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A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2010

S. Raussi ,
L. Jauhiainen ,
S. Saastamoinen ,
J. Siivonen ,
H. Hepola  and
I. Veissier
S. Raussi*
Affiliation:
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Animal Production Research, Vakolantie 55, 03400 VIHTI, Finland Department of Production Animal Medicine, Research Centre for Animal Welfare, University of Helsinki, PO Box 57, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
L. Jauhiainen
Affiliation:
Services Unit, MTT Agrifood Research Finland, 31600 Jokioinen, Finland
S. Saastamoinen
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, University Of Helsinki, PO Box 28, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
J. Siivonen
Affiliation:
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Animal Production Research, Vakolantie 55, 03400 VIHTI, Finland Department of Production Animal Medicine, Research Centre for Animal Welfare, University of Helsinki, PO Box 57, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
H. Hepola
Affiliation:
Department of Production Animal Medicine, Research Centre for Animal Welfare, University of Helsinki, PO Box 57, 00014 Helsinki, Finland Department of Animal Science, University Of Helsinki, PO Box 28, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
I. Veissier
Affiliation:
INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, 63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
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Abstract

We developed a method for studying the synchrony of behaviour based on calculations of overdispersion of a binomial process. The lying behaviour of cows was investigated under two different housing units inside the same barn. The first unit housed 30 cows undergoing conventional milking and the second unit housed 27 cows undergoing automatic milking. The lying behaviour of the cows was observed over 3 weeks in 12 periods of 6 h each. Every 5 min, we counted the number of cows lying down in the cubicles. As external cues, like feeding and conventional milking, can promote synchrony in dairy cows, we expected that cows conventionally milked would show more behavioural synchrony than automatically milked cows. Cows lied down synchronously in both units (overdispersion 1.67, P < 0.01). Lying synchrony tended to be slightly bigger in automatically than in conventionally milked cows (overdispersion 1.76 v. 1.58, P = 0.09), although the proportion of cows lying down was on average greater in conventionally than in automatically milked cows (60.7% v. 45.6%). This suggests that synchronized lying behaviour in cows is a constant phenomenon that depends on social facilitation rather than on external cues. The overdispersion index appears to be a useful tool for studying the synchrony of animal behaviour when observations are made at the group level.

Keywords

automatic milkingbehavioural synchronycowlyingoverdispersion

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Type
Full Paper
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animal , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , March 2011 , pp. 428 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2011

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