Stroking of different body regions by a human: Effects on behaviour and heart rate of dairy cows

Abstract 

From observations of intra-specific social grooming in cattle and studies on human stroking in other species, we hypothesised that cows’ reactions to human stroking differ depending on the body regions being stroked. Moreover, we tested, whether cows ‘reactions to stroking change with the animals’ experience of stroking.

Sixty dairy cows were stroked in three different body regions, i.e. the withers, W, neck ventral, NV (both licked often in social grooming) and the lateral chest, LC (licked rarely), in a balanced order during 10-min sessions. Behavioural reactions and heart rate during stroking as well as reactions to the human just after stroking were recorded. Two test sessions were carried out with 3 weeks of treatment in-between. During this period, the cows were randomly allocated to four treatment groups: three groups received 5min of daily stroking in either W, NV or LC and the last one (control group) was exposed to simple human presence.

During stroking W and NV, cows showed longer neck stretching and ear hanging than during stroking LC (P<0.001). Moreover, ear hanging was shown longer when W was stroked as compared to NV (P<0.001), but neck stretching was observed longer during stroking NV as compared to W only after the treatment period (P<0.01). In the first test session, more animals showed head shaking and head throwing during stroking W and NV than LC (P<0.01), whereas in the second test session these behaviours were observed only in few animals. In the first test session heart rate was higher during stroking W than the other body regions (P≤0.01). In the second test session, the lowest heart rate was found during stroking NV (P<0.05). Finally, contact with the experimenter following stroking differed for the three body regions stroked in both test sessions (first: P=0.06, second: P<0.01); contact was shortest for LC. When comparing both test sessions, stretching the neck and ear hanging increased (P<0.001), while head shaking and head throwing decreased (P<0.05); there was no difference for heart rate and contact with the experimenter. The four treatments had no influence on reactions to stroking.

To conclude, stroking of body regions often licked during social grooming led to more responses than stroking the one licked rarely. Some reactions, such as stretching the neck, are also observed during social licking. This suggests that cows may in part perceive human stroking of body regions often licked similarly to social licking. This knowledge could be of interest for an improvement in quality of human–cattle interactions.

Keywords: Cattle, Tactile stimulation, Human–animal relationship, Social licking