Feral cattle (Bos taurus) live in socially stable herds. Due to farm management practices, intensively managed dairy cows experience frequent regrouping, which can disrupt affiliative bonds and induce social stress. This study examines how changes in herd composition affect milk yield and udder health traits in resident dairy cows exposed to the withdrawal of herd members or the introduction of new individuals. Milk yield, electrical conductivity, and blood presence in milk were measured in 798 cows using precision dairy sensors over 9 years. Milk yield decreased significantly (p < 0.001) one day after the removal of familiar herd members, while introducing cows had no effect. A higher number of cows being withdrawn (up to 10) was associated with reduced milk yield (p < 0.001), elevated milk electrical conductivity (p = 0.01), and an increased prevalence of blood presence in milk (p = 0.01), which can indicate potential udder health issues linked to social stress. Holstein Friesian, primiparous, and first-lactation-stage cows were more affected than Czech Simental and multiparous cows later in lactation. These findings underscore the influence of social stability on dairy cow welfare and productivity, emphasising the need for strategies to mitigate stress when herd changes are necessary.

• Klíčová slova
• dairy cow, milk yield, precision farming, regrouping, social environment, udder health,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Most dairy calves are housed individually in early ontogeny but social housing has positive effects on calf welfare including an advantage of social buffering, i.e., when negative effects of stress are mitigated through social support of conspecific. The effects of social buffering has not yet been examined in relation to disbudding; a painful husbandry procedure commonly performed on young dairy calves. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of pair versus individual housing on calves' behavioral reaction to disbudding. In total 52 female calves were randomly allocated either to individual (n = 16) or pair housing (n = 36, 18 focal). Calves were hot-iron disbudded with a local anesthetic and their spontaneous behavior in home pens was recorded for 24 h pre- and post-disbudding. Eating forage, ruminating, resting, exploration, play, self-grooming, and pain-related behaviors were quantified during eight 20 min intervals during the 24 h periods pre- as well as post-disbudding. In pair-housed (PAIR) calves social resting, active and passive allo-grooming were additionally recorded. The differences between individually housed (INDI, n = 10) and PAIR calves (n = 12) were tested by general linear models. The changes in pre- and post-disbudding behaviors in all calves as well as in social behaviors of PAIR calves were tested by paired t-test. We found that head shaking (t = - 3.46, P = 0.0024), head rubbing (t = 4.96, P < 0.0001) and self-grooming (t = 2.11, P = 0.04) increased in all calves after disbudding. Eating forage increased only in PAIR calves (t = 2.50, P = 0.030) which also resulted in a difference between treatments with PAIR calves fed more often than INDI calves (F1,18 = 12.96, P = 0.002). Differences in eating forage may be an indication of improved ability of PAIR calves to recover from disbudding. No other significant differences were detected between treatment groups which might have been caused by our limited sample. Our results provide the first evidence that housing treatment affects calves' reactions to disbudding, with possible indication of social buffering.

• MeSH
• anestetika lokální farmakologie   MeSH
• bolest veterinární   MeSH
• lokální anestezie MeSH
• přijímání potravy MeSH
• rohy * MeSH
• skot MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• skot MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• anestetika lokální MeSH

Individual housing of dairy calves is common farm practice, but has negative effects on calf welfare. A compromise between practice and welfare may be housing calves in pairs. We compared learning performances and affective states as assessed in a judgement bias task of individually housed and pair-housed calves. Twenty-two calves from each housing treatment were trained on a spatial Go/No-go task with active trial initiation to discriminate between the location of a teat-bucket signalling either reward (positive location) or non-reward (negative location). We compared the number of trials to learn the operant task (OT) for the trial initiation and to finish the subsequent discrimination task (DT). Ten pair-housed and ten individually housed calves were then tested for their responses to ambiguous stimuli positioned in-between the positive and negative locations. Housing did not affect learning speed (OT: F1,35 = 0.39, P = 0.54; DT: F1,19 = 0.15, P = 0.70), but pair-housed calves responded more positively to ambiguous cues than individually housed calves (χ21 = 6.79, P = 0.009), indicating more positive affective states. This is the first study to demonstrate that pair housing improves the affective aspect of calf welfare when compared to individual housing.

• MeSH
• bydlení zvířat * MeSH
• chování zvířat fyziologie   MeSH
• farmy * MeSH
• kognice fyziologie   MeSH
• novorozená zvířata MeSH
• odstavení MeSH
• pohoda zvířat normy   statistika a číselné údaje   MeSH
• skot MeSH
• sociální chování * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• skot MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH