Manfrè Claudia, Battini Monica, Simonetto Alberto, Contiero Barbara, Serva Lorenzo, Mattiello Silvana, Ntalampiras Stavros, Normando Simona, Brscic Marta
Department of Animal Medicine Production and Health, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy.
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Mar 14;11:1360239. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1360239. eCollection 2024.
Animal behavior can provide useful information about animal welfare, but methods and tools used to gather behavioral data and data treatment can influence the results. Therefore, this study was carried out on dairy cow () behavior and interaction with calves early post-partum aiming at comparing two sampling rules, namely continuous and instantaneous sampling at scan intervals of 30 s, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 min, and of two methods to deal with out of sight animals. The study was based on three assumptions: (1) continuous sampling provides the most complete and accurate data, allowing the observation of seldom behaviors and short events; (2) instantaneous sampling can provide accurate measurements of frequency and duration, especially at short scan intervals; (3) differences in behavioral results may occur depending on whether a correction for time out of sight is applied or not. Thus, 10 dams were observed from videos in the 2 h post-parturition. Ruminating, stereotypies, calf-biting and calf-butting were not recorded during the observation period. Other behaviors were observed only with continuous sampling or with continuous and instantaneous at 30-s scan intervals. The recoding of several behaviors was less accurate when applying longer scan intervals. Data from continuous and instantaneous sampling at 30-s scan intervals were compared with Wilcoxon test. Results showed no significant differences for posture, position in the pen and all behaviors ( > 0.05) except vocalizing ( = 0.003). The same test did not highlight significant differences due to method of dealing with out of sight for both sampling rules ( > 0.05). Correlation between continuous and instantaneous sampling were prevalently high at 30-s intervals and they decreased as the length of scan intervals increased for most behaviors. Results confirmed the first two assumptions suggesting that continuous sampling is more accurate, in particular for short and rare behaviors, and caution against the suitability of dam behavioral data collected using instantaneous sampling at scan intervals of minutes. The third assumption was not proven by this study. Results should be considered in light of the development of new technologies that relies on data acquired by sensors and imaging to monitor cow-calf welfare and behavior post-parturition.
动物行为能够提供有关动物福利的有用信息，但用于收集行为数据和数据处理的方法及工具会影响结果。因此，本研究针对产后早期奶牛（）的行为及其与犊牛的互动展开，旨在比较两种采样规则，即每隔30秒、1分钟、2分钟、3分钟、4分钟、5分钟和10分钟进行一次的连续采样和瞬时采样，以及两种处理视线外动物的方法。该研究基于三个假设：（1）连续采样能提供最完整、准确的数据，便于观察少见行为和短暂事件；（2）瞬时采样能准确测量频率和持续时间，尤其是在短扫描间隔时；（3）根据是否对视线外时间进行校正，行为结果可能会出现差异。因此，从产后2小时的视频中观察了10头奶牛。观察期间未记录反刍、刻板行为、咬犊和撞犊行为。其他行为仅在连续采样时被观察到，或者在30秒扫描间隔时同时采用连续采样和瞬时采样被观察到。应用较长扫描间隔时，几种行为的记录准确性较低。采用Wilcoxon检验比较了30秒扫描间隔下连续采样和瞬时采样的数据。结果显示，除发声行为外（P = 0.003），姿势、栏内位置及所有行为（P > 0.05）均无显著差异。对于两种采样规则，相同的检验未突出因处理视线外动物的方法而产生的显著差异（P > 0.05）。在30秒间隔时，连续采样和瞬时采样之间的相关性普遍较高，且随着扫描间隔长度增加，大多数行为的相关性降低。结果证实了前两个假设，表明连续采样更准确，特别是对于短暂和少见行为，并对使用分钟级扫描间隔的瞬时采样收集的奶牛行为数据的适用性提出了警示。本研究未证实第三个假设。鉴于依赖传感器和成像获取的数据来监测产后奶牛 - 犊牛福利和行为的新技术的发展，应考虑这些结果。
