Emotional State Of Dairy Cows In Loose And Tied Housing System - Is There A Difference?
Authors
Ostojić Andrić, Dušica
Hristov, Slavča
Đedović, Radica
Popova, Teodora
Pantelić, Vlada

Nikšić, Dragan

Micic, Nenad
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Modern society, over time, has accepted animals as sentient
beings. From the welfare point of view, the emotions are a reflection of the whole
permeation of the animal and its environment, which make them important and
reliable indicators. In fact, they are cross-linked with other welfare indicators such
as physiological and behavioural. Freedom of movement is crucial for the animals’
naturalness, especially in terms of their normal behaviour expression. Regarding
that, this study was conducted in order to investigate and compare the emotional
state of cows in a loose (LHS) and tied housing systems (THS). The assessment
was done according to Welfare Quality Protocol for Cattle (2009) on a total of 16
dairy farms (N=4,833 cows), seven with LHS and nine with THS. The emotional
state was assessed by a qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA), a method based
on the translation of “body language” into the numbers that can be statistically
analysed and interpreted. Twenty reliabl...e descriptors were used, among which,
some were related to positive emotional state (e.g., active, relax, happy) and some
to negative state (e.g., agitated, nervous, distressed). Result showed that tendencies
toward positive descriptors were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) in LHS, followed
by lower expression of distress, frustration and apathy in animals.This resulted in
better estimation of overall emotional state in LHS indicating its advantage and
necessity of providing exercise in cows’ daily routine.
Keywords:
dairy cows / emotional state / QBA / descriptors / welfareSource:
Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium „Modern Trends in Livestock Production”, 2019Publisher:
- Institute for Animal Husbandry, Belgrade-Zemun