USING MULTIPLE BEHAVIORAL CRITERIA TO ASSESS BUFFALOES ON-FARM WELFARE | ||
| Menoufia Journal of Animal Poultry and Fish Production | ||
| Article 1, Volume 1, Issue 1, January and February 2017, Pages 1-10 PDF (538.71 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/mjapfp.2017.175906 | ||
| Authors | ||
| S. Elkaschab; S. Omar; Elham M. Ghoneim; E. Eldahshan | ||
| Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Menufia University. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The present study was carried out at the research unit for animal behaviour, faculty of agriculture, Minufiya University, Egypt. This farm unit could be representing the main production systems in Egypt which used traditionally extensive production systems. The main aim of this research was to using multiple behavioral criteria to assess animal’s on-farm welfare. Fifty three Egyptian buffaloes, distributed according to production status and its age (18 dairy buffalo cows, 14 heifers and 21 growing calves) were kept in closed housing system in individual tie-stall barn with hard surface. The experiment lasted one year from august 2014 to July 2015 representing different seasons; during this period buffaloes were video recorded for 72 h. /month with a total observation time of 864 hours for each animal using complete digital behavioural observation unit. Animal rectal temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate and serum cortisol level were estimated monthly after observation period. Results revealed that the suggested behaviour models for Egyptian buffaloes for lying, eating and ruminating bouts were 75.34, 30.90 and 27.04 min. /time resp., Representing 47.04, 28.31 and 30.95% of the day and frequent 8.99, 13.19 and 16.48 times per day with the same previous order. Egyptian buffaloes have 37.71 oC as rectal temperature, 26.42 (breath/min) for respiration rate, 63.36 (beat/min) for pulse rate and 4.45 [ng/ml] for serum cortisol. All previous physiological parameters were within normal range. There were some factors affected studied criteria such as season and animals status. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Animal welfare; Egyptian buffalo; animal behaviour; physiological parameters; serum cortisol | ||
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