Reproductive status and stereotypies in breeding mares: A brief report

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between age, reproductive status and sire of the mare and the tendency to perform stereotypies. One hundred and fourteen purebred Arab mares, offspring of 39 sires ((x) over bar = 3 +/- 9 offspring per sire) and aged 4-21 years ((x) over bar = 9.23 +/- 4.1) were observed from the 30th March to the 15th of May 2005 using instantaneous scan sampling. We used a multivariate logistic regression in order to study the relationship between age, reproductive status and sire of the mare and the tendency to perform stereotypies. 28% of the observed mares showed stereotypic behaviour, mostly weaving (22%). Neither age (chi(2) Wald = 9.36, p = 0.89) nor sire (chi(2) Wald = 4.34,p = 1.0) affected the occurrence of stereotypies whilst the reproductive status of the mare influenced significantly the occurrence (chi(2) Wald = 10.75, p = 0.001) but also the type (chi(2) = 12.1, p < 0.001) of stereotypic behaviour. Weaving was more frequent in non foaling mares (41.4%) than in foaling mares (1.8%) that performed mostly stall-walking. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Stereotypies; Breeding mare; Sire; Reproductive-status

Published in

Applied Animal Behaviour Science
2010, Volume: 128, number: 1-4, pages: 64-68

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Other Veterinary Science
Clinical Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2010.09.007

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/86970