PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
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 (Bos taurus) 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 (p > 0.05) except vocalizing (p = 0.003). The same test did not highlight significant differences due to method of dealing with out of sight for both sampling rules (p > 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.
摘要：
动物行为可以提供有关动物福利的有用信息，但是用于收集行为数据和数据处理的方法和工具会影响结果。因此,这项研究是对奶牛（Bostaurus）行为和与小牛产后早期的相互作用进行的，旨在比较两种采样规则，即以30s的扫描间隔进行连续和瞬时采样，1、2、3、4、5和10分钟，和两种方法来处理看不见的动物。该研究基于三个假设：（1）连续抽样提供了最完整和准确的数据，允许观察很少的行为和短事件;（2）瞬时采样可以提供频率和持续时间的准确测量，特别是在短扫描间隔;(3)行为结果的差异可能发生取决于是否应用了对视线以外的时间的校正。因此，在分娩后2小时的视频中观察到10个水坝。沉思，刻板印象，在观察期间没有记录到咬小腿和对接小腿。仅在连续采样或以30s扫描间隔连续且瞬时的情况下观察到其他行为。当应用较长的扫描间隔时,几种行为的重新编码不太准确。以30s扫描间隔进行连续和瞬时采样的数据与Wilcoxon检验进行比较。结果显示姿势没有显着差异，笔中的位置和所有行为(p>0.05)，除了发声(p=0.003)。由于处理两种采样规则的视线外的方法，相同的测试没有突出显着差异（p>0.05）。连续采样和瞬时采样之间的相关性普遍以30s的间隔很高，并且随着大多数行为的扫描间隔长度的增加而降低。结果证实了前两个假设，表明连续抽样更准确，特别是对于短暂和罕见的行为，并警告以分钟的扫描间隔使用瞬时采样收集的大坝行为数据的适用性。第三个假设没有被这项研究证明。应根据新技术的发展来考虑结果，这些新技术依赖于通过传感器和成像获取的数据来监测母牛的福利和分娩后的行为。
