Cows are highly motivated to access a grooming substrate.

Autor:	McConnachie E; Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z6., Smid AMC; Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z6., Thompson AJ; Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z6., Weary DM; Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z6., Gaworski MA; Department of Production Management and Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland., von Keyserlingk MAG; Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T1Z6 marina.vonkeyserlingk@ubc.ca.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Biology letters [Biol Lett] 2018 Aug; Vol. 14 (8).
DOI:	10.1098/rsbl.2018.0303
Abstrakt:	In natural environments, cattle use trees and other abrasive surfaces to scratch and groom themselves. Modern indoor dairy cattle housing systems often lack appropriate grooming substrates, restricting the animals' ability to groom. We assessed the motivation of dairy cows to access an automated mechanical brush, a grooming resource that can be implemented in indoor cattle housing systems. Cows were trained to push a weighted gate to access either fresh feed (positive control), a mechanical brush or the same space without a brush (negative control). Weight on the gate was gradually increased until all cows failed to open it. The weight each cow was willing to push to access each resource was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Despite differences in methodology used to obtain data on motivation to access feed and the brush, the outcomes were very similar; cows worked as hard for access to fresh feed and the brush ( p = 0.94) and less hard for access to the empty space (compared with fresh feed: p < 0.01; brush: p < 0.02). These results indicate that cows are highly motivated to access a mechanical brush and that it is an important resource for cows. (© 2018 The Authors.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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