Elsevier

Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Volume 2, Issue 1, January–February 2007, Pages 10-14
Journal of Veterinary Behavior

Research
A note on behavioral responses to brief cow-calf separation and reunion in cattle (Bos indicus)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2006.12.002Get rights and content

Temporal weaning is a common practice to reduce the calving interval. Behavioral responses of calves to short-term separation and subsequent reunion with their mothers were measured. Twenty-seven zebu-type cow-calf pairs were assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Calves in the first group were separated from their dams for 72 hours (FC) using a fence. Calves in this group had some contact with their mothers through the fence. In the second group, calves were removed for 72 hours with no sensorial contact with their mothers (NC). The third group (CO) was used as a control group, in which calves were not separated from their mothers. After the 72-hour period, calves were reunited with their dams. Results show that FC and NC induced significant (P<0.05) increases in walking, butting, urinating, and vocalizing and concurrently reduced (P<0.05) the time that calves spent eating when compared with CO calves. The number of calves grooming and lying down was reduced in the FC calves but was not affected by the NC treatment. Vocalizations/calf/hour rose from 0.9 ± 0.12 in the CO group to 10.5 ± 1.5 in FC and 9.3 ± 0.72 in NC calves (1033% and 1166% increase, respectively), with day 2 showing the greatest disparity among groups and the highest value for FC calves. With the exception of suckling, which increased 861% and 886% in NC and FC calves, respectively, all variables decreased (P<0.05) below the CO levels the day the calves and cows were reunited, regardless of treatment. It was concluded that (1) temporal weaning induces severe psychological stress in cattle, and preventing any sensorial contact between mother and young within this period resulted in a less stressful situation in zebu-type calves, and (2) calf-cow reunion reduced behavioral signs associated with stress and induced calves to suckle and remain standing close to their mothers.

Introduction

It is well known that the suckling stimulus and the presence of the calf in beef cattle are 2 of the most important factors affecting the duration of postpartum anestrus (Short et al 1972, Williams 1990). Suckling prolongs the postpartum interval to ovulation and estrus, whereas weaning calves reduces interval to estrus in beef cows (Short et al., 1972). In addition, Mukasa-Mugerwa et al. (1991) found that when calves were fitted with a device preventing them from suckling (nose-plated) but allowed unlimited contact with their mothers, the latter showed longer postpartum intervals to estrus than cows whose calves were weaned (Hoffman et al., 1996).

One of the most common practices to reduce the calving interval and induce the resumption of ovarian activity in zebu cattle is temporal weaning for 48 to 72 hours (Galina et al., 2001). These techniques are applied with variable results, which have been variously attributed to body condition of the cow, nutrition, age of the calves, length and number of suckling episodes, and length and degree of separation (McSweeny et al 1993, Hoffman et al 1996, Quesada et al 2001).

Studies in young animals have shown that brief separation from their mothers results in an increase of vocalization and in behavioral arousal, suggesting psychological stress (Panksepp et al., 1978). Furthermore, physical separation of mother and young, interruption of milk feeding, and a change in living environment are known to result in both behavioral and physiological stress in relation to the weaning of beef calves (Lefcourt and Elsasser 1995, Stookey et al 1997). However, the majority of research in lactation management of beef cattle has been designed to understand and manipulate postpartum effects to reduce calving intervals. Very few experiments have been directed toward measuring the degree of stress in cows and/or calves during reproductive manipulations. There is little data on the behavioral response of calves after reunion and, to our knowledge, hardly any information is available for zebu-type cattle raised under tropical conditions.

Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which fence-line contact and/or no contact between cows and calves affects behavioral indices of stress in zebu-type calves during a 72-hour (h) temporal separation and subsequent reunion with their mothers.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

This study was conducted at the research center of the National University of Mexico, located in the north-central region of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The average annual temperature is 21.8°C, with a maximum and minimum of 40°C and 13°C, respectively. The average annual rainfall is 1780 mm (García, 1973).

Twenty-seven zebu-type cows averaging 7 ± 1.5 years old and their 90-day-old male calves were used. Animals were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups. Calves in the first group were

Results

The analysis showed that temporal weaning, regardless of treatment, affected all observed variables. There were significant increases in walking, butting, urinating, and vocalizing (P < 0.05). Both FC and NC calves spent less time eating compared with CO calves (P < 0.05). The number of calves grooming and lying down was reduced in the FC calves but was not affected by the NC treatment (Table 1).

Vocalization was the most frequent behavior exhibited by calves in response to separation,

Effect of the treatment

Our results agree with previous reports that deliberate weaning induces behavioral signs of distress (Lefcourt and Elsasser 1995, Stookey et al 1997). In our experiment all behavioral variables in the FC and all variables, except for grooming and lying down, in the NC group differed from the CO calves. In general, the behavior of the NC calves in the days following weaning resembled that of the FC calves.

Behavioral indices of distress characteristic of social disruptions were found in the

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Karen L. Overall for her careful review of the language in and form of the manuscript.

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