Proceedings of the

Joint East and West Central Europe ISAE Regional Meeting

Kostelec nad Černými Lesy, Czech Republic

June 1 – 4, 2011

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Scientiffic committee: Luděk Bartoš Jitka Bartošová Boris Bilčík Jorga Drábková Alexandra Gorecka-Bruzda Helena Chaloupková Gudrun Ilmann Joergen Kjaer Ľubor Košťál Radim Kotrba Jan Pluháček Lars Schrader Ilona Stěhulová Marek Špinka Kamil Vlček Susane Waiblinger Christoph Winckler Organizing committee: Jana Dubcová Helena Chaloupková Martina Komárková Michala Melišová Kristýna Neuhauserová Radka Šárová Jitka Šilerová Proceedings of the Joint East Central and West Central Europe Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology Editor: Martina Komárková Published by: Czech University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic The conference was supported by: Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic and Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

Table of Contents: Conference program……………………………………………….1

Abstracts of plenary lectures……………………………………4

Abstracts of oral presentations…………………………………7

Abstracts of poster presentations…………………………….25

List of participants………………………………………………..45

(Abstracts are in alphabetical order)

1

Wednesday, June 1

17:00 – 19:00 Registration

19:00 – 22:00 Welcome drink (Smiřických hall)

Thursday, June 2

9:00 – 9:15 Opening of the conference

9:15 – 10:15 David Reby - Bioacoustic approaches to the study

of mammal vocal communication (chair Luděk

Bartoš)

Communication in pigs (chair Lars Schrader)

10:20 – 10:40 Marek Špinka - Lactating sows’ reactivity to natural

and modified piglet distress calls

10:40 – 11:00 Jitka Šilerová - Sow nursing synchronization in

isolation and in acoustic and visual contact

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break

Horse reproductive behaviour (chair Mairi Stewart)

11:30 – 11:50 Luděk Bartoš – Behavioural ecology and applied

ethology – the case of pregnancy block in domestic

horse mares

11:50-12:10 Jana Dubcová - Impact of weaning method on

weanligs weight gain in domestic horses

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 15:00 Coffee break & Poster session

2

Behaviour assessment & Enrichment (chair Heike Schulze Westerath)

15:00 – 15:20 Radka Šárová - Perception of lameness by farm

managers

15:20 – 15:40 Ľubor Košťál - Cognitive bias as an indicator of

housing quality in Japanese quail

15:40 – 16:00 Anke Guttmann - Comparison of different rating

systems in qualitative behaviour assessment

16:00 – 16:20 Susann Meyer - Impact of cognitive and

environmental enrichment on learning efficiency and

behaviour of Nigerian dwarf goats (Capra hircus)

16:30 – 17:30 Coffee break & Poster session

Friday, June 3

9:00 – 10:00 Lena Lidfors - Mother-young behaviour in cattle

(chair Marek Špinka)

Maternal behaviour and offspring survival (chair Ľubor Košťál)

10:00 – 10:20 Barbora Bozděchová - Do sows respond to neonatal

sibling competition during nursing?

10:20 – 10:40 Julia Johns - Unrestricted contact of dairy calves to

their mothers: behaviour and weight-gain

10:40 – 11:00 Helena Chaloupková - Relationship between nest

building behaviour and maternal behaviour during

first 24 h after farrowing in domestic sows

11:00 – 11:20 Kathrin Wagner - Short and long term effects of

mother-bonded rearing on human-animal

relationship in dairy cattle

11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break

3

The effect of manipulation on behaviour (chair Jan Langbein)

12:00 – 12:20 Daniel Enríquez Hidalgo - The influence of a short

period of confinement in tie stalls on the lying

behaviour of different breeds of dairy cows

12:20 – 12:40 Lars Schrader - Agonistic behaviour of entire male,

female and castrated male fattening pigs

12:40 – 13:00 Heike Schulze Westerath - Is special feed and being

brushed percepted as a positive stimulus in young

cattle?

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 18:00 Excursion (National Stud Kladruby nad Labem)

18:00 – 19:00 Dinner

19:30 – 24:00 Social evening (Brewery Kostelec nad Černými lesy)

Saturday, June 4

9:00 – 10:00 Inger Lise Andersen - Maternal behaviour and

other maternal traits important for piglet

survival (chair Gudrun Illmann)

Free papers (chair Boris Bilčík)

10:00 – 10:20 Jitka Bartošová - Behavioural function of pre-orbital

gland opening in red deer (Cervus elaphus) and its

relevance in deer farming

10:20 – 10:40 Anna Kis - Humans are able to attribute emotions to

a robot showing simple behavioural patterns

10:40 – 11:00 Radim Kotrba - Age before beauty: causal

mechanisms influencing maternal defence in eland

4

11:00 – 11:20 Closing ceremony

Maternal behaviour and other maternal traits important for piglet survival

Inger Lise Andersen Norwegian Univ. of Life Sciences, Dep. of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway. e-mail: Inger-lise.andersen@umb.no The aim of this presentation is to give an overview of which maternal traits are important for piglet survival, with special emphasis on behavioural traits. How well the sow takes care of her litter is influenced by many factors, such as genetic predisposition, parity, litter size, physical characteristics of the sow that affects the behaviour and mother-offspring relationship, prenatal effects, the farrowing environment, handling of sows (i.e. fear of humans) and management around the time of farrowing. Nest building activity in a crucial period before farrowing, maternal responses to piglet distress calls, and the quality of mother-young interactions shortly after birth are the maternal, behavioural traits most likely to have a direct effect on piglet survival. These behaviours differ between individuals as well as between gilts and older sows. However, the timing and methods to record this is crucial for using this successively in a breeding regime. In addition to genetic predisposition of these traits, maternal care can be stimulated through environmental factors, such as an optimal farrowing environment and opportunity to perform nest building. A high fear level towards humans affect maternal responses negatively and increases the incidence of crushing, and thus positive handling is considered a prerequisite to succeed with loose-housed sows. Movement disorders, large litters and high parities are all factors that will affect maternal behaviour negatively. With increasing litter size, sows use less time on piglet-related activities showing less maternal motivation and protectiveness. Negative side-effects of the current breeding, combined with the low success of breeding for increased piglet survival directly underpins the importance of finding ways to score maternal behavioural traits. Behavioural tests such as the piglet scream test may work well under experimental conditions, but fails to give clear results on commercial farms. On-farm methods to record behavioural traits of sows will be discussed.

Plenary lectures

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Mother-young behaviour in cattle Lena Lidfors Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O.Box 234, SE-532 23 Skara, Sweden e-mail: lena.lidfors@slu.se

Cows approaching calving may avoid social interactions and leave the cow group to find a suitable calving place where they are not visible for other cows and predators. The calving place has been found to be dry with vegetation around and above the cow. If no suitable hiding possibilities are offered to the cow she may calve closer to the herd. Dairy cows can disturb each other when calving in groups. There is also a risk of cows stealing calves or offering milk to calves, thus being a hazard for the calves’ health. Cows bond to their calves quickly after birth, which leads to that they only give milk to their own calf. Calves appear to take up to a week before they have learned to recognize their mother. In dairy production calves are usually separated from their mother within hours or days after birth. Especially the cows show a negative response to the separation, but the way separation is performed may have an impact on the reactions. If the cow cannot see or hear her calf or if she can lick it the negative responses are smaller. Calves separated from their mothers early after birth and fed milk in open buckets often suck on each other after milk intake. Teat-buckets or permanent teats with ad lib. access and higher amounts of milk delivered with a low flow have been found to reduce the abnormal sucking between calves. The uses of foster cows to raise several calves per cow or restricted suckling of calves on their mothers which are milked twice a day are other methods for milk delivery to dairy calves. In conclusion, if we use knowledge about natural mother-young behavior in cattle when designing housing and management systems we may increase the welfare of dairy cows and calves.

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Bioacoustic approaches to the study of mammal vocal communication David Reby School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. e-mail: reby@sussex.ac.uk Recent bioacoustic studies of mammal vocal communication typically involve four levels of investigations: 1/ behavioural observations, where vocal signals are recorded and their social and environmental context are documented, 2/ signal analysis, where variation in acoustic components are related to attributes of the animal that produces the calls, or variation in social or environmental contexts, 3/ signal re-synthesis, where specific features of signals are modified independently in order to mirror their natural co-variation with relevant traits or contexts. 4/ playback experiments, where the effect of the above modifications on receivers are tested by monitoring animals response to the broadcast of resynthesised stimuli. I will illustrate this approach with specific studies of social and sexual communication in mammals, including mother-offspring vocal interactions. I will highlight the key contribution of the application of the Source/Filter theory of voice production in this field.

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Behavioural ecology and applied ethology – the case of pregnancy block in domestic horse mares Luděk Bartoš, Jitka Bartošová, Jan Pluháček, Jana Šindelářová Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Praha Uhříněves e-mail: bartos@vuzv.cz Those teaching applied ethology may have problems to convince students about significance of behavioural ecology. Here we present an example of already published study which might be useful for this purpose: Generations of veterinarians have been seeking the answer why an unusually high incidence of foetal loss (up to 40%) in domestic horses exists. Still some reviews acknowledge that the cause remains unknown. General breeding practice brings a pregnant mare to vicinity of a strange stallion who was not the father of her foetus. This creates increased probability of infanticide. Based on records on reproduction, we found that bringing a pregnant mare mated out of home with a strange stallion into a vicinity of a male who was not the father of her foetus increased probability of pregnancy disruption. Repeated sexual activity either by a home stallion or dominant gelding was observed shortly after the mare came from out-of-home mating. Pregnant mares isolated from home males by a fence were even seen soliciting them over the fence. Pregnancy disruption was 7 times more likely event when the mare had no male company in her enclosure while one or more home stallions or geldings were present in an adjacent enclosure. This seems to be a new phenomenon where a mare manipulates the male’s paternity assessment by promiscuous mating. If she has no chance to do that she activates her pregnancy block. It may explain a common increased incidence of foetal loss in domestic horses. Thus the common practice, of transporting the mare for mating and then bringing her back to an environment with males, stallions or geldings, which did not sire the foetus, is the main cause of high percentages of pregnancy disruption in domestic horses.

Oral Presentations

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Behavioural function of pre-orbital gland opening in red deer (Cervus elaphus) and its relevance in deer farming Jitka Bartošová, Luděk Bartoš, Francisco Ceacero, Radim Kotrba Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 - Uhříněves, 104 01, Czech Republic e-mail: bartosova.jitka@vuzv.cz We will present the results of our long-lasting investigations of the possible behavioural function of the pre-orbital gland opening (POGO) in red deer under specific situations concerning with stress and/or excitement, and its relevance in deer farming. POGO could be used as a helpful and handy indicator of deer emotional status under different context for the farmers. We found that opening of the pre-orbital gland in red deer was associated with following situations or circumstances: stress in manipulated new-born calves; stress during individual handling in the restraint cradle; both, sucking from the mother and bottle-feeding during artificial rearing and reaching satiety of the calf; seasonal fluctuation of POGO according to the reproductive/antler growth cycle in males when being manipulated by man. POGO seemed to copy the behaviors which have been found as related to acute stress. The pre-orbital gland was closed in calm deer whereas it was always opened when exposed to the routine stressful farm handling in new-borns (N = 41) and mostly in sub-adult and adult deer (N = 48 males and 28 females during 281 manipulations) manipulated in the restraint cradle. In males, POGO increased further during the rut. In suckling calves (N = 213 suckling events for 19 calves), the POGO belonged to the elementary components of the sucking behavior reflecting the level of satisfying of the calf’s needs. In general, POGO seems to reflect fulfilling of needs, and motivational and emotional status of the deer. Our results are of great significance for the deer farmers. With worldwide increase and development of deer farming it is important to find out simple and easily recognised indicator of excitement, discomfort and stress in the deer. The pre-orbital opening is a good candidate for this. Grant support: MZe 0002701404 and GACR 523/08/P301.

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Do sows respond to neonatal sibling competition during nursing? Barbora Bozděchová1, Gudrun Illmann1, Inger Lise Andersen2, R. Ehrlenbruch2 and Jiří Haman 1 Institute of Animal Science, Department of Ethology, Prague, Czech Rep., 2 Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Aas, Norway e-mail: barbora.bozdechova@seznam.cz During the neonatal period, there is a strong litter competition where piglets fight for access to the sow’s teats. (i) We predict that piglets should fight and scream more before milk ejection than after it, due to the immediate reward of milk. Since neonatal sibling competition is beneficial for the sow to ensure the survival of high quality offspring, sows should only react on a higher frequency of litter competition. (ii)We predict that the sow will terminate the nursing (i.e. by changing posture and not eject milk- non nutritive nursing -NNN) with an increasing number of fights and screams. 41 sows and their litters were observed for 6 h on day 2 post partum (pp). The time of milk ejection, number of fighting piglets with and without screams was scored during every 15 sec interval before and after milk ejection (ME). (i) As predicted piglets fought more (GLMM, 0.28 vs. 0.18 fights per 15 s; P<0.01) and screamed more (0.25 vs. 0.16 screams per 15 s; P<0.01) and before ME than after it. (ii). It was not possible to analyze the effect of screams and fights on posture changes before ME due too the low number of posture change (8 out of 229 nursing). A higher mean number of screams (GENMODE, Z=2.5, P<0.05) but not fights (Z=0.9, NS) after ME increased the likelihood of sow posture changes and thus termination of nursing (62 out of 195). The probability of a NNNs (14.8 % of all nursings) was not influenced by the frequency of fights (Z=-1.7, NS) nor screams (Z=-1.4, NS). In conclusion our results suggest that sows invest in the litter by releasing milk even when piglets fight and scream more before ME but sows terminated a nursing after ME due to piglets screams possible to prevent further litter competition. There was a low number of fights and screams before and after ME in total may be due the already established teat order.

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Impact of weaning method on weanligs weight gain in domestic horses Jana Dubcová, Jitka Bartošová, Martina Komárková Institute of Animal Science - Department of Ethology, Prague Uhrineves Faculty of Science - Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice e-mail: JancaD@seznam.cz Artificial weaning is associated with various stressful factors for the foal, such as loss of the mother, feeding changes, new and unfamiliar environment, etc. The type of weaning may influence further development, behaviour, health, and weight gain of the foal. We tested the effect of two different types of weaning on weight gain of Kladruby white foals born in 2009. Both groups experienced abrupt weaning but one (G1) (N=14) was kept in the stable the foals had grown up for one week after the mothers were led away, and then moved to another facility and separated according to the sex, while the other foals (G2) (N=15) were taken from the mothers and immediately joined the G1foals. The average weaning age of the foals was 202 days. Foals were weighed: at the weaning day, weekly within the first month and then monthly up to 6 months of age. Neither birth nor weaning weight differed significantly between the two groups kept under similar nutrition. We hypothesised lower weight loss in G1 compared to G2 due to expected higher level of stress. The weaning type significantly influenced weight gain the foals reached one week after weaning (p < 0.001,GLM ,PROC GLM,SAS);G1 foals lost their weight whereas G2 ones gained weight during the same period (-4.9 vs. +3.2 kg).The weight of the foals at 6 months of age was still marginally higher in G2 than G1foals (388.2 vs. 365.7 kg, p < 0.07). We found lower detrimental effect on weight gain in the foals abruptly led away from the mothers directly to the unfamiliar environment compared to those staying for one week in familiar environment but without mothers. Thus, our results indicate lower stress induced to the foals in more radical type of weaning. Project support: MZe QH92265.

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The influence of a short period of confinement in tie stalls on the lying behaviour of different breeds of dairy cows Daniel Enríquez Hidalgo, Keelin O'Driscoll, Eva Lewis, Frank Buckley, Craig Thackaberry, Dayane Lemos Teixeira and Laura Boyle Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy - Ireland e-mail: danielenriquez81@yahoo.es Dairy cows in experimental grazing herds are often confined for metabolic measurements. We aimed to establish how the transfer from pasture to tie stalls affects the lying behaviour of different breeds: 1) Jersey – J; 2) Holstein Friesian – HF and 3) J x HF – JxHF. Pregnant cows (n=48) in late lactation were used over 4 replicates. Replicates were balanced for breed and stocking rate (SR: high or low) at pasture. Cows were transferred (d0) into tie stalls in a metabolism house (MH) for 12 days where they were fed freshly cut ryegrass according to their SR at pasture: Jhigh =14; Jlow =17; HFhigh and JxHFhigh = 16; and HFlow and JxHFlow = 20kg DM/day. Lying behaviour was recorded for 48hrs on days -2, -1, 3, 10, 11, 13 and 14 using dataloggers attached to the right hind leg. Data were analyzed as repeated measures (SAS-ProcMix). There was no effect of breed on time spent lying, no. lying bouts or average lying bout duration (P>0.1), but cows spent less time lying on d3 (7.32±0.24) than d-2 (10.12±0.24; P<0.001) and d-1 (10.42±0.24 h/day; P<0.001) but by d10 (9.11±0.27 h/day) there was no difference (P>0.05). There were more lying bouts in the MH than at pasture (13.14±0.45 vs. 7.81±0.43 bouts/day; P<0.003) but these lying bouts were shorter (78.13±4.06 vs.146.96±4.85 min; P<0.001). Cows on the high SR feed allowance spent more time lying overall (9.48±0.16 vs. 9.28±0.16 h/day; P=0.03). Contrary to our expectations lying behavior of cows in tie stalls was not affected by breed. There was a transient reduction in overall time spent lying while the cows adapted to lying down in confinement. However, longer term adaptation to confinement was characterized by more frequent posture changing which could reflect discomfort. High SR cows had less to eat and so spent more time lying down.

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Comparison of different rating systems in qualitative behaviour assessment Anke Gutmann, Beate Muellner, Christine Leeb, Francoise Wemelsfelder, Christoph Winckler Division of Livestock Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria e-mail: anke.gutmann@boku.ac.at Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) is an integrative methodology that characterizes behaviour as a dynamic, expressive body language, evaluating the ‘animal-as-a-whole’. Since various studies yielded supportive results concerning observer reliability, or relation to quantitative measures, QBA is regarded a promising tool for animal welfare assessment. The aim of this study was to compare two different rating systems used in QBA: Free-Choice-Profiling (FCP), in which observers generated their own descriptors for scoring, and a Fixed-Terms-List (FTL), in which observers were all given the same 20 descriptors based on the Welfare Quality® protocol. 20 short video clips showing groups of loose housed dairy cows were repeatedly assessed by 12 experienced observers. In session one FCP was used to ensure a bias-free generation of terms, followed by a second session for FTL after a delay of one week. To standardise statistical analysis across methods, both FCP and FTL data were analysed using Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA), a statistical model that converts the attributes scored by different observers into a number of dimensions (consensus profile), and into scores for each video clip. The consensus profile explains 65.4% and 66.2% of variation for FCP and FTL, respectively, both significantly different from a randomised profile (p < .001). FCP dimension 1 ranged from restless/tense to calm/relaxed and explained 39.6% of the variation between clips, while FTL dimension 1 ranged from agitated/stressed to calm/relaxed, explaining 42.0%. FCP dimension 2 ranged from indecisive/expectant to active/confident explaining 10.1% of the variation, while FTL dimension 2 ranged from bored/apathetic to lively/playful explaining 15.2%. The Pearson correlation between FCP and FTL clip scores was 0.96 (p<0.001) for dimension 1, and 0.67 (p<0.001) for dimension 2. Our results support the reliability of QBA and indicate that FCP as well as FTL can be applied according to demands.

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Relationship between nest building behaviour and maternal behaviour during first 24 h after farrowing in domestic sows Helena Chaloupková, Gudrun Illmann, Kristýna Neuhauserová, Marie Šimečková Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague Uhříněves, Czech Republic e-mail: chaloupkova.helena@vuzv.cz Within the 24 h before parturition sows are motivated to perform nesting behaviour independently on the housing system or the type of bedding. It has been shown that post-partum maternal behaviour is important for piglet survival. The aims of the study were to test the associations between pre-partum nesting, post-partum maternal behaviour and piglet production. Fifteen sows were housed in enriched straw-bedded “walk-around” farrowing crates. The start of nesting (time between start of nesting and start of farrowing), frequency of nesting, nesting termination (time between the end of nesting and start of farrowing) 24 h before birth of the first piglet (BFP) and frequency of nesting during parturition (PARnesting) were analyzed. Posture changes, udder access and sow responsiveness on the playback of piglets’ screams (different calls of own piglets) were analyzed 24 h after BFP during 3 time periods (parturition, at end of parturition-12 h after BFP and 12-24 h after BFP). Piglet weight-gain was calculated 24 h after birth (weight at 24 h BFP minus after birth). Data were analyzed using PROC GLM, MIXED and the probability of sow responsiveness using PROC GENMOD in SAS. We found a negative relationship between start of nesting and PARnesting (F(1,13) = 4.82, P<0.05) and a positive relationship between frequency of nesting and postural changes (F(1,26) = 4.54, P<0.05). Piglet weight-gain was negatively related with frequency of nesting (F(1,11) = 5.25, P<0.05). Udder access and sow responsiveness towards playback had no relationship with any nesting behaviour. In conclusion earlier start of nesting is related to reduced need to continue with nest building when the farrowing starts. Higher nesting activity before farrowing can lead to higher activity after farrowing and can be an indicator of lower piglet weight-gain. The relationship between sows’ activity and piglet milk intake should be assessed in further studies.

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Unrestricted contact of dairy calves to their mothers: behaviour and weight-gain Julia Johns, Kathrin Wagner, Susanne Waiblinger, Kerstin Barth, Edna Hillmann Animal Behaviour, Health and Welfare Unit; Institute of Agricultural Sciences ETH Zurich; Universitaetsstrasse. 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland e-mail: edna-hillmann@ethz.ch Dairy calves are usually separated from the cow shortly after birth, but rearing systems allowing contact between cow and calf are of growing interest. Our was to investigate the effects of unrestricted suckling and artificial rearing during the first 12 weeks of life on sucking and feeding behaviour of dairy calves. Unrestricted calves were suckled by their mother (M; n=21), and artificially reared calves (A; n=16) were fed up to 16L milk daily by an automatic milk feeder. All calves were fed concentrate by automatic feeder. Hay, silage and water were given ad libitum in the calf-area to which all calves had access. Unrestricted calves additionally had free access to the cubicle barn of the cows. Cows were milked twice daily. At day 14, a 24h live-observation was conducted. At days 29 and 43, observations were conducted for 4h each. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. Results have to be interpreted carefully due to the relatively short observation (12+4+4h). With 14 days, M-calves were sucking longer than A-calves (30.2min±2.5 vs. 17.2min±1.6; F1,37=20.4; p<0.001). Concerning all observation periods, duration of feeding roughage was shorter in M-calves (16.9min±3.8 vs. 11.2min±1.03; F1,38=15.8; p<0.001). M-calves had a shorter lying duration than A-calves (109min±7.3 vs. 150min±3.7; F1,38=5.3; p=0.03). Treatment had no effect on either duration of feeding on concentrate or weight-gain, indicating a similar milk intake in A- and M-calves. The shorter lying duration of M-calves may reflect an increased activity compared to A-calves due to the more diversified environment in the cubicle barn. With increasing age, M-calves spent less time in the cubicle barn and more in the calf-area (-6min/d; F1,226=53.2; p<0.001), and female M-calves were2h/dlonger in the cubicle barn than male M-calves (F1,17=8.4, p=0.01) suggesting both, a growing independency of the mother and perhaps a close bonding between cows and female offspring.

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Humans are able to attribute emotions to a robot showing simple behavioural patterns Anna Kis, Márta Gácsi, Tamás Faragó, Ádám Miklósi Department of Ethology, Eötvös University; Pázmány P. stny. 1/c Budapest H-1117 e-mail: kisanna12@gmail.com Studying emotions is a classical topic in psychology but it is a new area in ethology. The results of this and further research can play an important role in the development of social robots, as modern companions are required to be able to interact with humans in a sophisticated manner. First we recorded the behaviour of dogs in situations that presumably evoked specific emotions from them (e.g. happy, when he greets the owner). Based on these observations we prepared an etogram. Than we made video recordings with both a robot and a dog that showed behaviours corresponding to the etograms set for different emotions (in case of the robot adjusting to the limitations of its embodiment). Human subjects (N=50) were asked to complete an open-ended and a forced choice questionnaire on the emotions/inner states (joy, fear, attention, sadness, anger or none of them) they could identify on the videos. We explored if viewers were able to recognize emotions both in case of the dog and the robot based purely on behavioural cues, that is without seeing the environment or the social context (e.g. the person that is greeted). We found that subjects could recognize all five inner states in case of the dog and four out of five (binomial test; test proportion: 0,167; joy: p<0,001; fear: p=0,012; attention: p=0,082; sadness: p<0,001; anger: p<0,001) in case of the robot. In sum, we can conclude that humans are able to attribute emotions to a robot based on simple action patterns borrowed from dog behaviour, and that the etogram based on dogs’ social behaviour might be a useful tool for programming the emotional/expressive behaviour of robotic social companions.

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Cognitive bias as an indicator of housing quality in Japanese quail Ľubor Košťál, Mária Horváthová, Katarína Pichová Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Ivanka pri Dunaji, Slovakia e-mail: Lubor.Kostal@savba.sk The relationship between cognition and affective states provides a new framework for an assessment of animal emotion that is an important goal in animal welfare science. Cognitive bias concept is based on data showing that individual’s emotional state influences a number of cognitive processes. This approach originally employed in rats has been used with success in other species, including birds. Here we report our attempt to adopt the cognitive bias methodology for the use in Japanese quail for the welfare assessment. Behavioural tests have been performed in a computer controlled operant chamber with touch-screen monitor, automated feeder and speaker. There were two independent experiments, the first with 6 and the second with 10 birds. Adult Japanese quail hens were trained to respond by pecking to a positive stimulus (10 mm white circle) associated with a positive event (10 s access to feeder) and to refrain from pecking at the negative stimulus (10 mm 80% gray circle) to avoid a negative event (5 s of 70 dB white noise). Once the birds were able to respond correctly to both stimuli (significant rho in 3 consecutive daily sessions) relative anticipation of positive and negative events has been tested while each bird was housed sequentially in both cage and on deep litter (wood shavings). Anticipation has been evaluated using ambiguous stimuli in 3 daily sessions. In addition to reinforced and punished stimuli, a non-reinforced intermediate cues (20%, 40% and 60% gray circles) have been used. The proportion of bird classifying ambiguous stimuli as positive was higher in birds kept on deep litter than in cage in birds that were housed on deep litter first. These pilot studies support the usability of cognitive bias-based approach as a tool for assessing affective states in poultry. This work was supported by grants APVV-0047-10 and VEGA 2/0192/11.

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Age before beauty: causal mechanisms influencing maternal defence in eland Radim Kotrba1, 2, Susan Lingle 3

1Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 - Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic, 2Institute of Tropics and Subtropics, Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha 6- Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic 3Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2E9, Canada e-mail: maugli46@volny.cz Ungulate mothers are frequently faced with attacks by predators to their offspring. Horned and gregarious, eland (Taurotragus oryx) females have anecdotally been reported to use active and cooperative defence to protect their calves against predators. We used playback experiments to investigate causal mechanisms underlying cooperative defence, including the female’s age, parity, and the age or presence of the calf. We recorded distress calls at an eland farm at Lany in the Czech Republic during routine ear tagging of newborn calves and used these calls to prepare 1-minute playback stimuli. Calls has been played to individual mothers (N=14) repeatedly between years 2007-2009 that were visually and acoustically separated from the herd. We used an eight-point scale to describe the intensity of a female’s reaction depending on the distance approached and the time she remained at the shortest distance. We used GLMM, PROC MIXED procedure to test effect of calf’s presence, age of female, parity (no. times female had given birth), and age of calf [give range of ages] on the intensity of a female’s reaction. We found that older females reacted more vigorously to playback stimuli than younger ones (F(9, 35.9) = 2.48; P = 0.026). Even though there was variation in the responses of different individuals, an individual’s response was not influenced by her parity, or by the age or presence of a calf. Such a rigid response by individuals can be expected to lead to cooperative defence, including the defence of non-offspring in the case of a real predatory threat. The finding that older females responded more strongly is consistent with reports for other species living in predator-rich habitats in the wild that indicate that older females are more successful in rearing young. The study was supported by MZe 0002701404 and NSERC.

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Impact of cognitive and environmental enrichment on learning efficiency and behaviour of Nigerian dwarf goats (Capra hircus) Susann Meyer, Jan Langbein Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany e-mail: s.meyer@fbn-dummerstorf.de The complexity of an animal’s environment can strongly influence its behaviour but can also affect its cognitive capacities. Commonly used forms of environmental enrichment often quickly lose their attractiveness and the animals habituate. So it has been tried to integrate cognitive challenges into housing to achieve long-term enrichment. We investigated the effect of enriched (litter, climbing rack, round feeder) or barren housing conditions on learning and the influence of enrichment and cognitive stimulation on open-field behaviour of dwarf goats. In a 2×2 design with four groups (each n=8 to 9), we combined housing conditions and cognitive stimulation. Two groups (one enriched, one barren housing conditions) got drinking water for free, while two further groups (one enriched, one barren) got water only after solving a visual four-choice discrimination task (cognitive stimulation). The latter serially learned three different discrimination tasks (each ran for 14 days). At the beginning of the study and after each discrimination task, all groups were tested in an open-field/novel-object test to check for differences in the behaviour (activity, exploration, contact to the novel object). Across the three discrimination tasks, we found gradually increased differences regarding the learning performance between the two housing conditions (task three: F1,15=4.54, P=0.050). All groups habituated to the behavioural test in that they were more active and less anxious, and contacted the unknown object (pylon, cardboard, lattice box, cistern) more rapidly, frequently and longer across the tests. The enriched and cognitively challenged group had more intensive contact with the novel object regarding frequency (F3,30=3.24, P=0.035) and duration (F3,30=2.84, P=0.054), compared to the groups housed in barren conditions. In conclusion, learning performance was improved under enriched compared to barren housing conditions. Additionally, cognitive stimulation augmented curiosity towards novel objects and resulted in increased explorative behaviour in the open-field compared to all other groups.

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Agonistic behaviour of entire male, female and castrated male fattening pigs Lars Schrader, Beate Bünger, Bernhard Zacharias, Peter Grün, Ernst Tholen, Hansjörg Schrade Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Doernbergstr. 25/27, D-29223 Celle e-mail: lars.schrader@fli.bund.de There is an ongoing debate about surgical castration of male piglets due to its detrimental effects on welfare particularly if done without analgesia or anaesthesia. The least invasive alternative practice to castration would be the fattening of intact boars. Beside problems such as boar taint, however, the divergent agonistic and sexual behaviour of boars may reduce the pigs’ welfare during fattening. In three trials entire male (n=216), female (n=108) and castrated male (n=108) fattening pigs (Piétrain x Baden-Württemberg-hybrid) were kept in fully slatted pens (1.2 m² per pig) in pure groups of 12 and were fed ad libitum with pelleted standard feed at one feeding station per pen. Entire males were slaughtered either at 85 kg (boar85) or at 95 kg (boar95), groups of castrated male (cast) and female (fem) pigs at 95 kg resulting in three groups for the four treatments in each trial. Before slaughtering we video-recorded the pens for 24h and agonistic behaviours were analysed in continuous sampling. In addition, we scored the skin of pigs at different body parts for lesions. Data were analysed using mixed models. Before slaughtering the number of agonistic interactions per pen in 24h was significantly higher for boar85 (154.1 ± 44.1) and boar95 (141.6 ± 36.9) compared to cast (43.8 ± 31.0) and fem (46.9 ± 23.6) (p<0.05). These differences in agonistic behaviour resulted in different lesions scores with significant less boars with no lesions (e.g. at the hindquarters: 73%) compared to cast (95.5%) and fem (98.7%). The proportion of pigs with severe lesion was less than 3% in all treatment groups. Despite the higher aggressiveness in boars we conclude that at least in the housing conditions tested here boars can be fattened without severe welfare problems.

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Is special feed and being brushed percepted as a positive stimulus in young cattle? Heike Schulze Westerath, Lorenz Gygax, Edna Hillmann ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Animal Behaviour, Health and Welfare Unit, Universitaetsstrasse 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland e-mail: heike-westerath@ethz.ch In studying positive emotions in farm animals, a diversity of stimuli presumed to be positive have been used as rewards. Whether two such stimuli (special feed and being brushed) are percepted as positive by young cattle was investigated in an experiment with eight calves (3 females, 5 males, 4-7 months of age). After habituation to handling, brushing, choice apparatus and procedure, the animals were given the choice between concentrate (mixture of pellets and flakes) and their usual feed (silage and hay) during three sessions with eight (session 1) or 16 trials (session 2 and 3) per session (n=8). Thereafter, in two sessions of 16 trials, calves (n=7) could choose between an empty box or being brushed by the experimenter. The choice and the latency to make a choice were registered for each trial. Preferences were determined per session: using the binomial test, ≥13 identical choices out of 16 choices per session and 8 out of 8 choices apply to a significant difference to random choice, 12 identical choices out of 16 choices and 7 out of 8 choices to a tendency. Additionally, the latency to make a choice was compared between the feed preference and the brushing test using a Wilcoxon test focusing on sessions with a preference or a tendency of preference. Six animals preferred the concentrate over their usual feed during the third session (15-16 of 16 choices) and two showed a tendency of preference (12 choices) (session 1: no animal preference or tendency; session 2: two animals preference, no animal tendency). Being brushed by the experimenter was preferred by four animals (13-16 choices) and tended to be preferred by the other three animals (12 choices) at least during one of the two sessions (session 1: two animals preference, two animals tendency; session 2: three animals preference, one animal tendency). During sessions with a preference (significant or tendency) for either the concentrate or being brushed, we found no difference in latency to make a choice (p=0.22). In conclusion, concentrate was preferred over usual feed, and being brushed over an empty box by young cattle. Therefore, both stimuli were found to be suitable rewards in the study of positive emotions in calves, provided that animals are used to being brushed.

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Perception of lameness by farm managers Radka Šárová, Ilona Stěhulová, Petra Kratinová, Pavel Firla, Marek Špinka Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 - Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic e-mail: radka.sarova@centrum.cz Lameness is a serious problem faced by dairy cattle. It might be caused by different reasons (feed, quality of floor, treatment of hoofs etc). Besides the negative impact on a cow it also causes economic losses for farmers due to e.g. reduced milk production, longer calving interval or premature culling. Despite that, there are some studies showing the underestimation of lameness prevalence by farmers. The aim of our study was to assess the perception of lameness by Czech farm managers. On fourteen farms, the lactating cows were scored for lameness by a trained observer in a barn while cows were encouraged to walk. The animals were randomly selected and the sample size was between 40-80 cows per herd depending on the number of cows in a herd. We used 3 levels of the scale: 0 (not lame), 1 (moderately lame) and 2 (severely lame). Farm managers were questioned about number of lamed cows in their herd and if the lameness is a major, a minor or no problem on their farm. For statistical evaluation we used non parametric tests. The estimation of lameness given by farm managers (mean; 7%) were lower compared to observed prevalence (mean; 31%) (Wilcoxon paired test, S=39, p<0.05, n=12). The observed lameness on farms where farm managers stated no or a minor problem did not differ significantly (34%, n=9) from farms were farm managers stated a major problem with lameness (26%, n=5) (Mann-Whitney U test, Z=-0,54, p>0.05, n=14). However, the former farm managers gave a lower estimation of lameness prevalence on their farms (3% vs 8%) (Mann-Whitney U test, Z=1.9, p=0.056, n=12). These results indicate a need for training of farm managers in lameness detection and in paying attention to the seriousness of the problem on their own farms.

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Sow nursing synchronization in isolation and in acoustic and visual contact Jitka Šilerová, Marek Špinka and Kristýna Neuhauserová Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail: jsilerova@atlas.cz Nursing episodes of lactating sows housed in one room tend to be synchronized. The role of grunting vocalization and visual stimuli in causing the nursing synchronization was investigated through manipulation of the stimuli input. Ten triplets of sows with similar characteristics (farrowing date, litter size, parity) were housed in pens with the 3 treatments imposed at the same time: Isolation (I) – visually, olfactory and auditory isolated room; Sound (S) – visually isolated pen within a room of 14 pens; Control (C) - pen with full contact within the room of 14 pens. The S and C sows were housed in neighbouring pens. Nursing behaviour of the three focal sows was video recorded for 6 hours at 7 and 21 days post partum. Nursings of at least two of the focal sows that began within 3 min of each other were considered to be synchronized nursings. We assumed that acoustic communication is decisive and therefore predicted that nursing synchronization will be high in S and C treatments but lower in I. Data were analyzed using PROC GLM MIXED in SAS. The proportion of synchronized nursings (PSN) was similar for S and C sows (PSN(S) = 55%, PSN(C) =53%, t (1, 22) = - 0.39, p=0.7). However the I sows were less synchronized (PSN (I) =25%) than either C sows (t (1, 22) = 5.93, p<0.0001) or S sows (t (1, 22) = 6.23, p<0.0001). We conclude that the pair of sows housed together in one room was nursing rather in synchrony (50%) although one of them can’t see the other. The substantial role of vocal communication in nursing synchrony was confirmed since the isolated sows were only slightly synchronized with sows in communal room. The upcoming analysis of nursing synchronization of all sows in communal room should better describe the situation.

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Lactating sows’ reactivity to natural and modified piglet distress calls Marek Špinka and Petra Kratinová Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czechia e-mail: spinka@vuzv.cz The aim of this study was to investigate whether the reactivity of lactating sows to distress calls of crushed piglets could be increased by modifying these sounds or by replacing these sounds by castration calls. There were 45 experimental sows in three batches of 15 sows each. On the second day post partum, each sow was tested for her reactivity to a standard stimulus and a modified stimulus. The standard stimulus consisted of a 30 s playback (80 – 86 dB amplitude) of calls recorded when a 1-day old piglet was held on its side by hand (“simulated crushing”). The modified stimulus was a louder (96 – 100 dB) simulated crushing call in batch A, a simulated crushing call played back at half speed in batch B and a castration call in batch C. Although the louder crushing calls and the castration calls seemingly induced the sow to stand up with somewhat higher probability (61% and 68%, respectively) than the the standard crushing sounds (49%), the difference was not significant due to large variation in the response probability. The probability of reaction increased linearly with parity (GEE, p<0.05) from 28% for parities 1 and 2 to 78% in parity 8 and higher. Sows with very large litters (14 and more piglets) had lower (GEE, p<0.05) probability of reacting (27%) than other sows (62%). Sows reacted with much lower (GEE, p<0.01) probability when housed in crates with a slatted floor (35%) then on concrete straw-bedded floor (73%). We conclude that modifications of the acoustic stimulus affect the reactivity of sows to piglet distress calls less than other factors, such as low parity, very large litters and floor less suited for standing up, which can decreases the reactivity substantially.

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Short – and long term effects of mother-bonded rearing on human-animal relationship in dairy cattle Kathrin Wagner, Kerstin Barth, Edna Hillmann, Susanne Waiblinger Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria e-mail: Kathrin.Wagner@vetmeduni.ac.at Usually dairy calves are separated from the mother shortly after birth, but recently mother-bonded rearing systems are developed. Contact to humans and thus the animals’ relationship to humans (human-animal relationship HAR) may differ in these two rearing systems. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential effect of mother-bonded vs. artificial rearing in the first 12 weeks of life on HAR of calves and cows. Mother-bonded animals (M) were suckled by their mother. After calving, they were kept together in a calving-pen for 5 days. Afterwards cows returned to the lactating herd and calves had access to the cows via selection gates. After 12 hours post partum, artificially reared calves (A) were kept in the calf group without access to the cows. They were bottle-fed for five days and by automatic milk feeder thereafter. Calves’ reactions to an unfamiliar person were tested at the age of 28 days using an avoidance distance test (ADT) in the home pen and in a novel environment (arena), and a stationary human test in the test arena. Further an ADT with a familiar person was performed with cows reared artificially or mother-suckled around 4 months after their first parturition in their home environment. Mother-bonded reared calves showed a higher avoidance distance than artificial reared calves both in the home environment (p=0.001 median (min-max) in cm, A: 41.25 (0-110); M: 110 (10-180)) and in the arena (p=0.05 median (min-max) in cm, A: 65 (0-175); M: 100 (0-190)). Cows with the corresponding treatment conditions did not differ in ADT (p>0.05). These results demonstrate that mother-bonded reared calves are more fearful of humans than artificially reared ones. In the experiment with cows, which were handled more frequently in both rearing systems, there seem to be no effects on the human-animal relationship.

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Effect of fattening regime on behaviour and production in lambs Lorena Aguayo, Katrin Fuchs, Dayane Lemos Teixeira, Maria Isabel Salazar, María Pascual, Genaro Miranda-de la Lama, Morris Villarroel, Gustavo María University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Spain e-mail: levrino@unizar.es This study analyzes behavioural differences between lambs fattened traditionally versus intensively. Forty Rasa Aragonesa 70 day old male lambs were divided into two treatments and housed indoors for 4 weeks in 3x4 m pens (n=10). The experiment was repeated twice. Treatment 1 (T1) was fed with barley and alfalfa hay, following the traditional system. Treatment 2 (T2) was fed ad libitum with commercial concentrate and straw, following the intensive feed lot system. Concentrate and forage consumption was registered in each group. Animals were weighed at day 1st, 14th and 28th of the experiment to calculate average daily gain (ADG). Behaviour was recorded by video every day from 8 AM to 8 PM by instantaneous sampling technique (1’ every 10’). Behaviour data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using frequencies and tested by χ² (p≤0.05). Lambs spent their time mainly in resting, eating and walking. In both treatments the incidence of stereotypes was low as well as drinking behavior. Eating behavior and resting time were significantly different between treatments (p<0.05). T1 lambs spent more of their time budget eating barley and alfalfa hay than those from the industrial fattening system (p<0.05). T2 lambs spent more time standing up than T1 during the 2nd and 3rd weeks, especially in the morning. Forage conversion index was highest for T1 (p<0.05). No significant differences in concentrate conversion index and total conversion index were observed. Average daily gain was highest in T2 (p<0.05). Results suggest that feeding regime affected lamb behavior. The fattening period with the more natural feeding regime should be a bit longer, which may affect production efficiency. This type of lamb should be presented as a natural, sustainable and traceable produce. It is possible that meat characteristics could also be improved with a more natural regime.

Poster presentations

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Populations of incoming dogs and cats in an animal shelter Christine Arhant, Biljana Stojanovic, Josef Troxler Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna e-mail: Christine.Arhant@vetmeduni.ac.at The aim of this work was to evaluate changes of population dynamics in an Austrian shelter. The shelter cares for animals from an urban area and the adjacent rural areas. Data on incoming dogs and cats from 2004 to 2009 were used for analyses. A reduction of incoming dogs was found from 2004 (268 dogs) to 2009 (189 dogs, Chi2=16.79, df=5, p=0.005). Furthermore, an increasing percentage of medium-sized dogs (33% to 57%) compared to large dogs (46% to 16%) was delivered at the shelter (Chi2=58.57, df=10, p<0.001) during the observation period. In cats, a mean number of 339 cats/year was delivered to the shelter with no significant changes from 2004 to 2009 (p=0.317). However, the percentage of deceased cats after admittance to the shelter decreased from 2004 (20%) to 2009 (7%, Chi2=94.08, df=15, p<0.001). Although, no difference was found in the proportion of adult cats versus kittens from 2004 to 2009 (p=0.949), a strong seasonal fluctuation in incoming adult cats and kittens was observed (Chi2=392.39, df=11, p<0.001). From December to April only few kittens (18%) were brought to the shelter, whereas from June to October kittens dominated the incoming cat population (67%). In April and November a mean percentage of 47% kittens were delivered to the shelter. Data on numbers of incoming dogs might show a shift to more responsible ownership as fewer dogs compared to cats were surrendered to the shelter during the observation period. Furthermore, the seasonally high proportion of kittens might reflect a lower readiness of cat owners to control reproduction, for instance by castration. The decrease in mortality of cats in the shelter was possibly due to a change in management practices. Litters of kittens are now kept separately, in contrast to the former practice in this shelter of rearing litters together.

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Can you guess how big I am? – Honesty about size in dogs’ „play growls” Anna Bálint, Péter Pongrácz Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: nani.balint@gmail.com Several studies suggest that dogs utilize a mental representation of the signaler after hearing its vocalization and can match this representation with other features provided by the visual modality. Recently it was found that a dogs' growl is context specific and contains information about the caller's body size. Experimental evidence suggests that dogs can extract size information encoded in the „food-guarding” growls of conspecifics. In this experiment, we would like to test whether dogs can assess the size of another dog if they hear „play growls” (growl recorded in a playful situation), paired with simultaneous video projection of two dog pictures. According to previous acoustical analysis, dogs seem to show themselves bigger during growling playfully. We would like to use two experimental groups, one with playbacks of the aforementioned „food-guarding” growls, and the other group with playbacks of „play growls”. Auditory stimuli will be chosen from a pool of pre-recorded growls in the given situations. As visual stimuli we use digital photos of the growling dogs. The same two pictures are shown, one of them is projected in life size, the other picture is 30% smaller or larger than the matching picture. We will measure the looking preference of the dogs. Coding will start from the beginning of the projection until the pictures disappear to measure the latencies and the looking time towards the matching and non-matching pictures. Since the intention to play, and play itself might have a complex motivational background, communicating it toward the other party might convey controversial messages. It is possible, that the animal shows itself bigger acoustically, which might be frightening, but at the same time the visual display makes the playful intent clear. We hope that this experimental design will help to elucidate whether „play growls” mislead conspecifics or not, regarding size information.

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Seasonal variation of locomotor activity and resting behaviour in horses kept outdoors all year round Lea Brinkmann, Martina Gerken University of Goettingen, Department of Animal Sciences, Goettingen, Germany e-mail: lmann@gwdg.de Outdoor group housing is increasingly recognized as the most appropriate housing system for horses. Little information is available on the behaviour of horses under these conditions. Therefore, ten female Shetland ponies were continuously measured over a one year period. Animals were kept in a stable with an outdoor paddock from February to May and on a pasture with access to shelter from May to October. In October the ponies were returned to the stable. The ambient temperature (Ta) in the stable was identical to the outdoor Ta and was recorded by data loggers. Individual locomotor activity and lying duration were continuously measured and saved every 15 min by ALT-pedometers. From these data, activity impulses per hour (N) and lying duration (min) were calculated for a one year period. The resting heart rate (HR) was measured with a stethoscope every two weeks at noon. The locomotor activity and the HR followed the pattern of Ta over the course of the year, at which 18% of the total annual locomotion appeared in winter, 19% in spring, 39% in summer and 24% in autumn. The shorter lying times in winter months (59 ± 65 min/day) were presumably due to low soil temperatures during that time. Lying duration increased in spring (103 ± 88 min/day) and decreased in summer (67 ± 57 min/day). This suggests that thermoregulation during lying is less effective than during standing at high ambient temperatures. The general activity pattern over the year was closely related to the photoperiod. Activity was lowest at night, increased after sunrise and decreased around dusk. On annual average, lying accounted for 9% of the day with most lying occurring during the night and a peak just before dawn. This multiphase activity pattern is similar to that observed in wild prey animals.

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Investigation of the dog’s personality using a newly developed personality test Ildikó Brúder, Enikı Kubinyi, Ádám Miklósi Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: bruderildiko@gmail.com Based on Pervin and John (1997) personality is those characteristics of individuals that describe and account for consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. Personality studies in dogs have become very popular in the last decade. Despite of this there is neither standard methodology nor standard terminology in dog personality studies. Researchers used different methodology for personality research and they found several number of potential personality traits for dogs. In 2005 Jones and Gosling identified 7 main personality dimensions in dogs using by metaanalysis. These were reactivity, fearfulness, sociability, responsiveness to training, aggression, dominance and activity. The aims of our study were twofold. First we wanted to develop a personality test (Family Dog Outdoor Test - FDOT) which is able to measure different personality traits and second, to report the convergent validity of our newly developed personality test using questionnaire scales. In our study we tested pet dogs (N = 115) from 36 breeds. Dogs were characterized by three instruments: (1) Dog-ADHD Rating Scale assessing Activity-impulsivity and Inattention (N = 115; (2) Budapest Canine Personality Survey assessing Liveliness, Confidence, Attachment and Aggressiveness (N = 115; (3) FDOT consisting of 14 subtests (N = 115). From the behavioural variables coded in the FDOT we developed four behaviour scales, which were related to those of Jones and Gosling (2005): Sociability, Activity, Aggression and Trainability. The behaviour scales correlated with the questionnaire scales which were designed to measure the same behaviour traits, except for Aggression. Our results show that FDOT is an appropriate mean for studying certain personality traits of dogs. Additionally, we investigated how these traits were associated with demographic characteristics of dogs and owners. This work was supported by the EU FP7 ICT-215554 LIREC, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (K 84036) and the Bolyai Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Effect of novel visual stimulus on behavioural disterss in foals separated from their mothers Monika Budzyńska, Wanda Krupa Department of Ethology and Technological Basis of Animal Production, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland e-mail: monbudz@wp.pl On horse farms, breeding practice includes taking mares for mating or the other farm procedures and the foal is left alone in its stall for a brief period. Even short-term separation may lead to distress and injury in the foal. Moreover, a distress of separation may increase a risk of the animal later developing a problem behaviour or even locomotory stereotypies. The present study involved the observation and recording of behaviour (vocalising, defecating, moving about, charging the door) in 12 pre-weaned Arab foals (5 colts, 7 fillies, age: 124.25±39.14 days) when mare was separated for a short period. The aim of the study was to determine whether the behavioural signs of distress exhibited were reduced if novel object appeared in the foal’s stall during the period of separation. The behaviour of the foals was observed during two test sessions: 3 min dam’s separation from foal (mare out of stable; no contact with foal) and 3 min dam’s separation from foal with environmental enrichment (the foal’s stall enriched by visual item: plastic coloured ball). Separated foals vocalised significantly (P=0.004) more and charged the door significantly (P=0.02) more times than ‘environmentally enriched’ foals. When exposed to coloured ball, the foals showed item directed behaviours (watching the item, walking towards the item or sniffing the item). Therefore, the presence of enriching object in the stall with a pre-weaned Arab foal while its dam was taken for a short period reduced some behavioural signs of distress displayed and could eliminate risk of injuring itself.

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A new approach to test higher order cognition in horses Vivian Gabor, Martina Gerken University of Goettingen, Department of Animal Sciences, Albrecht-Thaer Weg 3, 37075 Goettingen, Germany e-mail: vgabor@gwdg.de Research into higher cognitive abilities of the horse may be limited by developing the adequate experimental design. We tested four pony mares in a matching to sample arrangement using a black circle and a cross as visual cues attached to an experimental apparatus. The attention was directed to the question of whether the animals are able to concept formation in a given time period or if their decisions depend on other cues or strategies. The animals were given 27 sessions of 20 trials each during 14 weeks. None of the mares reached the learning criterion of 80% correct answers in one session. However, the ponies showed procedural learning based on correction runs that were given between incorrect decisions, by then selecting the correct stimulus on the other side of the apparatus. It is concluded that discrimination tasks may be biased by the involvement of unexpected learning strategies, which complicates the interpretation of such tests and may even mask possible conceptualization capabilities. Subsequently we developed a computer based model which allowed a stimulus presentation on a LCD screen. The electronic stimulus control and presentation allows a better standardization of the time sequences of presentation and shorter test periods for the animals. Seven Shetland ponies were tested in a matching to sample arrangement with this new experimental device. The present first results include the familiarization to the test procedure and the responses of a matching to sample arrangement. Tested animals required between 8 and 55 sessions to operate the learning device by associating a geometrical symbol with pushing the related button to obtain a food reward. In the following matching to sample problem four ponies reached the criterion of 80% correct responses in two consecutive sessions. These first results suggest a possibly higher learning capacity of ponies than so far known.

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Effect of keeper and toys on piglets activity after weaning Ivana Gardiánová, Ivona Svobodová, Lukáš Jebavý, Petra Bolechová Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, CULS in Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol e-mail: gardianova@af.czu.cz Pigs are social and intelligent animals. Its behaviour is formed by mother, keeping, contact and other factors. Important can be enriched environment and more intense care in standard technologies. As additions can help materials for building nests, toys, intensive positive contact with keepers and others. The aim of study was to evaluate, how the animals will be active (playing, moving….) and if enrichment improve cooperation by manipulation of handlers. In short-term (30 days) experiment were observed activity of piglets (after weaning) and its reaction on better intensive care (keeper were with animals 4x in the day about 20 min) and enriched environment (little ball, tires, football balls, shoes, high boots). In experiment were 40 pigs, observed continual 4 hours each day (from 9.00 do 11.00 and 13.00 to 15.00). Animal were divided in two groups, in each stall were 10 animals. Breeding on group housing on grate. First group (20 pigs in two stalls) had better care (scratch, playing, communication/ speaking to pigs, handling, dainty), enriched environment (toys) and keepers spend more time (4 x 20 min) with animals, the second group (20 pigs in two stalls) was without toys and had standard care (feeding, visual control of animals, without “speaking” to animals, without handling). Piglets in enriched group were significant more active – playing, moving … (p≥0,0243), more willing to keeper manipulation (p≥0,0304). The animals in enriched environment more (>35 %) interact (playing and focus to handler) to comparison with the animal from second non enriched group. They also plays more (>30 %) than the piglets from unenriched group. Friendly access of handlers to youngs and adjusting of technologies of toys can improve relation and trust of animal, can positive affect willing of animal to cooperation with people by veterinary and other controls.

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Associations between behavioural scales of a human-dog social interaction test (SIT) and owner-perceived dog personality Barbara Gáspár, Ádám Miklósi, Márta Gácsi, Enikı Kubinyi Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: gaspar.barbara@gmail.com Recent research has revealed that personality traits can also be attributed to non-human animals, including dogs. Like in the case of humans, it can be characterised by specifically designed questionnaires (filled out by the owners or care takers) and behaviour tests. In the present study we have developed a novel behaviour test that is based on social interactions between humans and dogs. We have attempted to catch some broad personality traits in dogs by the means of behaviour scales. In addition dog owners were also asked to fill in a personality questionnaire about their pet. Altogether 105 trained and untrained family dogs of 23 breeds and of mixed dogs participated in the study with their owners. In the Social Interaction Test (SIT) we measured the behavioural items’ durations, frequencies and latencies and in some cases we used a scoring system. We have created the scales by gathering the related behavioural variables in one or more subtests and checked their internal consistency. Our test revealed six behavioural scales (average of Cronbach alpha values: 0,64): Exploration, Attention to humans, Proximity seeking, Separation behaviour, Skilfulness and Excitability. We have found that owner-perceived dog personality is associated with behavioural scales deduced in SIT. Dogs scoring higher on Neuroticism spent more time in their owners’ proximity (r=0.208, p<0.05; Spearman rank correlation) and explorated less (r=-0.2, p<0.05). Dogs with high scores on Extroversion were more excitable (r=0.29, p<0.05). No personality trait was associated with skilfulness in the test, but nevertheless we found that trained dogs get higher scores on the skilfulness scale (U=478.5, p<0.01; Mann-Whitney U-test). These results have shown that there are associations between the dogs’ personality described by the owners and their behaviour in a social interactive test. Our further finding that SIT measures reliably the dogs’ real-life performance which is dependent on training. This work was supported by the EU FP7 ICT-215554 LIREC.

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Severe and gentle feather-pecking bouts do not differ in the number of beak openings Alexandra Harlander-Matauschek, Natalya Pudova University of Hohenheim, Germany e-mail: Alexandra.Harlander@vetmed.uni-giessen.de Pecking is the main feeding behaviour of galliformes birds. Pecking can be subdivided into a number of phases: head fixation, head movement towards food and beak opening to pick up and ingest the item. Much of investigatory pecking is performed with a closed beak and does not lead to ingestion of the object. Feathers of conspecifics are “suitable” pecking objects for feather-pecking (FP) birds. In severe FP birds, feathers are forcefully pecked and grasped, pulled out and ingested. In gentle FP birds, pecking is mild, investigatory and executed in a rapid, repetitive manner. We observed beak openings and closings during gentle and severe FP, within gentle and severe FP bouts, and immediately after FP. The present experiment compared the number of beak openings related to severe and gentle FP. Twelve groups of 5 LSL-birds were kept on a slatted floor in identical pens (89 x 73 cm). Each pen contained a perch, a food trough and a bell drinker. Laterally, above the birds a video camera recorded behavior 20 minutes per day and pen over a period of 13 days (8-10 weeks of age). The number of severe and gentle feather pecks and the number of pecking bouts per pen were recorded. The inter-bout interval was 5 seconds. The number of beak openings per peck, per pecking bout and immediately after FP was recorded. The mean number of beak openings per gentle peck/bout (0.03/0.21) did not differ from the number of beak openings per severe peck/bout (0.1/0.24). Nevertheless, beak openings were observed in every fifth gentle or severe bout. The meaning behind beak openings/closings in relation to feather pecking warrants further investigation.

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Adaptation to confinement in young pigs Steffi Jaskulke, Gerhard Manteuffel Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Wilhelm Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany e-mail: jaskulke@fbn-dummerstorf.de Current concepts of animal welfare emphasise the role of emotions. In a pilot study we tested whether continuing confinement of pigs has an effect on emotional states in order to estimate whether such confinement can be used in future research on emotions in pigs, e.g. when positive or negative stimuli have to be applied precisely, or when heart rate and heart rate variability analyses might suffer from confounding effects of locomotion. For this purpose, animals (German Landrace barrows, 10 weeks-old) were housed individually in metabolic cages (n=12) and, as controls, in single pens (n=6). In six replicates with two experimental animals and one control animal each, we collected saliva each morning for cortisol analysis and recorded behaviour and heart rate for three hours per day. Each replication consisted of five days of habituation to single housing and eight experimental days during which the experimental animals lived continuously in the metabolic cages. In order to compare the control and the experimental group, we used analyses of variance within the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS with treatment, day and replicate as fixed effects and subject as repeated factor. Weight gain, cortisol, heart rate and heart rate variability were not significantly affected by confinement, which only had significant effects on locomotion (F1, 11=21.59, P≤0.001) and sitting (F1, 11=7.23, P≤0.05). Heart rate and cortisol levels did not differ from published values of group housed pigs. Hence, the experimental animals seem to have adapted physiologically to the confinement. In conclusion, our study provides evidence that, compared to single housing, confinement of domestic pigs does not impose additional chronic stress on the animals. Hence, in a current project where we initiate positive and negative emotional anticipation during temporary confinement, we can assume that measurements are not impaired by the experimental conditions.

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The behavior of domestic dog (Canis familiaris) during separation from and reunion with the owner - a questionnaire and an experimental study Veronika Konok, Ádám Miklósi Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary e-mail: konokvera@gmail.com Separation related disorder (SRD) is a common behaviour problem in dogs that consists mainly of vocalization, destruction and urination in the absence of the owner. In the veterinary practice separation behaviour is reported by owners, however, the validity of these report has not been tested. The aim of our study was to test the validity of owners’ report about their dogs’ separation behaviour, and to get behavioural data about dogs with SRD. We introduced a questionnaire to investigate the separation behaviour (and also SRD) in a sample of family dogs and we observed dog’s separation-related and greeting behaviour in a behavioural test (Separation and greeting test, S&G). We coded the stress-related behaviours (e.g. whining, scratching of the door) and the proximity to the owner’s chair during separation, and affectionate behaviours (e.g. contact with the owner, tail-wagging) during greeting, and the activity of the dog in both phases. We found that dogs who showed more stress-related behaviour during separation were rated by their owner to be more anxious when separated (U=48.5, p<0.001, Mann-Whitney test). Dogs’ affection toward the owner during greeting correlated positively with owners’ rating on dogs’ “joy” at reunion (rs=0.298; p=0.05, Spearman correlation). Dogs with owner-reported SRD showed more stress-related behaviour (χ²=9.811, p=0.002, Chi-square test) and spent less time near the owner’s chair (χ²=8.433, p=0.004) during separation, and were more active during greeting (χ²=5.116, p=0.024) than dogs without SRD. The two groups did not differ in affectionate behaviour toward the owner. Results show that owners’ are able to judge reliably their dogs’ separation behaviour. The questionnaire can be used to diagnose SRD. The lack of increased affectionate behaviour in SRD dogs suggests that they are not hyperattached to their owners. The increased stress during separation in SRD dogs may be due to their inability to use owner’s objects for reassurance. This work was supported by the EU FP7 ICT-215554 LIREC.

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The effect of sow-piglet pre-lying communication and piglet condition on piglet crushing Michala Melišováa, Gudrun Illmanna, Inger Lise Andersenb, Guro Vasdalb, Barbora Bozděchováa and Jiří Hamanc

aDepartment of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague – Uhříněves, Czech Republic, bNorwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 As, Norway, cBiometric Unit, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague – Uhříněves, Czech Republic e-mail: melisovam@centrum.cz This study focused on the impact of sow-piglet pre-lying communication and piglet condition on piglet location and on the incidence of piglet crushing. Eighteen loose-housed sows and their litters were studied on Day 1 and Day 3 post partum (pp). The sow’s pre-lying communication (vocalization, sniffing and nudging piglets) was calculated per standing-to-lying event (N = 260). We also determined which component of the pre-lying behaviour influenced piglet location, i.e. proportion of piglets (out of the litter size) in the danger zone (area within one piglet length of the sow on a side on which she is about to lie down; PropDZ) and piglet clustering (PropClust) at the moment of lying down. For statistical analysis Proc GENMOD was used. Sniffing increased PropDZ (P < 0.05) and PropClust (P < 0.05). Sow vocalization increased PropDZ (P < 0.05). Piglet mortality caused by crushing was 6.4 % of live born piglets (N = 15). There was no effect of pre-lying communication, piglet location or piglet clustering on the incidence of crushing. Piglets with higher weight were more likely to be present in the danger zone (P < 0.0001) on Day 1 whereas on Day 3 no effect of piglet weight was found. Rectal temperature had no effect on piglet presence in the danger zone on both days. The probability of crushing increased on Day 1 with decreasing piglet weight (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the more sow communicated with piglets, the more the piglets were attracted to stay in close proximity of the sow, however there was no association detected between sow pre-lying communication and piglet crushing. Close proximity of piglets to the sow during the first days pp outside the time of nursing seems likely to stimulate the mother-piglet bonding process while bringing benefits to piglets (heat, milk and protection) which might overweight the risk of getting crushed by the mother.

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Ontogeny of the nursing vocalization in sows during first week after parturition Kristýna Neuhauserová, Gudrun Illmann and Marie Šimečková Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail:neuhauserova.k@seznam.cz The grunting vocalization that lactating sows emit during nursing is not only species-specific (e.g., it contains an increase in the grunting rate 25 s before the milk ejection) but also individually specific in established lactation. The individual variability in the nursing vocalization between sows is an acoustic signature by which piglets recognise their mother and the increase of grunt rate is acoustic-signal for piglets that milk will be let down soon. It has not been examined yet (i) how early after parturition the grunting pattern does appear and (ii) whether the pattern is repeatable within sows already during the first week after parturition. The nursing vocalisation of sixteen sows was video-recorded at 4 h post partum (pp), 12h pp, 24h pp and on Day 2, Day 3 and on Day 7pp. For every sow 2 - 3 nursings were analysed 60 sec before and after milk ejections at each time interval. The peak grunting rate during a 5 s interval, the total number of grunts during 60 s and the grunt rate increase 25 sec before milk ejection were analyzed. The first analysis showed: (i) the grunt rate increases between 12 h pp and 24 h pp about 13.5 ± 4.5 grunts (PROC MIXED; F(1,11) = 9.17, p < 0,01). The peak grunting rate increase in the same time interval 3.2 ± 0.7 grunts (PROC MIXED; F (1,11) = 24.9, p < 0.001) and as well the total number of grunts about 40.3 ± 12.5 (PROC MIXED; F(1,11) = 10,41, p < 0.01). (ii) The grunt rate increase (L = 18.2, p < 0.001) and the total number of grunts (L = 13.7, p < 0.001) were individual specific for every sow. Our results suggest that the individual specific grunting pattern is already developed during 18 - 24 h pp.

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Individual differences in wild (WWCPS) rat – manifested in exploration box Wojciech Pisula Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: wojciech.pisula@gmail.com Thirty nine WWCPS rats of both sexes were tested in the exploration box throughout fifteen sessions. Six behavioral activities were measured. Factor analysis was run to extract the main dimensions describing rat behavior. Two factors were extracted, confirming the validity of the concept of two dimensional structure of individual differences in rats. The main factor extracted in this study was negatively associated with rearing and climbing the objects in the testing environment. The appropriate label of that factor seems to fall somewhere between “risk assessment” and “information seeking”. The second factor, that was loaded (observed/discovered) mostly by sitting and freezing, is probably the closest dimension to the old fashioned “emotionality” dimension, closely related to the level of anxiety. Hierarchical cluster analysis run on factor scores showed that only three out of a possible four types of factor combinations are actually present within observed group of animals. The combination of “low Factor 1“ and “high Factor 2“ was absent. In terms of individual differences structure, the study provide support for the view that laboratory rats are still rats, which means, that they share with their wild counterparts the basic structure of animal personality.

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Recipe alternatives for zoo alpacas based on feed preferences and nutrient needs Andrea Prágai, Andrea Kırösiné Molnár, Ákos Bodnár International Development and Tropical Department, Szent István University, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Páter Károly u. 1., H-2100 Gödöllı, Hungary e-mail: bodnar.akos@mkk.szie.hu Alpacas in Hungarian zoos have adapted well to the local temperate climate. Feeding of these animals is based on local forages, but unexpected feeding problems appear in many cases concerning to cover the energy and protein needs. Alpacas are usually fed by wet feeds and forages (apple and other fruits, carrot, cabbage, available fresh feeds) and additionally horse fodder (granulated) in the local zoos. But it does not completely satisfy the nutrient and protein needs of these animals. Feed preference trial was done with four alpacas (1 male and 3 female) in a Hungarian zoo, at Szeged. Based on the results of preferences trials and nutritional parameters one can tell that alfalfa hay and grass hay can be the basic forage in the whole year. It is considered that alpacas particularly liked the fresh or wilted feed, and the different kinds of hays were also beloved by the animals. In each season can be found different additional feeds (e.g. Sudan grass and other fresh forages in spring; apple and cabbage in summer; sugar beet and red beet in autumn; apple, carrot and cabbage in winter etc.) what are suitable for alpaca’s feeding. Results show that the feeding of alpacas can be based on local forages and harmonizing the nutritional parameters of the different basic materials and the nutritional needs of alpacas, it can be easy to build a specific alpaca recipe for the zoos.

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Comparison of two methods for the assessment of plumage conditions and injuries in aviaries Fehim Smajlhodzic, Christine Arhant, Andreas Wimmer, Knut Niebuhr Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna e-mail: Fehim.Smajlhodzic@vetmeduni.ac.at In the present study, two methods for the assessment of plumage conditions and injuries of laying hens in aviaries were compared: A quick clinical scoring suggested by Welfare Quality® (WQ score) and a more time-consuming method modified after Gunnarsson (GS score). For the GS score, single hens must be caught and examined regarding plumage condition and injuries of all body regions. Regarding the WQ score, hens are examined from a distance of 2 meters and plumage damages and injuries only at the throat, back, and stomach are assessed, which is less time-consuming and thus more feasible for on-farm assessment. Altogether, 48 farms were visited (23 portal systems and 25 row systems) with flock sizes from 2900 to 8000 (median 5500). Hens were aged 30-45 weeks (median 38). For the quicker WQ score, 100 hens per farm were scored. For the GS score, on the same farms 30 hens were caught for the assessment. Farm values were calculated based on the 100 or 30 hens examined by means of the different methods. Farm values were then compared using Spearman Rank correlations. Regarding plumage conditions, high correlations were found between the two methods, i.e., the percentage of plumage damage detected using the WQ method correlated highly with the GS parameters such as GS_overall score (rs=0.91, P<0.001), GS_plumage score for back, stomach, and wings (rs=0.81, P<0.001), GS_percentage of feather pecking (rs=0.77, P<0.001), or GS_percentage of featherless areas >5cm at the back and stomach (rs=0.71, P<0.001). However, no significant correlations were found between WQ and GS with regard to the assessment of injuries (rs=0.21, P>0.05). In conclusion, the WQ score seems to be a feasible tool to assess plumage conditions in a quicker and still valid way. However, with regard to injuries, a more detailed and thus more time-consuming method should be used.

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Effect of bedding material on behavioural and productive traits of feed-lot lambs Dayane Lemos Teixeira, Genaro Miranda-de la Lama, Morris Villarroel, Juan Escos, Gustavo A. Maria University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Spain e-mail: dadaylt@hotmail.com Since the cost of straw has increased, the lamb’s feed lot tend to avoid using it. This decision could jeopardize animal welfare. Consequently it is necessary to explore others options. The aim of this study was to analyse the use of alternative bedding materials (sawdust, cellulose, cereal straw and rice husk) during the fattening period (4 weeks) of lambs on social behaviour and productive performance. The experimental design included four treatments (bedding material) and the trial was repeated twice. A total of 96 animals were studied (12 male lambs/group). Initial average live weight was 19±1.1kg (70 days old). Animals were housed in pens of 11 m², feeding was ad libitum with concentrate. Production traits (live weight and consumption) and behavioural variables were analysed. Frequency of stereotypic behaviour (ST), agonistic (AG) and affiliative (AF) interactions between lambs and the interaction of the lambs with bedding material (IB), were analysed. We used video recording from 8AM to 8PM on days 1, 8 and 12. The behaviours recorded were normalized using a square root transformation and are presented as mean (±SE) of events/animal/day. All behavioural data and productive parameters were analysed by the Proc MIXED procedure of SAS using a model of repeated measures (day), the fixed effect of treatment and the random effect of the lamb. Productive variables were not affected. Some behavioural variables were affected by treatments (p≤0.05). On day 1, straw group presented the lowest frequencies of ST and AF. IB frequency was higher on straw and cellulose groups. No differences between treatments were found for AG. On the day 12, no differences on ST and AG were observed between treatments. While cellulose presented highest frequency of IB. Straw group presented the lowest frequencies of AF and IB. Cellulose bedding could be recommended as the best bedding material for lambs.

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Owner-reported breed-typical behaviour and breed-group differences in the German pet dog population Borbála Turcsán, Enikı Kubinyi, Ádám Miklósi Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, 1117, Budapest, Hungary e-mail: borbala.turcsan@gmail.com Domestic dog (Canis familiaris) has been subjected to artificial selection for at least 15,000 years which gave rise to more than 400 breeds differing both in morphology and behaviour. The current study focused on the typical behaviour of dog breeds and investigated the effect of the breeds’ historical use and genetic relatedness on it. Owners of 5,733 dogs (98 breeds) filled out an online questionnaire in German. Breed trait scores were calculated on calmness, trainability, dog sociability and boldness behavioural traits. Breeds were grouped on the basis of their historical function using the internationally recognized classifications of the kennel clubs. We found marked differences in the trainability and boldness traits: Herding dogs were more trainable than Hounds, Working dogs, Toy dogs and Non-sporting dogs; Terriers group was described as bolder than Hounds and Herding dogs. Regarding the genetic relatedness breeds with ancient Asian or African origin (Ancient breeds) were less trainable than the Herding/sighthound cluster and the cluster of modern European Hunting breeds. In boldness trait, the Mastiff/terrier cluster was bolder than the clusters of Ancient breeds, the Herding/sighthound cluster and the cluster of Hunting breeds. No relationships in calmness and dog sociability traits were found either with the historical function or genetic relatedness of the breeds. Our results suggested that the differences in breed-specific behaviour in trainability and boldness traits are partly determined by genetic factors and differences in the historical function of the breeds. However, current selective processes may also play an important role in shaping the breeds’ behaviour thus both the historical function and genetic relatedness can be misleading in case of some breeds. This work was supported by the EU FP7 ICT-215554 LIREC, the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (K 84036) and the Bolyai Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Human–horse interactions and behaviour of horses at veterinary clinics Ines Windschnurer, Susanne Zeitlinger, Josef Troxler, Susanne Waiblinger Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 e-mail: Ines.Windschnurer@vetmeduni.ac.at Veterinary treatments are often aversive or painful, resulting in stress, avoidance, or aggressive behaviour. This preliminary study investigated which behaviours horses and humans display during treatments and if specific behaviours are shown more often during particular situations (giving injections, waiting, leading horses, inspections with light body contact, invasive inspections, leg inspections, spraying/shaving). Moreover, possible links between human and equine behaviour were investigated. Behaviours of horses, veterinarians, and assisting people were recorded at 5 clinics during 49 routine treatments that were divided into 111 situations (assigned to the above mentioned 7 categories). Behaviours of humans present during a situation were summarised. Behaviours (frequencies/minute) were analysed by Kruskal-Wallis tests and Spearman rank correlations. Horses showed insecurity (stopping, baulking, defecation) with different frequencies in the different categories (Chi2=23.38, df=6, P=0.001), e.g., often during leading. In humans, activating behaviour (e.g., arm waving, whistling, tongue clicking) was displayed with different frequencies (Chi2=20.42, df=6, P=0.002), e.g., frequently during leading. Restlessness in horses (e.g., stepping, head movements) tended to occur with different frequencies (Chi2=12.37, df=6, P=0.054), e.g., often during invasive inspections. Humans applied restraining techniques considered to be painful (e.g., ear twisting) with different frequencies (Chi2=26.20, df=6, P<0.001), e.g., mostly during invasive inspections. Restlessness in horses correlated with negative human interactions (e.g., hitting, talking impatiently, shouting: rs=0.28, P=0.002, n=111) and neutral human interactions (e.g., slight hits, talking dominantly: rs=0.45, P<0.001, n=111) as well as with the use of painful restraint techniques (rs=0.46, P<0.001, n=111). Moreover, avoidance behaviour of the horses (turning and stepping away) correlated with negative human interactions (rs=0.30, P=0.002, n=111). Thus, humans and horses showed certain behaviours in different situations with differing frequencies. Moreover, links between human and animal behaviour were found. Future studies should analyse causal connections, i.e., if the observed animal behaviour is the result of/or the reason for human interactions.

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List of participants:

Lorena Aguayo

University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Spain, e-mail:

levrino@unizar.es

Inger Lise Andersen

Norwegian Univ. of Life Sciences, Dep. of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences,

P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Ås, Norway, e-mail: Inger-lise.andersen@umb.no

Christine Arhant

Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary

Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, e-mail:

Christine.Arhant@vetmeduni.ac.at

Anna Bálint

Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-

1117 Budapest, Hungary, e-mail: nani.balint@gmail.com

Luděk Bartoš

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Praha Uhříněves, e-

mail: bartos@vuzv.cz

Jitka Bartošová

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 -

Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic, e-mail: bartosova.jitka@vuzv.cz

Boris Bilčík

Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences,

Moyzesova 61, 90028 Ivanka pri Dunaji, e-mail: Boris.Bilcik@savba.sk

Barbora Bozděchová

Institute of Animal Science, Department of Ethology, Prague, Czech Rep., e-

mail: Barbora.Bozdechova@seznam.cz

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Lea Brinkmann

University of Goettingen, Department of Animal Sciences, Goettingen,

Germany, e-mail: lmann@gwdg.de

Ildikó Brúder

Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-

1117 Budapest, Hungary, e-mail: bruderildiko@gmail.com

Monika Budzyńska

Department of Ethology and Technological Basis of Animal Production,

University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland, e-mail: monbudz@wp.pl

Jana Dubcová

Institute of Animal Science - Department of Ethology, Prague Uhrineves

Faculty of Science - Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia,

Ceske Budejovice, e-mail: JancaD@seznam.cz

Daniel Enríquez Hidalgo

Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark,

Fermoy – Ireland, e-mail: danielenriquez81@yahoo.es

Vivian Gabor

University of Goettingen, Department of Animal Sciences, Albrecht-Thaer

Weg 3, 37075 Goettingen, Germany, e-mail: vgabor@gwdg.de

Ivana Gardiánová

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, CULS in Prague,

Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol, e-mail: gardianova@af.czu.cz

Barbara Gáspár

Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-

1117 Budapest, Hungary, e-mail: gaspar.barbara@gmail.com

Anke Gutmann

Division of Livestock Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life

Sciences, Vienna, Austria, e-mail: anke.gutmann@boku.ac.at

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Alexandra Harlander-Matauschek

University of Hohenheim, Germany, e-mail:

Alexandra.Harlander@vetmed.uni-giessen.de

Veronika Heizmann

Institut für Tierhaltung und Tierschutz, Veterinärmedizinische Universität

Wien, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Wien, e-mail:

veronika.heizmann@vetmeduni.ac.at

Lenka Hradecká

Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, Praha 6 – Suchdol, 165 21,

e-mail: hradeckal@af.czu.cz

Helena Chaloupková

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague

Uhříněves, Czech Republic, e-mail: chaloupkova.helena@vuzv.cz

Gudrun Illmann

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague

Uhříněves, Czech Republic, e-mail: illmannova.gudrun@vuzv.cz

Steffi Jaskulke

Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Wilhelm Stahl-Allee 2,

18196 Dummerstorf, Germany, e-mail: jaskulke@fbn-dummerstorf.de

Julia Johns

Animal Behaviour, Health and Welfare Unit; Institute of Agricultural

Sciences ETH Zurich; Universitaetsstrasse. 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland, e-

mail: johnsj@student.ethz.ch

Anna Kis

Department of Ethology, Eötvös University; Pázmány P. stny. 1/c Budapest

H-1117, e-mail: kisanna12@gmail.com

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Martina Komárková

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Přátelství 815, Praha

10 - Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic, Charles University in Prague,

Viničná 7, Prague, Czech Republic, e-mail: eto89@seznam.cz

Veronika Konok

Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, H-

1117 Budapest, Hungary, e-mail: konokvera@gmail.com

Ľubor Košťál

Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences,

Ivanka pri Dunaji, Slovakia, e-mail: Lubor.Kostal@savba.sk

Radim Kotrba

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 -

Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic, Institute of Tropics and Subtropics,

Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha 6- Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic,

e-mail: maugli46@volny.cz

Rezso Kovacs

Szent István University, Veterinary faculty, Large Animal Clinic, HUN, 3394

Egerszalók, Bérc utca 26, e-mail: krezsoe@gmail.com

Lena Lidfors

Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of

Agricultural Sciences, P.O.Box 234, SE-532 23 Skara, Sweden, e-mail:

lena.lidfors@slu.se

Michala Melišová

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 00 Prague –

Uhříněves, Czech Republic, e-mail: melisovam@centrum.cz

Susann Meyer

Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Dummerstorf, Germany, e-mail:

s.meyer@fbn-dummerstorf.de

49

Kristýna Neuhauserová

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech

Republic, e-mail:neuhauserova.k@seznam.cz

Katarína Pichová

Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences,

Moyzesova 61, 90028 Ivanka pri Dunaji, e-mail: pichovak@gmail.com

Wojciech Pisula

Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, e-mail:

wojciech.pisula@gmail.com

Andrea Prágai

International Development and Tropical Department, Szent István

University, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Páter Károly

u. 1., H-2100 Gödöllı, Hungary, e-mail: bodnar.akos@mkk.szie.hu

David Reby

School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

e-mail: reby@sussex.ac.uk

Lars Schrader

Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry, Friedrich-Loeffler-

Institut, Doernbergstr. 25/27, D-29223 Celle, e-mail:

lars.schrader@fli.bund.de

Heike Schulze Westerath

ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Animal Behaviour, Health

and Welfare Unit, Universitaetsstrasse 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland, e-mail:

heike-westerath@ethz.ch

Fehim Smajlhodzic

Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary

Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, e-mail:

Fehim.Smajlhodzic@vetmeduni.ac.at

50

Mairi Stewart

AgResearch, New Zealand, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123,

Hamilton 3240, New Zealand, e-mail: mairi.stewart@agresearch.co.nz

Ilona Stěhulová

Institute of Animal Science, Department of Ethology, Prátelství 815, Praha

10 – Uhříněves, 10400, e-mail: stehulova.ilona@vuzv.cz

Radka Šárová

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, P.O.Box 1, Praha 10 -

Uhrineves, 104 01, Czech Republic, e-mail: sarova.radka@vuzv.cz

Jitka Šilerová

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech

Republic, e-mail: jsilerova@atlas.cz

Marek Špinka

Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czechia, e-

mail: spinka@vuzv.cz

Dayane Lemos Teixeira

University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Spain, e-mail:

dadaylt@hotmail.com

Borbála Turcsán

Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/c, 1117,

Budapest, Hungary, e-mail: borbala.turcsan@gmail.com

Kathrin Wagner

Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary

Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria, e-mail:

Kathrin.Wagner@vetmeduni.ac.at

51

Ines Windschnurer

Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary

Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210, e-mail:

Ines.Windschnurer@vetmeduni.ac.at