Vocalization is being used as a means of assessing the efficacy of handling in packing plants. This study was conducted to determine if phenotypes, based on coat colour, affected the frequency of vocalization by cattle in two handling situations. Cattle (6 mos old calves) were classified as ‘black’, either completely or black with a white head, or ‘white’, either completely or with some degree of tan or brown body colouration. The vocalizations of the animals were assessed during restraint while they were ear-tagged and other minor procedures were performed. Subsequently they were restrained for 1 min in isolation from other cattle. In the first restraint test 36% of the calves vocalized, with completely black animals doing so more than the black with a white face. In the second condition, fewer claves vocalized (16%), and in this case the black cattle (both types) vocalized more then the white. Both phenotypes moved within the restraint device a similar amount. Heart rate decreased during the 1 min in the second restraint test, and decreased more in animals that vocalized. Vocalizations during the second restraint test were shorter and with a lower fundamental frequency than during the first restraint. Different phenotypes will vocalize at different levels, and vocalizations will differ between types of handling. Caution should be used in using vocalizations as a means to assess animal welfare in a handling situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vocalization is being used as a means of assessing the efficacy of handling in packing plants. This study was conducted to determine if phenotypes, based on coat colour, affected the frequency of vocalization by cattle in two handling situations. Cattle (6 mos old calves) were classified as ‘black’, either completely or black with a white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[928],"tags":[8882,640,70,2999,13816,19216,10084,2817,1972,112,13330,16262,20912,20911,4874,1579,8742,27281],"class_list":["post-5125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-welfare","tag-al","tag-animal","tag-animal-welfare","tag-animal-welfarebreed-influencecalfcalvescattlecattle-handlingcattle-welfarehandlingheart-raterestraintvocalisationvocalizationvocalizationswelfare","tag-ass","tag-assess","tag-brown","tag-cla","tag-condition","tag-handling","tag-lou","tag-pl","tag-some","tag-t","tag-tan","tag-test","tag-vocal","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}