1. “WHAT IS THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF DAIRY CALVES AND YOUNG STOCK?”
Dept. Large Animal Sciences
“WHAT IS THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF DAIRY CALVES AND YOUNG STOCK?”
Marta Brscic (University of Padova), Nina Dam Otten & Marlene K. Kirchner (University of Copenhagen)
BACKGROUND
Indicators of positive welfare for are sparse
Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) in the Welfare Quality®(WQ) protocol for cows and veal calves
Dairy calves and heifer terms proposed by WQ (not included)
OBJECTIVE of the present study is to investigate the ability of 20 fixed terms to describe between herd variation in emotional states of dairy calves and young stock. Secondary objectives are to investigate potential influencing farm factors for the emotional state.
Topic 06 "Emotion" ISAE 2016, Edinburgh

2. QBA OUTCOME = PC1 REGRESSION MODELS
Dept. Large Animal Sciences
MATERIALS & METHODS
EXPLANOTORY
Organic N=18
Conventional =31
FARM STYLE
Indoor (young/old)
N=19/28
Outdoor (young/old) N=30/21
HOUSING
BREED
Holstein N=25
Other milk types N=13
Mixed N=11
QBA
Principal component analysis (PCA)
PC1 = Valence
PC2 = Arousal
OUTCOME = PC1
N=9
N=40
HERDS
QBA
CALVES TOTAL
Mean = 48.2 calves
REGRESSION MODELS

3. RESULTS QBA descriptor summarization QBA PC 1 ”Valence”
Dept. Large Animal Sciences
RESULTS
QBA descriptor summarization
QBA
PC 1 ”Valence”
Dimension explained 40.0 % of between herd variation
PC 2 ”Arousal”
Dimension explained 13.0 % of between herd variation
Total explained variance 54 %
-0.74
-0.72
0.68
0.72
-0.36
-0.41
0.91
0.92
Regression model
PC 1= Calves total + Farm style + Breed + Housing
p<0.05, R2=0.2
Topic 06 "Emotion" ISAE 2016, Edinburgh

4. CONCLUSIONS EMOTIONAL STATE DESCRIPTORS = = FARM FACTORS
Dept. Large Animal Sciences
CONCLUSIONS
EMOTIONAL
STATE
DESCRIPTORS = =
FARM FACTORS
Topic 06 "Emotion" ISAE 2016, Edinburgh