The effect of age when group housed and other management factors on playing and non-nutritive sucking behaviour in dairy
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Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica Open Access
RESEARCH
The effect of age when group housed and other management factors on playing and non‑nutritive sucking behaviour in dairy calves: a cross sectional observational study Masja Reipurth1* , Stephanie Kruuse Klausen1,2, Matthew Denwood1, Björn Forkman1 and Hans Houe1
Abstract Background: The aim of this study was to investigate if calves’ play behaviour and non-nutritive sucking behaviour, as indirect measures of welfare status, are associated with the age of the calf when group housed, age when observed, age difference within the group, pen size, milk feeding system, current or previous sicknesses, access to dry teat, indoor/outdoor rearing, sex, organic/conventional farm, group size and regrouping events. An observational study was conducted on 176 Danish dairy calves in the age range of 1–12 weeks, on both conventional (n = 17) and organic (n = 5) farms. All calves had been group housed before 8 weeks of age and had spent various periods of time with the dam and/or individually housed before being group housed. Behaviour was recorded continuously by filming each individual calf over a period of 30 min. Results: The calf’s age when group housed for the first time was not found to be significantly associated with duration of either play behaviour (P = 0.55) or non-nutritive sucking behaviour (P = 0.44). It was found that calves had significantly reduced odds of playing for longer than the mean play duration (5.5 s) for each day of their lives (OR = 0.97, P = 0.003). Also, they had reduced odds of performing non-nutritive sucking behaviour for longer than the mean non-nutritive sucking duration (145.5 s) when milk was allocated by drinker buckets fitted with a teat compared to by bowl or trough (OR = 0.06, P = 0.02). Conclusion: No significant associations were found between calves’ age when group housed for the first time and play and non-nutritive sucking behaviour. It was found that calves’ play behaviour decreased with increasing age, and that non-nutritive sucking behaviour decreased when milk was allocated with a teat compared to no teat. Keywords: Behavioural observations, Calf welfare, Social behaviour, Social housing Background In EU dairy production, calves are often separated from their dam shortly after birth, depending on the type of production [1, 2]. Subsequently, the calves can legally be housed individually, with only nose contact with other *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Groennegaardsvej 8, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
calves, until 8 weeks of age [3], unless raised within an organic system in which case the limit is 1 week of age [4]. Both the EU directive and Danish legislation acknowledge the importance of social contact between calves, but only state that calves above 8 weeks of age must be kept group housed, as opposed to immediately after birth.
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