Human-animal relationship in dairy cows: Suitable metrics for routine use in practice and the influence of humans, management and housing environment on animal reactivity. A project as part of the LOEWE focus Animal - Human - Environment
Project Leader: M.Sc. Ebinghaus, Asja; Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute
Project participants: Dr. Ivemeyer, Silvia; Prof. Dr. König, Sven; Simantke, Christel
Project description:
The aim of the project was to evaluate
measures for assessing the human-animal bond (HAB) in dairy cows
with regard to their reliability, validity and practicability in
animal welfare research and animal breeding. Furthermore, a
cross-sectional study was to identify key factors influencing cow behavior
towards humans.
Four behavioral measures,
which proved to be practicable and reliable in terms of
inter- and intra-observer reliability in a pilot phase, were applied on 33 practical farms:
Avoidance Distance (AD), Touch Tolerance (BT), Release Behavior (VF)
and Qualitative Behavior Assessment during a Human-Animal Interaction
(QBA). On three farms, the assessments were repeated after three weeks,
to check the test-retest reliability. In addition, the previous
breeding traits milkability (ø
milk flow/min) and milking temperament (subjective evaluation) were used by the breeding associations and the tripping (STEP) and kicking (KICK) per cow*milking time
were observed on farms
with milking parlors. With regard to potential influences,
human attitudes, factors relating to human-animal contact, herd, management and husbandry
were surveyed.
Differently strong
correlations between AD, BT, VF and QBA suggest that the measured variables partly
reflect different aspects of MTB. QBA showed the strongest
correlations and seems to reflect the most common aspects. Also
in terms of repeatability over time, QBA proved to be the
most promising. STEP and KICK did not correlate with AD, BT, VF, QBA or
the breeding traits. This suggests that cow behavior in the
milking parlor reflects factors other than fearfulness or trust
towards humans. For MTB assessment in animal welfare research,
QBA therefore appears to be particularly suitable. AD can also be considered as a breeding trait
: the application is simpler and a
moderate heritability was estimated in the breeding subproject.
In the
cross-sectional study of influences on MTB, multivariable models
were calculated for AD, BT, VF, and QBA. Positive attitudes towards the animals
were associated with calmer herds in all test situations. Furthermore,
relationships existed between individual outcome variables and various herd and
management factors, which may directly or indirectly reflect the quantity and quality of
human-animal contact: e.g. the % of dehorned cows in
the herd was associated with more timid cows. In contrast, the frequency of
human-animal contact, manual feed presentation or selection for docility
were associated with calmer cows. Thus, the results indicate
that a positive attitude and regular human-animal contact on
different farm types can contribute to calmer cows in different
interactions with humans in the barn.
As part of the
associated CoreOrganic project "OrganicDairyHealth",
connections between MTB, stress response and udder health of cows were also shown.
Funded by the State of Hesse as part of the State Offensive for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE)
Publications: