Wegner Claire S, Chan Cady W, Rönnegård Lars, Agenäs Sigrid, Lidfors Lena, Eriksson Hanna K
Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Front Vet Sci. 2025 Jul 17;12:1617158. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1617158. eCollection 2025.
An important element in dairy cow-calf contact (CCC) systems is to ensure sufficient milk intake by calves. However, little is known about possible changes in suckling behavior during suckling periods for calves up to 15 weeks old, and the prevalence of allosuckling is poorly understood in the context of these systems. This research had two aims: first, to explore possible changes in suckling behavior as calves aged when housed in an indoor CCC system, and second, to identify calf-level factors associated with allosuckling. Both aims were independently investigated in two separate studies (cow- and calf-driven contact, respectively) and involved both Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein dams and calves. In the cow-driven study, dam-calf pairs ( = 19 male and female calves) had shared access to a separate contact area containing stalls, which dams could leave at any time. In the calf-driven study, calves ( = 24 female calves) could access their dams ( = 23) in all parts of the pen, except the milking area. Behavior sampling from video was used to record suckling behaviors during a 24-h period at average calf ages of 3, 6, 9, 12 (both studies) and 15 (cow-driven only) weeks. In the cow-driven study, calves behaved consistently across all weeks in terms of suckling bout length and frequency. Calves in the calf-driven study took significantly fewer, but longer, suckling bouts as they aged. The overall frequency of allosuckling observed in the cow-driven study (36%) was higher than that in the calf-driven study (14%). However, the odds of allosuckling increased significantly with increasing calf age in both studies. Calves in the cow-driven study were observed to allosuckle even in the presence of their own dam, and increasingly so as they aged. For both studies, instances of allosuckling were over 140 times more likely when other calves were already engaged in suckling on a cow. We conclude that allosuckling is likely to occur in indoor dam-rearing systems when the animals are housed in automatic milking systems, although the frequency will depend on the age of the calves and the presence of other suckling calves.
奶牛-犊牛接触（CCC）系统中的一个重要因素是确保犊牛有足够的奶摄入量。然而，对于15周龄以下犊牛在哺乳期的吮乳行为可能发生的变化知之甚少，并且在这些系统的背景下，对异嗜吮乳的发生率了解不足。本研究有两个目的：第一，探讨犊牛在室内CCC系统中随着年龄增长吮乳行为可能发生的变化；第二，确定与异嗜吮乳相关的犊牛水平因素。这两个目的分别在两项独立研究（分别为母牛驱动和犊牛驱动接触）中进行调查，涉及瑞典红牛和瑞典荷斯坦奶牛及其犊牛。在母牛驱动的研究中，母牛-犊牛对（19头雄性和雌性犊牛）可共同进入一个包含畜栏的单独接触区域，母牛可随时离开。在犊牛驱动的研究中，犊牛（24头雌性犊牛）可以在围栏的所有区域接近它们的母牛（23头），挤奶区域除外。通过视频行为采样记录了犊牛平均年龄为3、6、9、12周（两项研究）和15周（仅母牛驱动研究）时24小时内的吮乳行为。在母牛驱动的研究中，犊牛在所有周的吮乳回合长度和频率方面表现一致。在犊牛驱动的研究中，随着年龄增长，犊牛的吮乳回合次数显著减少，但回合时间更长。在母牛驱动的研究中观察到的异嗜吮乳总体频率（36%）高于犊牛驱动的研究（14%）。然而，在两项研究中，异嗜吮乳的几率均随着犊牛年龄的增加而显著增加。在母牛驱动的研究中，即使在有自己的母牛在场的情况下，犊牛也会出现异嗜吮乳现象，并且随着年龄增长越来越频繁。对于两项研究，当其他犊牛已经在母牛身上吮乳时，异嗜吮乳的情况发生的可能性超过140倍。我们得出结论，当动物饲养在自动挤奶系统中时，室内母牛饲养系统中可能会发生异嗜吮乳，尽管频率将取决于犊牛的年龄和其他吮乳犊牛的存在情况。
