Quantitative assessment of cattle behaviours on board live stock ships

Summary

This report details the results of a study investigating the behaviour of cattle during a commercial liveshipment from Australia to the Middle East. Behavioural observations were made of Bos taurus x Bos indicus cattle in pens composed only of horned animals (horn length up to 12 cm), only of polled animals and of a mix of polled and horned animals (horn length up to 12 cm). Two pens each with seven animals were examined for each treatment. 
The footage used for this study was that used previously in B.LIV.0242. A surveillance system recorded continuous footage of the animals using two video cameras in each pen, connected to digital video recorders. Animals were fed a standard shipper pellet at 3% body weight (as fed). Water was available ad libitum in automatic watering troughs. Point sampling was used to assess behaviour at 10 minute intervals throughout the first 10 days of the voyage and the behaviours recorded included number of animals lying down, standing, feeding, drinking, physical interaction between the animals and self grooming (licking and rubbing). 
From analysis of the footage the cattle were most often standing (not eating or drinking) or lying down (sternal recumbent) at the majority of time points. However, for the first 24 hours there were significantly fewer animals lying down, eating and drinking and self grooming at each time point than in the final 24 hours recorded on day 10. Conversely there was significantly higher physical interaction at each time point on day 2 than in the final 24 hours recorded on day 10 
This work has shown that continuous video recording of animals on a commercial shipment fo several days is possible, producing video footage of quality that can be analysed for aspects of animal behaviour. In the pens studied, it was shown that during the initial 24 hours there was more physical activity and interaction than for the last 24 hours. This study is a useful stepping stone for further studies comparing shipboard behaviour with that in other management systems such as feedlotting or extensive grazing systems.