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- Title
Relationship between allogrooming and disease in feedlot steers: Social interactions may provide information about individual animal health.
- Authors
Hoonhout, L.; Reimert, I.; Daigle, C. L.
- Abstract
Social interactions within a group of cattle may provide information about an individual animal's health status. To determine whether social licking (e.g., allogrooming) can be used as an indicator of animal health, Bos indicus-cross steers (n = 36) were housed in drylots (8-10 steers/pen), individually identified, and video recorded prior to (d -2 and -1) and after (d 1, 2, 4, and 8) inoculation (d 0). Half of the cattle within each pen were inoculated with Mannheimia haemolytica (MH) and the other half were inoculated with a phosphate buffer solution (PBSo). We hypothesized that MH cattle would receive more allogrooming after inoculation. Cattle were fed 2 times per day, and video recordings on d -2 and 4 were decoded 2 h before and 2 h after each feeding for the duration of time (s) each steer gave or received allogrooming. The total amount of time on d -2 and 4 spent giving and receiving allogrooming was used to develop 4 behavioral phenotypes: 1) GIVE (n = 4; gave > 1 s and received 0), 2) RECEIVE (n = 8; gave 0 and received > 1), 3) BOTH (n = 23; gave > 1 and received > 1), and 4) NEUTRAL (n = 1; gave 0 and received 0). The GIVE steers (130.3 ± 104.3) spent less time (s) allogrooming than BOTH steers (149.4 ± 42.5). The RECEIVE steers (55.3 ± 18.0) spent less time (s) receiving allogrooming than BOTH steers (150.0 ± 26.9). A generalized linear mixed model (PROC MIXED) evaluated the impact of day and treatment on the duration of time spent giving or receiving allogrooming. Neither treatment nor day influenced the duration of time spent giving allogrooming. Treatment (P = 0.13) slightly influenced the duration of time spent receiving allogrooming. Mannheimia haemolytica steers (138.3 ± 32.3) spent more time (s) receiving allogrooming than PBSo steers (77.9 ± 21.3). Transition matrices identified that 27% of MH and 16.7% of PBSo steers that were classified as BOTH on d -2 remained BOTH on d 4. Steers classified as GIVE on d -2 were classified as RECEIVE on d 4 for 11.1% of PBSo steers and 0% of MH steers. Of the MH-inoculated steers classified as BOTH on d -2, 27.8% were reclassified as RECIEVE on d 4, whereas no PBSo steers made this transition. Allogrooming is a comfort behavior associated with social dominance and partnership, yet some steers were observed to never give or receive allogrooming. The duration of time individuals receive allogrooming may be a useful metric for identifying sick animals and warrants further investigation.
- Subjects
BEEF cattle diseases; GROOMING behavior in animals; ANIMAL health
- Publication
Journal of Animal Science, 2017, Vol 95, p2
- ISSN
0021-8812
- Publication type
Abstract
- DOI
10.2527/asasann.2017.003