Water Buffalo Responsiveness during Milking: Implications for Production Outputs, Reproduction Fitness, and Animal Welfare

Abstract

The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the effects that milking temperament (MT) of water buffaloes has on milking traits, welfare indicators, and reproductive outputs. The study was performed on 60 multiparous buffalo cows (6.7 ± 0.6 lactations) at the beginning of their lactation (100 days in milk, DIM). Each buffalo cow was scored by two independent observers using a temperament scoring system (1: extremely calm, 2: calm, 3: alert, 4: reactive, and 5: aggressive), and then grouped as ‘calm’ (scores 1, 2, and 3; n = 42) or ‘nervous’ (scores 4 and 5; n = 18). Additionally, the milk yield at 100 DIM (MY), milking speed (MS), calving interval (CI), age at first calving (AFC), body condition score (BCS), animal-based welfare parameters, and infrared thermography data (IRT) were evaluated. The MT significantly influenced the MY (p = 0.0082), with calmer cows outperforming their nervous counterparts. The MS was significantly influenced by the MT (p = 0.0015), with calmer animals having a higher milk ejection rate. The MT of the cows had no influence on the CI, AFC, or BCS. The evidence from this study suggests that the responsiveness of buffalo cows during milking affects their milk yield and milking speed, with no associations being found for reproduction efficiency indicators or animal-based welfare indicators.

Anatomy and Physiology of Water Buffalo Mammary Glands: An Anatomofunctional Comparison with Dairy Cattle

“…Similar results were found in another study using the same breed of buffalo, in whom a heritability for milk yield of 0.31 ± 0.11 was reported [84], while heritability coefficients of 0.17 for milk yield were found in cross-breed buffalo [85]. Nonetheless, further studies are required to determine the heritability of milking parameters in water buffalo as they have been established in Bos cattle [51].…”

“…In Bos cattle, approximately 70-80% of milk is stored in the alveolar fraction (alveoli and small milk ducts), while the cisternal fraction (large mammary ducts and cisternal cavity) contains 20-30% [48][49][50]. In contrast, the alveolar fraction of water buffalo stores 90-95% of the entire milk production [47,51], and some authors state that no milk is stored in the cisternal fraction, or that it only represents 4.9 ± 0.1% [52]. This is one of the reasons why milk letdown requires longer periods for buffalo and udder stimulation and oxytocin (OXT) administration is critical for dairy buffalo to make the milk from the alveolar fraction available [53].…”

Some Welfare Assessment Traits and Quantitative-Qualitative Milk Parameters as Affected by Supplementary Feeding at Milking and Parity in Anatolian Buffalo Cows

“…Furthermore, early lactation cows (approximately 90 days) can be unsuitable for monitoring body conditions and detecting differences in welfare due to the intense mobilisation of body fat [ 30 , 38 , 39 ]. This case may be related to calmer cows having a higher BCS than nervous animals [ 40 ], because the feed efficiency of calm cows is associated with increased body fat reserves [ 40 , 41 ]. Although the amount of supplemental feed offered at the milking was insufficient to meet all dietary requirements, it may have contributed to meeting the cows’ nutritional requirements [ 5 , 21 ].…”

Infrared thermography as a non-invasive method for evaluating stress in lactating dairy cows during isolation challenges

“…So far, one individual cattle study explored changes in IRT eye temperature during positive situations, reporting a slight increase during feeding time (14). Correspondingly, Mincu et al (15) found a slight increase for both eye and nasal IRT temperature in dairy water buffalo pre-and post-milking, with nervous and temperamental buffalo cows expressing higher IRT readings post-milking, compared to calm animals.…”