Abnormal behaviour in cattle

If possible one should follow loose housing system and house the animals as per their age body wt physiological status and social hierarchy in the herd. Inter Sucking or Self Sucking In Adult Cows.

Cows on heat will also show this behaviour but will stand to be mounted.

Abnormal behaviour in cattle. Aggression in cattle is usually a result of fear learning and hormonal state. Aggression between cows is worse than that between bulls. Horned cattle will bunt push or strike with the horns and strike an opponent on the side.

Polled cows will use their head as a battering ram. Two cows can fight for a long period with resting periods in between. Each cow will rest while pushing its muzzle between the udder.

The major abnormal behaviors observed in dairy cattle and buffaloes and the preventive and management measures to be taken are discussed as under. Inter Sucking and Cross Sucking Behavior in Calves. Inter Sucking or Self Sucking In Adult Cows.

Pica or Licking of Inanimate Objects. Milk Ejection Reflex Failure. Normally only bulls mount cows for reproductive purposes.

But sometimes cows too mount other cows and even show other male traits like ground pawing. The cow with this abnormal behaviour will mount other cows but will refuse to be mounted. Cows on heat will also show this behaviour but will stand to be mounted.

This condition is called nymphomania and it can be an inherited trait. Some considerations to prevent the development of abnormal behavior in cattle and buffaloes. If possible one should follow loose housing system and house the animals as per their age body wt physiological status and social hierarchy in the herd.

Correlation with production well-being and general management of cattle this paper focuses on some important aspects of cattle behaviour both on pasture and in confinement. Furthermore the knowledge of animal behaviour can help to reduce the frequency and intensity of abnormal and undesirable behaviours caused by management. For farmers and professionals is very important to know how to distinguish normal from abnormal behavior and to recognize signs of pain and suffering in animalsBeside improvement of breeding.

Identifying Pain Behaviors in Dairy Cattle 235 farmers. Ery obvious and well V recognized signs of severe pain like tooth grinding vocalization head sing or kicking toward the preselly are not b included in the pain scale but ese should always be considered alarming th signs of severe ain. Groups typical abnormal behaviour see Fig.

12 Chapter 1 this volume. Common examples include bar-biting and sham-chewing by sows tongue-rolling by cows and crib-biting by stabled horses. Cattle become agitated during handling they are motivated by fear.

Calm animals are then easier to handle. Fearful animals stick together making handling more difficult. If cattle become frightened it can take 20 min for them to calm down.

Although cattle are creatures of. Common estrous behaviors include reduced food intake increased movement flehmen standing behind another cow and resting the chin on its back and increased licking and sniffing. Aggression and mounting also increase during the cycle.

Heat detection is an important practice especially in dairy cattle in which artificial insemination is common. There are many methods to augment the detection of heat including. Some abnormal behaviours may be related to environmental conditions eg.

Captive housing whereas others may be due to medical conditions. The list does not include behaviours in animals that are genetically modified to express abnormal behaviour eg. Limitations of visual monitoring of cattle behavior include training of personnel subjectivity and brevity.

In addition extensive time and labor is required to visually monitor behavior in large numbers of animals and the prey instinct of cattle to disguise abnormal behaviors in the presence of a human evaluator is problematic. More recently cattle behavior has been quantified objectively and. Manipulating a penmate cross sucking is an abnormal behavior because it is a redirection from milk suckling behavior toward the ear tail navel prepuce or udder of other calves.

Behaviour Certain behaviours could indicate an animal welfare problem. These include decreased feed intake altered locomotory behaviour and posture altered lying time altered respiratory rate and panting coughing shivering and huddling excessive grooming and the demonstration of stereotypic agonistic depressive or other abnormal behaviours. Stereotypy describes excessive repetition of apparently purposeless behaviour.

Stereotyped behaviour is abnormal and one form of behavioural response to a stressful or difficult condition. The nose-pressing behaviour shown in Figure 15 may be unnoticed or viewed as normal for certain cows in a herd. However it may be indicative of shortcomings in the housing that stress cattle.

1993 Behaviour of lot-fed Cattle in Recent Advances in animal nutrition in Australia. Dairy calves should be licked by their mothers but the duration must be controlled so that calves are able to suck Lidfors 1994. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 130 81 90.

A persistent abnormal repetitive behaviour in a false water cobra Hydrodynastes gigas.