Dunston-Clarke Emma J, Stockman Catherine, Sinclair Josie, Collins Teresa
Food Futures Institute, School of Agricultural Sciences, College of Environmental and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia.
Food Futures Institute, School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Environmental and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 27;15(1):44. doi: 10.3390/ani15010044.
Feedlot cattle were assessed for the consistency of enrichment brush use, higher incidence of natural behaviour, and less agonistic or abnormal behaviour compared to cattle without the brush. Cattle were assigned to one of two treatment pens, (1) access to a vertical grooming brush (EB; = 89) or (2) no access control (CON; = 80), for a period of 107 days. A Principal Component (PC) analysis was used on pen-side demeanour scores. Statistical analysis on pen-side behaviour and demeanour PCs tested for impact of treatment, day, and time. Frequency of brush use and the duration of each cow-brush interaction did not decrease over the assessment period. Self-grooming and allogrooming did not differ between treatments and were similar in frequency to brush grooming, resulting in total grooming being higher in the EB treatment group ( < 0.05). Cattle in the EB pen were scored as more content (PC 2; < 0.05) and sociable (PC 3; < 0.01), while CON cattle were scored as more anxious (PC 3; < 0.05). Overall, this study suggests that the provision of a brush for enrichment enhanced lot-fed cattle wellbeing and permitted prolonged engagement, making it an effective enrichment device.
与没有刷子的牛相比，对饲养场的牛进行了评估，以确定其使用 enrichment brush 的一致性、自然行为发生率更高，以及争斗或异常行为更少。将牛分配到两个处理栏之一，(1) 可以使用垂直梳理刷 (EB；n = 89) 或 (2) 无接触对照 (CON；n = 80)，为期 107 天。对栏边行为评分进行主成分 (PC) 分析。对栏边行为和行为主成分进行统计分析，以测试处理、天数和时间的影响。在评估期间，刷子的使用频率和每次牛与刷子互动的持续时间没有下降。处理之间的自我梳理和相互梳理没有差异，且频率与刷子梳理相似，导致 EB 处理组的总梳理次数更高 (P < 0.05)。EB 栏中的牛在满足感方面得分更高 (PC 2；P < 0.05) 且社交性更强 (PC 3；P < 0.01)，而 CON 组的牛在焦虑方面得分更高 (PC 3；P < 0.05)。总体而言，这项研究表明，提供用于 enrichment 的刷子可提高舍饲牛的福利，并允许其长时间参与，使其成为一种有效的 enrichment 设备。
