, DR kids initiated more and received less agonistic interactions than AR kids, but this difference reduced across the 5 weeks of observations as AR kids appeared to progressively change their social behavior after interacting with DR kids.

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Section: After Weaningsupporting

confidence: 80%

Maternal deprivation affects goat kids’ social behavior before and after weaning

Toinon

Waiblinger

Rault

2022

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…By contrast, standing and locomotion result in varying acceleration values ( 45 ). The accelerometer has previously been used to record lying behavior in cows ( 46 – 48 ) and goats ( 49 ). Additionally, the reliability of our data was validated by comparing the indicated lying bouts of three randomly chosen horses during the first 24 h of data collection with continuously recorded video footage.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space Allowance of the Littered Area Affects Lying Behavior in Group-Housed Horses

et al. 2017

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Horses can sleep while standing; however, recumbency is required for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and therefore essential. Previous research indicated a minimal duration of recumbency of 30 min per 24 h to perform a minimal duration of REM sleep. For group-housed horses, suitable lying area represents a potentially limited resource. In Switzerland, minimal dimensions for the space allowance of the littered area are therefore legally required. To assess the effect of different space allowances of the littered area on lying behavior, 38 horses in 8 groups were exposed to 4 treatments for 11 days each; T0: no litter provided, T0.5: 0.5× minimal dimensions, T1: minimal dimensions, and T1.5: 1.5× minimal dimensions. Non-littered areas were covered with hard rubber mats. Lying behavior was observed during the last 72 h of each treatment. The total number of lying bouts per 24 h was similar in treatments providing litter, whereas in treatment T0, recumbency occurred only rarely (F1,93 = 14.74, p = 0.0002) with the majority of horses lying down for less than 30 min per 24 h (χ12=11.82, p = 0.0006). Overall, the total duration of recumbency per 24 h increased with increasing dimensions of the littered area, whereby the effect attenuated between treatment T1 and T1.5 in high-ranking horses but continued in low-ranking horses (F1,91 = 3.22, p = 0.076). Furthermore, low-ranking horses showed considerably more forcedly terminated lying bouts in treatments T0.5 and T1, but were similar to high-ranking horses in T1.5 (F1,76 = 8.43, p = 0.005). Nonetheless, a number of individuals showed durations of recumbency of less than 30 min per 24 h even in treatment T1.5. The lying behavior was dependent on the availability of a soft and deformable surface for recumbency. A beneficial effect of enlarged dimensions of the littered area was shown by increased durations of recumbency and decreased proportion of forcedly terminated lying bouts in low-ranking horses. Taking this into account, it became evident that the minimal dimensions for the littered area as implemented in the Swiss animal welfare legislation do not ensure undisturbed lying behavior for all members of a given group.

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“…after injection; samples 2-7 in Fig. 1; [40]). Cortisol1 is the value for cortisol after habituation and before Synacthen injection (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The physiological consequences of crib-biting in horses in response to an ACTH challenge test

Freymond

Bardou

Briefer

et al. 2015

Physiology & Behavior

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• The function of stereotypic behavior (crib-biting) is not clear.• We used an ACTH challenge test to test the coping hypothesis of stereotypies.• We compared adrenal and sympathetic responses of stereotypic and control horses.• We found higher cortisol responses in the stereotypic group compared to controls.• Our results suggest that crib-biting is a coping strategy serving to reduce stress. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Stereotypies are repetitive and relatively invariant patterns of behavior, which are observed in a wide range of species in captivity. Stereotypic behavior occurs when environmental demands produce a physiological response that, if sustained for an extended period, exceeds the natural physiological regulatory capacity of the organism, particularly in situations that include unpredictability and uncontrollability. One hypothesis is that stereotypic behavior functions to cope with stressful environments, but the existing evidence is contradictory. To address the coping hypothesis of stereotypies, we triggered physiological reactions in 22 horses affected by stereotypic behavior (crib-biters) and 21 non-crib-biters (controls), using an ACTH challenge test. Following administration of an ACTH injection, we measured saliva cortisol every 30 min and heart rate (HR) continuously for a period of 3 h. We did not find any differences in HR or HR variability between the two groups, but crib-biters (Group CB) had significantly higher cortisol responses than controls (Group C; mean ± SD: CB, 5.84 ± 2.62 ng/ml, C, 4.76 ± 3.04 ng/ml). Moreover, crib-biters that did not perform the stereotypic behavior during the 3-hour test period (Group B) had significantly higher cortisol levels than controls, which was not the case of crib-biters showing stereotypic behavior (Group A) (B, 6.44 ± 2.38 ng/ml A, 5.58 ± 2.69 ng/ml). Our results suggest that crib-biting is a coping strategy that helps stereotypic individuals to reduce cortisol levels caused by stressful situations. We conclude that preventing stereotypic horses from crib-biting could be an inappropriate strategy to control this abnormal behavior, as it prevents individuals from coping with situations that they perceive as stressful.

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Behavioural and physiological reactions of goats confronted with an unfamiliar group either when alone or with two peers

Cited by 10 publications

References 28 publications

Maternal deprivation affects goat kids’ social behavior before and after weaning

Maternal deprivation affects goat kids’ social behavior before and after weaning

Space Allowance of the Littered Area Affects Lying Behavior in Group-Housed Horses

The physiological consequences of crib-biting in horses in response to an ACTH challenge test

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