Adult-Young Ratio, a Major Factor Regulating Social Behaviour of Young: A Horse Study

Background: Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest that, more than the mere presence of adults, their proportions in social groups affect the social development of young. Here, we hypothesized that aggression rates and social cohesion were correlated to adult-young ratios. Our biological model was naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses, Equus f. przewalskii, varying in composition. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the social interactions and spatial relationships of 12 one- and two-yearold Przewalski horses belonging to five families with adult-young ratios (AYR) ranging from 0.67 to 1.33. We found striking variations of aggression rates and spatial relationships related to the adult-young ratio: the lower this ratio, the more the young were aggressive, the more young and adults segregated and the tighter the young bonded to other young. Conclusion/Significance: This is the first study demonstrating a correlation between adult-young ratios and aggression rates and social cohesion of young individuals in a naturalistic setting. The increase of aggression and the emergence of social segregation in groups with lower proportions of adults could reflect a related decrease of the influence of adults as regulators of the behaviour of young. This social regulation has both theoretical and practical implications for understanding the modalities of the influence of adults during ontogeny and for recommending optimal settings, as for instance, for schooling or animal group management

Using expert elicitation to abridge the Welfare Quality® protocol for monitoring the most adverse dairy cattle welfare impairments

The Welfare Quality® consortium has developed and proposed standard protocols for monitoring farm animal welfare. The uptake of the dairy cattle protocol has been below expectation, however, and it has been criticized for the variable quality of the welfare measures and for a limited number of measures having a disproportionally large effect on the integrated welfare categorization. Aiming for a wide uptake by the milk industry, we revised and simplified the Welfare Quality® protocol into a user-friendly tool for cost- and time-efficient on-farm monitoring of dairy cattle welfare with a minimal number of key animal-based measures that are aggregated into a continuous (and thus discriminative) welfare index (WI). The inevitable subjective decisions were based upon expert opinion, as considerable expertise about cattle welfare issues and about the interpretation, importance, and validity of the welfare measures was deemed essential. The WI is calculated as the sum of the severity score (i.e., how severely a welfare problem affects cow welfare) multiplied with the herd prevalence for each measure. The selection of measures (lameness, leanness, mortality, hairless patches, lesions/swellings, somatic cell count) and their severity scores were based on expert surveys (14–17 trained users of the Welfare Quality® cattle protocol). The prevalence of these welfare measures was assessed in 491 European herds. Experts allocated a welfare score (from 0 to 100) to 12 focus herds for which the prevalence of each welfare measure was benchmarked against all 491 herds. Quadratic models indicated a high correspondence between these subjective scores and the WI (R(2) = 0.91). The WI allows both numerical (0–100) as a qualitative (“not classified” to “excellent”) evaluation of welfare. Although it is sensitive to those welfare issues that most adversely affect cattle welfare (as identified by EFSA), the WI should be accompanied with a disclaimer that lists adverse or favorable effects that cannot be detected adequately by the current selection of measures

Adult-Young Ratio, a Major Factor Regulating Social Behaviour of Young: A Horse Study

Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest that, more than the mere presence of adults, their proportions in social groups affect the social development of young. Here, we hypothesized that aggression rates and social cohesion were correlated to adult-young ratios. Our biological model was naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses, Equus f. przewalskii, varying in composition.We investigated the social interactions and spatial relationships of 12 one- and two-year-old Przewalski horses belonging to five families with adult-young ratios (AYR) ranging from 0.67 to 1.33. We found striking variations of aggression rates and spatial relationships related to the adult-young ratio: the lower this ratio, the more the young were aggressive, the more young and adults segregated and the tighter the young bonded to other young.This is the first study demonstrating a correlation between adult-young ratios and aggression rates and social cohesion of young individuals in a naturalistic setting. The increase of aggression and the emergence of social segregation in groups with lower proportions of adults could reflect a related decrease of the influence of adults as regulators of the behaviour of young. This social regulation has both theoretical and practical implications for understanding the modalities of the influence of adults during ontogeny and for recommending optimal settings, as for instance, for schooling or animal group management

Welfare problems in dairy cows : an epidemiological approach

L’amélioration du bien-être des vaches laitières est un réel enjeu face aux attentes sociétales. Cette thèse a pour objectifs d’identifier (i) les aspects les plus dégradés du bien-être des vaches, (ii)les indicateurs de risque et (iii) les facteurs associés à l’atteinte de la relation homme-animal. Ce projet repose sur une étude épidémiologique utilisant la méthode Welfare Quality R pour évaluer le bien-être des vaches. En général, les boiteries étaient peu fréquentes et les animaux avaient une bonne liberté de mouvement. L’absence de faim et de soif et l’expression des comportements étaient bien respectés mais variables entre élevages. Le confort de couchage, l’absence de blessures et de maladies, le comportement social, l’état émotionnel et la relation homme-animal étaient dégradés et variables. L’écornage était souvent réalisé sans antidouleurs. Les principaux indicateurs de risque pour le bien-être des vaches sont la localisation géographique (pour la soif), la race (faim,comportement social), le logement (confort de couchage, blessures), l’interaction logement-race (état émotionnel) et localisation géographique-système de traite (expression des comportements propres à l’espèce). La mise en place de plan d’actions doit donc tenir compte du type d’élevage. Aucune association entre le système d’élevage et la relation homme animal n’a été trouvée. Les conditions de vêlage, les représentations des éleveurs et le comportement social des vaches étaient par contre associés à ce critère. De plus, de fortes variations entre vaches ont été relevées, suggérant que le tempérament des animaux joue un rôle important.Improving dairy cows’ welfare is a major challenge in response to citizen concerns. The present thesis aimed to identify (i) major welfare problems, (ii) which farm characteristics are associated with the impairment of welfare and (iii) which factors are associated with the impairment of human-animal relationships. We conducted an epidemiological survey and used the Welfare Quality R protocol to assess dairy cows’ welfare. In general, prevalence of lameness was low and cows had opportunities to walk. The absence of hunger and thirst and the expression of species-specific behaviors were achieved but variable between farms. Resting comfort, skin injuries, health, social behavior, cows’ emotional state and human-animal relationships were affected and variable. Disbudding was often performed without pain relief. The main risk indicators of poor cow welfare were farm location (for thirst), breed (hunger, social behavior), housing (resting comfort and skin injuries), the interaction housing-breed (emotional state) and location-milking system (expression of species-specific behaviors). Action plans should be designed according to farm types. The quality of the human-animal relationship was not associated with farm main characteristics, but to calving conditions, farmers’ attitudes and cows’ social behavior. In addition, we observed large variations between-cows in their responses to humans, suggesting that individual behavioral traits of cows play a major role

Assessment of animal welfare in agricultural settings

It is now widely acknowledged that animal welfare is very complex: it can be affected by many factors and it embraces many components such as physical and mental health. Welfare assessment protocols allowing the assessment of all these components are necessary to describe precisely the different risks for welfare in farm animals

Adult-Young Ratio, a Major Factor Regulating Social Behaviour of Young: A Horse Study

Background: Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest that, more than the mere presence of adults, their proportions in social groups affect the social development of young. Here, we hypothesized that aggression rates and social cohesion were correlated to adult-young ratios. Our biological model was naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses, Equus f. przewalskii, varying in composition. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the social interactions and spatial relationships of 12 one- and two-yearold Przewalski horses belonging to five families with adult-young ratios (AYR) ranging from 0.67 to 1.33. We found striking variations of aggression rates and spatial relationships related to the adult-young ratio: the lower this ratio, the more the young were aggressive, the more young and adults segregated and the tighter the young bonded to other young. Conclusion/Significance: This is the first study demonstrating a correlation between adult-young ratios and aggression rates and social cohesion of young individuals in a naturalistic setting. The increase of aggression and the emergence of social segregation in groups with lower proportions of adults could reflect a related decrease of the influence of adults as regulators of the behaviour of young. This social regulation has both theoretical and practical implications for understanding the modalities of the influence of adults during ontogeny and for recommending optimal settings, as for instance, for schooling or animal group management

Assessment of animal welfare in agricultural settings

It is now widely acknowledged that animal welfare is very complex: it can be affected by many factors and it embraces many components such as physical and mental health. Welfare assessment protocols allowing the assessment of all these components are necessary to describe precisely the different risks for welfare in farm animals

A toll for transporters for self-monitoring the quality of animal transport

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