A comparison of commonly used and novel electronic techniques for evaluating cattle temperament

Association between breeding bulls' reactivity to humans or handling and their daily behaviour and growth

In beef cattle, reactivity to humans or handling by humans is considered a safety issue for farmers and to impact on productivity. Several testing procedures, associated with potential risks for both humans and animals, have been developed, involving simple human approach, free animals individually handled, or restraint in handling facilities. We investigated how such tests may be related to each other and which dimensions they reveal. Of particular interest is the tolerance towards human approach or handling involving human or chute restraint, and whether they could be linked to the daily activity of animals and their growth, potentially enabling this activity to be used as a proxy for evaluating this reactivity to humans and handing. We observed 498 Limousin breeding bulls, of up to 14 months of age, at a bull testing station during standardised behavioural tests involving humans and handling: human approach at the feed barrier or out of the home pen during individual morphological evaluation, docility test where the experimenter attempts to maintain the bull in the corner of a test pen, and during restraint in a chute for weighing. Routinely collected on farm at approximately 8 months of age, bulls' reaction scores to human approach were also available. The animals wore MEDRIA collars with 3D-accelerometers that continually monitored their daily activities (ingestion, rumination, rest, etc.). Three 2-week periods spanning 4 months were analysed. We conducted a varimax-rotated principal component analysis (PCA) on behavioural tests: the first component (23.63% of the variability) summarised scores during restraint in the chute, and the second component (19.36% of the variability) summarised avoidance distance score at the feed barrier, score during morphological evaluation, and docility score. The daily activity of the bulls was consistent across the three 2-week periods that were analysed and was not related to the PCA dimensions (P > 0.1). Animals that could be approached at a closer distance reached a heavier weight at the age of 400 days (P < 0.001). In conclusion, within the limits of the test used, breeding bulls' reactivity to humans or handling comprised at least two dimensions: reactivity to human approach and reactivity to restraint (in the chute); which cannot be predicted from the animal's daily activity. A bull's acceptance of being approached by humans was positively related to its growth.

Adrenergic Tone as an Intermediary in the Temperament Syndrome Associated With Flight Speed in Beef Cattle

The temperament of farm animals can influence their resilience to everyday variations within the managed production environment and has been under strong direct and indirect selection during the course of domestication. A prominent objective measure used for assessing temperament in beef cattle is the behavioral flight response to release from confinement in a crush or chute. This behavioral measure, termed flight speed (also known as escape velocity) is associated with physiological processes including body temperature, feeding behavior, growth rate, carcass composition, immune function, and health outcomes. This review examines the functional links between this suite of traits and adrenergic activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenomedullary hormonal system. It is suggested that flight speed is the behavioral aspect of an underlying “flightiness” temperament syndrome, and that elevated adrenergic tone in animals with a high level of flightiness (i.e., flighty animals) tunes physiological activities toward a sustained “fight or flight” defense profile that reduces productivity and the capacity to flourish within the production environment. Nonetheless, despite a common influence of adrenergic tone on this suite of traits, variation in each trait is also influenced by other regulatory pathways and by the capacity of tissues to respond to a range of modulators in addition to adrenergic stimuli. It is suggested that tuning by adrenergic tone is an example of homeorhetic regulation that can help account for the persistent expression of behavioral and somatic traits associated with the flight speed temperament syndrome across the life of the animal. At a population level, temperament may modulate ecological fit within and across generations in the face of environmental variability and change. Associations of flight speed with the psychological affective state of the animal, and implications for welfare are also considered. The review will help advance understanding of the developmental biology and physiological regulation of temperament syndromes.

Genetic parameters for longitudinal behavior and health indicator traits generated in automatic milking systems

Abstract. Genetic (co)variance components were estimated for alternative functional traits generated by automatic milking systems (AMSs), and reflecting dairy cow behavior and health. Data recording spanned a period of 30 days and included 70 700 observations (visits to the AMS) from 922 Holstein cows kept in three German farms. The three selected farms used the same type of AMS and specific selection gates allowing “natural cow behavior on a voluntary basis”. AMS traits used as behavior indicator traits were AMS visits per cow and day as binary traits, with a threshold for equal to or greater than three visits (VIS3) and equal to or greater than four visits (VIS4), knocking off the milking device with a threshold of at least one udder quarter, also as a binary trait (KO), milking duration of each AMS visit in minutes (DUR), average milk flow in kg min−1 (AMF), and the interval between two consecutive milkings (INT). Electrical conductivity (EC) of milk from each udder quarter and in total was used as a health indicator trait. For genetic analyses, in univariate and bivariate models, linear and generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) with a logit link function were applied to Gaussian distributed and binary traits, respectively. The heritability was 0.08 ± 0.03 for VIS3, 0.05 ± 0.05 for VIS4, 0.03 ± 0.03 for KO, 0.19 ± 0.07 for DUR, 0.25 ± 0.07 for AMF, and 0.07 ± 0.03 for INT. Heritabilities for EC varied between 0.37 ± 0.08 and 0.46 ± 0.09, depending on the udder quarter. On the genetic scale, an increased number of AMS visits (VIS3 and VIS4) were associated with an increase of KO (rg= 0.24 and rg= 0.55, respectively). From a genetic perspective, high-milk-yielding cows visited the AMS more often (rg= 0.49 for VIS3 and rg= 0.80 for VIS4), had a faster AMF (rg= 0.40), and shorter INT (rg= −0.51). When considering these traits as behavior indicator traits, selection of cows with desired temperament simultaneously increases milk yield. An increase of automatically and objectively recorded AMS traits with moderate heritabilities justifies modifications of dairy cattle breeding goals towards higher emphasis on behavioral traits, especially when developing specific robot indices. Nevertheless, ongoing research in this regard with a larger data is suggested in order to validate the results from the present pilot study.

Trailer temperature and humidity during winter transport of cattle in Canada and evaluation of indicators used to assess the welfare of cull beef cows before and after transport

The current study evaluated 17 loads of cull beef cows transported in Canadian winter conditions to assess in-transit temperature and humidity, evaluation of events during loading and unloading, and animal condition and bruising. Regardless of the use of boards to block ventilation holes in trailers, temperatures were higher within trailers than at ambient locations during both travel and stationary periods (P < 0.01). Boarding was associated with smaller differences in trailer temperature, compared with ambient conditions, while the trailer was traveling at highway speeds versus when trailers were stationary (P < 0.01). Moisture levels within trailers were not different from ambient conditions when loads using boarding were traveling (P < 0.01), whereas loads without boarding had a larger difference (P < 0.01). The moisture within trailers relative to ambient conditions increased when trailers were stationary compared with traveling when boarding was used (P < 0.01). The majority of cattle transported were in good body condition (97.4% within BCS of 2 to 3.5) and had calm temperaments (96.7%). Although all comparisons were made, only the doghouse compartment had an increased risk of severe bruising compared with all other compartments (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 3.0 [1.6–5.5], 3.7 [2.1–6.4], 2.2 [1.3–3.7] and 3.8 [1.5–9.6] in comparison with the back, belly, deck, and nose compartments, respectively; P < 0.05). Increasing the duration of waiting to unload 30 min relative to a 1 h duration increased the odds of severe bruising by 1.18 times (95% confidence interval: 1.09–1.29; P < 0.01). Scoring systems that have been developed for auditing unloading of cattle had limited variation across loads at both loading and unloading. Pretransport assessment of animal condition using the American Meat Institute’s compromised animal score was the only scoring system that was consistent with posttransport scores. We inferred from the temperature and humidity data in the current study that under commercial conditions, boarding may increase ventilation within trailers during travel and decrease ventilation during stationary periods. The current study provides the first indication that issues in Canadian cull cow transport may be related to pretransport animal condition and management of unloading.

Genetics of cattle temperament and its impact on livestock production and breeding – a review

Abstract. Cattle temperament, which describes individual behaviour differences with regard to a stressor or environmental challenge, is known for its impact on working safety, adaptability to new housing conditions, animal productivity and for evaluation of animal welfare. However, successful use of temperament in animal breeding and husbandry to improve keeping conditions in general or animal welfare in particular, requires the availability of informative and reproducible phenotypes and knowledge about the genetic modulation of these traits. However, the knowledge about genetic influences on cattle temperament is still limited. In this review, an outline is given for the interdependence between production systems and temperament as well as for the phenotyping of cattle temperament based on both behaviour tests and observations of behaviour under production conditions. In addition, the use of temperament as a selection criterion is discussed.

Genetic variability for temperament indicators of Nellore cattle

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters of 4 temperament indicator traits for Nellore cattle and evaluate the possibility of using such traits as selection criteria in breeding programs. Temperament was assessed for 23,420 male and female animals at 550 d of age, which were born between 2002 and 2009. A temperament score (TS) was used, which is based on a scale from 1 to 5 and considers the reaction of animals after exiting the crush. Moreover, 9,150 individuals born in 2008 and 2009 were measured for these characteristics: movement score (MOV), where animals were scored from 1 to 5 according to their movement inside the crush; crush score (CS), which assigns scores from 1 to 4 for the general reactivity inside the crush; and flight speed (FS), which is a recording of the speed (m/s) at which animals exit the crush after being weighed. The weaning weight (WW) was included in the multitrait analysis to reduce the effect of the selection performed at weaning. Bayesian inference using Gibbs sampling was applied to estimate (co)variance components and breeding values of the animals. The model included random direct additive genetic and residual effects, fixed effects of contemporary groups, age of the dam (classes), and age of the animal as covariate (linear and quadratic effects for WW and TS, and only linear effects for the other traits). A linear model was applied to WW and FS, whereas a threshold model was used for TS, CS, and MOV. Heritability estimates for FS, TS, CS, and MOV were 0.35, 0.15, 0.19, and 0.18, respectively. The genetic correlation estimates of FS with TS (0.85), CS (0.85), and MOV (0.76) were high, although the phenotypic correlations were low (between 0.18 and 0.25). For CS and MOV, the genetic and phenotypic correlation estimates were high (0.99 and 0.71, respectively). We concluded that all of the temperament indicator traits addressed in this study presented enough genetic variability to respond to selection; however, the use of FS would result in a faster genetic gain. With regard to the practical applicability in breeding programs, the use of FS is also favorable because it produces data on a continuous scale, allows for recording of the data electronically, and requires low investment.