Katsuji Uetake

Effect of music on voluntary approach of dairy cows to an automatic milking system

The main objective of this experiment was to assess the effect of music on the voluntary approach of cows to an automatic milking system (AMS). A group of 19 mid- and late-lactating Holstein cows with 2 months prior experience of twice-daily milking in the AMS was used in this study. The cows were housed in a free stall barn with slatted floors and fed a complete mixed ration using an indoor feed bunk. They were also offered 1.5 kg per cow of grain pellets in the AMS during milking. Music was played during the milking period for 69 days prior to observation with amplifiers located within the milking compartments, approximately 1.2 m above the head of the milking cows and also on the long side of the barn. The sounds were activated at the start of each milking period and terminated after the last milking cow left the AMS. Behavioural observations were carried out during the afternoon milking for 20 days randomly fluctuating between days with music and days without music. The number of cows in the holding area was instantaneously recorded at 5 min before and 5 min after the onset of the milking period. On days with music, the number of cows in the holding area increased from 22.3 ± 15.1% to 45.0 ± 18.0% (P < 0.01). On control days without music, this difference was less pronounced, increasing from 27.1 ± 13.7% to 35.1 ± 15.4% (P = 0.150). Changes in the composition of behavioural states from 5 min before to 5 min after the onset of the milking period were significant on days with music (P < 0.001) but not on control days (P = 0.412). The results show a stimulatory effect of music, influencing behavioural readiness of cows to access the milking compartments of the AMS.

Newborn calf welfare: A review focusing on mortality rates

Abstract Calf mortality control is vitally important for farmers, not only to improve animal welfare, but also to increase productivity. High calf mortality rates can be related to larger numbers of calves in a herd, employee performance, severe weather, and the neonatal period covering the first 4 weeks of life. Although the basic premise of preventing newborn calf mortality is early detection and treatment of calves at risk for failure of passive transfer of immunoglobulins, calf mortality due to infectious diseases such as acute diarrhea increases in the presence of these physical and psychological stressors. This suggests that farmers should not ignore the effects of secondary environmental factors. For prevention rather than cure, the quality of the environment should be improved, which will improve not only animal welfare but also productivity. This paper presents a review of the literature on newborn calf mortality and discusses its productivity implications.

Multi-factorial investigation of various housing systems for laying hens

1. The advantages and disadvantages of various housing systems for laying hens were compared as a pilot study for work in commercial conditions. 2. At 16 weeks of age, 284 hens were introduced into one of 6 housing systems: two types of conventional cages (small: SC; large: LC), furnished cages (small: SF; large: LF), and non-cage systems (single-tiered aviary: SA; free-range: FR). 3. We evaluated the welfare, egg production, and immune response of the birds in these housing systems, built in the same location, for 18 months. For welfare evaluation, we examined their ethology, physiology, anatomy, production, and physical condition. 4. The non-cage systems, especially FR, had a low score for freedom from pain, injury, and disease, together with other disadvantages, such as pale eggs and increased feed intake for production. However, the score for freedom to express normal behaviour was high and immune response was good in the non-cage systems. 5. In the furnished cages, behaviour was more diverse in SF than in LF, and in SF immune response was comparable with the non-cage systems. 6. For freedom from fear and distress, the non-cage systems had high scores for some indicators such as TI duration, H/L ratio and claw length, while aggressive pecking and feather pecking was worse in the housing systems with large group sizes.

Studies on the visual acuity of dogs using shape discrimination learning.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the visual acuity of sheep. Three ewes were trained to discriminate between a Landolt ring and an ordinary ring of equal size associated with feed. The left and right positions of the 2 targets were shifted according to the Gellermann series. After the ewes were fully trained, their visual acuity was determined by changing the size of the rings or the distance from the target. The ewes were subjected daily to 1 or 2 sessions which consisted of 30 trials each. The criterion of successful discrimination was 2 (Exp. I) or 3 (Exp. II) consecutive sessions with more than 21 correct choices (P<0.05, Chi-square test). The best scores of visual acuity in the 3 ewes were 0.085, 0.095 and 0.19, respectively.

Relation between social order and use of resources in small and large furnished cages for laying hens

1. The objective was to determine the relation between social rank and use of resources in a small furnished cage with sufficient resources per hen (SF) and a commercial large one with less adequate allowance of facilities per hen (LF). 2. Ninety-two cross layers were used. At the age of 16 weeks, the hens were divided at random into two groups. There were 4 furnished cages with 5 birds per cage and 4 large furnished cages with 18 birds per cage. The dominance hierarchy was determined, in which highest, medium and lowest ranking hens in each cage were identified. Behaviour, use of facilities and physical conditions of these hens were measured (one in each rank category in SF, two in each in LF). 3. Dustbathing and litter scratching were more frequent in the high ranking hens than the medium and low ranked hens in LF, while no significant difference was found between them in SF. 4. No significant difference between SF and LF was found in use of nest boxes. However, pre-laying sitting tended to be less frequent in low ranking than medium and high ranking hens in LF (Social order × Cage design). In the nest box most of time was spent in pre-laying sitting by SF hens, LF high and medium ranked hens (average 94·9%). However, LF low ranking hens spent their time escaping (33·1%), pre-laying sitting (27·7%) standing (25·7%) and moving (13·5%) in the nest. 5. In the large furnished cages with less facilities per hen, high ranking hens may be expected to have priority using the dust bath. In contrast, low ranking hens rarely performed nesting behaviour fully, and spend more time using the nest box as a refuge than for laying.

Pecking behaviour of laying hens in single-tiered aviaries with and without outdoor area

1. The objective of the present study was to examine the behaviour of laying hens in single-tiered aviaries with and without outdoor areas with particular reference to the proportion of each behaviour and the ways it changed. 2. In all, 144 interbred cross layers (WL/RIR cross-breed) were used. At the age of 16 weeks, the hens were divided at random into two groups and moved to single-tiered aviary (SA) and free-range systems (FR, SA with in addition an outdoor range area covered with clover) with 18 hens per pen. Behavioural observations were conducted before, during and after access to the range. 3. All behaviours using the beak (eating, grazing, drinking, preening, aggressive pecking, feather pecking, litter pecking, object pecking and mate pecking) were recorded as pecking behaviour. 4. While most of the FR hens spent their time outside foraging, the proportion of hens eating, preening, litter pecking, object pecking, aggressive pecking and feather pecking was higher in SA than in FR hens. 5. The proportion of hens performing pecking behaviour of all types was very similar in SA (61·7 ± 2·0%) and in FR (64·0 ± 0·8%). The proportion of hens performing overall pecking behaviour increased as pre-laying sitting decreased. 6. The proportion of hens feather pecking decreased in FR during access to range and a similar tendency was found for aggressive pecking. 7. In conclusion, the total proportion of hens pecking was almost the same regardless of whether an outdoor area was provided or not, but the incidence of different types of pecking behaviour differed between SA and FR. The risk of feather pecking in FR may be lower when an outdoor grazing area is provided, although further testing on a larger scale would be essential.

Visual dominance over hearing in feed acquisition procedure of cattle

Evidence has shown that cattle have acute visual and auditory perception. This paper tests a proximate function of these two senses, and shows visual dominance over hearing in feed acquisition in Holstein cattle; moreover, they seem to possess a hierarchy of colors in connecting a color with feed. Subjects (15 calves about 6 months old) were trained, using operant conditioning, to push or touch a bar in response to compound stimuli, consisting of a 1 kHz pure tone at 75 dB spl and illumination of a 10 W white (incandescent), green, or red light which was presented every 10 s for 3.2 s. The cattle received grain as a reward. After performance had stabilized, the degree of each controlled response to compound and component (light and tone alone) was determined. Cattle responded more to light than to tone in all test groups; the total number of responses (±SD) to each stimulus were 17.2±1.3 (per 20 presentations) to white light vs. 10.3±2.3 to the tone (t=8/624, df=5, P<0.01), 18.7±0.5 to green light vs. 9.7±3.3 to the tone (t=3.576, df=2, P<0.08), and 17.7±2.6 to red light vs. 14.0±5.1 to the tone (t=2.079, df=2, P<0.18). The degrees of visual dominance, which indicates how much each of the light stimuli prevails over the tone stimuli, were 9.0 times in green, 6.8 in white and 3.7 in red. This may suggest a hierarchy of colors, in which green and white (incandescent) color is more attractive than red in food access for cattle.

Physiological responses of young cross-bred calves immediately after long-haul road transportation and after one week of habituation

We investigated 10 suckling cross-bred calves (Japanese Black (Wagyu) x Holstein) and collected data on the physiological stress responses of the young calves to long-haul road transportation. All calves were male and 21-47 days of age. The calves were obtained at a livestock market and were transported from the market to the university in a commercial livestock vehicle. The total haul distance and time were 306.9 km and 7 h, respectively. The calves were deprived of food and water during transportation. Blood samples, electrocardiograms, and rectal temperatures were collected immediately after transportation and after one week of habituation at the university. Serum pH was significantly lower (P < 0.01), while serum triiodothyronine, aspartate aminotransferase, non-esterified fatty acids (all P < 0.05), and heart rate (P < 0.01) were significantly higher immediately after transportation. The concentrations of blood lactic acid (P = 0.08) and serum alanine aminotransferase (P = 0.06) tended to be higher after transportation. These physiological responses suggest that the stress caused by long-haul transportation causes significant effects on liver function in young calves.

Effects of intracerebroventricular infusions of arginine vasopressin in sheep.

In sheep, neither the in vivo effect of vasopressin administered by a method other than systemic infusion nor the central effects on behavior from the perspective of stress regulation has been fully elucidated in an intact animal. We examined changes in behavioral, adrenocorticotropic, and autonomic nervous functions after intracerebroventricular infusions of arginine vasopressin (AVP) to elucidate its central role. Intracerebroventricular infusions of AVP (0, 0.12, 1.2 and 12 microg/500 microl/30 min) evoked a dose-related increase in plasma cortisol concentration. There were significant treatment-related effects on the total duration of sham-chewing (Friedmans test, X2=12.75, p=.0052), on the total duration of bar-biting (Friedmans test, X2=15.0, p=.0018), and on the total duration of rubbing (Friedmans test, X2=12.0, p=.0074). AVP 12 microg treatment induced a greater degree of sham-chewing and bar-biting than the other three treatments did (Nemenyi multiple comparisons: p<0.1). These findings indicate, together with our previous findings, that AVP has the same corticotropic potential as corticotropin-releasing hormone infused intracerebroventricularly in equal molar concentrations. Although the degree to which central stress signaling pathways are involved in these responses remains speculative, the relationships between stereotypies and central AVP are of particular interest.

Effects of single caging and cage size on behavior and stress level of domestic neutered cats housed in an animal shelter.

Cats need a minimum amount of space even in animal shelters. In this study the effects of single caging and cage size on the behavior and stress level of domestic cats were investigated. Six neutered cats (2-15 years old) that had been housed in a group for at least 7 months were moved to three kinds of single cages (small, medium and large) by rotation on a Latin square design. They experienced each cage size for 6 days. Cats could use vertical dimensions when housed in a group room and the large cage. Behavioral observation was conducted for 3 h in the evening, and stress levels were assessed by urine cortisol-to-creatinine ratios. The amounts (estimated proportions) of time spent in locomotion and social/solitary play were lower even in large cages than in group housing (both P < 0.05). Conversely, the amount of time spent resting tended to increase when housed singly (P = 0.104). The urine cortisol-to-creatinine ratios of singly housed cats tended to be higher than that of group-housed cats (P = 0.086). The results indicate that cats become less active when they are housed singly in cages regardless of the cage size. Cats seem to feel no undue stress even in small cages if the stay is short.