Effects on Health, Growth and Redirected Suckling Behaviour in Pair-Housed Dairy Calves in Outdoor Hutches

Sammanfattning

The aim was to investigate if pair-housing compared to single-housing of dairy calves in outdoor hutches during winter time had any negative effects on health, growth and redirected suckling behaviour. In total 21 calves of Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein cattle were housed in pairs (n=14 calves) or single (n=7) from 10 days to 6 weeks. Each calf was fed 3 l. of whole milk twice per day in teat-buckets. They had ad libitum access to concentrate, silage, hay and water and an empty, clean teat-bucket. Cases of diarrhoea and other diseases were recorded daily and the calves were weighed weekly. Behavioural observations were done on day 14 and then twice per week for each hutch until eight weeks of age. Behavioural observations were made by continuous recording ten minutes before milk feeding and 20 minutes after the calves received their milk in the morning and afternoon. Pair-housed calves had more diarrhoea than single-housed calves (P<0.05, Chi2-test). There were no coughing recorded nor any antibiotics prescribed to the calves, and no sucking induced injuries found on any of the calves. Weight gain did not differ between pair-housed and single-housed calves. There was no significant difference in total redirected suckling (non-nutritive sucking and cross-sucking) between treatments before receiving milk, but after milk delivery pair-housed calves performed more total redirected suckling than single-housed calves (P<0.01, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). Pair-housed calves performed more cross-sucking than single-housed calves both before and after receiving milk (P<0.01). Pair-housed calves had a higher frequency of drinking milk (P<0.001) while single-housed calves licked fixtures more often than pair-housed calves before receiving milk (P<0.05). In conclusion, diarrhoea and cross-sucking was higher in pair-housed calves’, but there were no injuries from this and weight gain was the same as for single-housed calves. As social interactions are important for calf welfare one should still try to pair-house calves. 

Publicerad i

Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research
2024, volym: 11, nummer: 3, artikelnummer: 1272

SLU författare

• Lidfors, Lena

  • Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Alvegard, Therese

  • Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Verbeek, Else

  • Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

UKÄ forskningsämne

Husdjursvetenskap

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140040