We conducted a Phenome-Wide Association Study (PheWAS) to investigate whether alleles previously shown to be associated with problem behaviors in Labrador Retrievers from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) odor detection program also show behavioral associations in other populations. The original TSA cohort (2002–2013) consisted of dogs from a former breeding program that drew from U.S. commercial sources and the Australian Customs Service. While those data included TSA testing results from the foster period, detailed behavior profiles and reasons for elimination from the program were not recorded. To extend and validate these genetic associations in populations with richer behavioral data, we analyzed three additional Labrador Retriever cohorts with both genotype and C-BARQ behavioral questionnaire data: (1) Australian pet dogs, (2) UK dogs from a mixed pet and working background (primarily gamebird retrieving), and (3) U.S. working guide dogs. This analysis identified a total of 15 associations between 12 behavioral traits and 8 markers at 6 genome loci. Notably, we found four types of aggression and one type of fear that are directed at familiar humans or dogs, but none directed at unfamiliar ones. Other problem traits identified include separation-related behaviors, excitability, and chasing small animals. Furthermore, we utilized whole genome sequencing to identify a functional candidate associated with “aggression when approached by a household dog at a favorite resting place”. We propose this variant in an ADAMTSL1 intron results in the loss of TCF7L1 protein binding, and we highlight the evolutionary history of that conserved element, including the fixation of two mutations in the human lineage. Our PheWAS findings suggest relevance to working dog selection, breeding, and training, presenting opportunities to reduce costs while improving performance and resilience.

Dairy farming systems adopting prolonged cow–calf contact (CCC; where calves can suckle a cow (their dam or a foster cow) for all, or a substantial part, of the milk-feeding period) are gaining attention due to growing concerns about animal welfare, ethical considerations, and better alignment with societal values. However, CCC systems can be managed in various ways, including continuous (whole-day) or scheduled part-time contact, full or partial physical contact, and dam or foster-cow rearing. The CCC management practices can impact cow and calf welfare, performance and societal perceptions differently. This systematic review synthesises findings from 60 studies across five continents, comparing the effects of CCC systems on animal welfare, performance, and economics, as well as examining how dairy stakeholders perceive CCC. Peer-reviewed, published articles, written in English, directly comparing the effects of CCC systems in which calf and dam, or foster cow, are kept together for at least two weeks post-partum on one or more of the aforementioned four fields on either dairy cattle or water buffalo were eligible for inclusion. No single CCC management emerged as consistently superior in terms of animal welfare, but for many aspects of CCC the research is scarse. Maternal motivation to access calves appeared unaffected by daily contact duration, but reduced contact reduced the quantity of maternal care in terms of nursing and grooming, which may pose a welfare challenge. Behavioural responses to weaning and separation appeared more influenced by separation management and calves’ nutritional dependence than by daily contact duration. Regarding performance, suckling compared to CCC without suckling commonly conferred an early growth advantage that typically diminished later in rearing, consistent with compensatory growth. For cows, CCC reduced machine-harvested milk because milk was redirected to calves; part-time management often increased milk available from machine milking after no-contact periods, but incomplete milk ejection remained a challenge. Economic comparisons between CCC regimens were not found. Evidence on stakeholders’ perceptions showed strong public preference for systems avoiding early separation and substantial willingness-to-pay for CCC products in some contexts, whereas farmers reported both intrinsic motivation and practical challenges, notably separation distress, housing and space limitations, and reduced saleable milk. Despite the growing body of literature on CCC, comparisons of dam vs. foster-cow rearing are scarse, few studies directly compared various CCC systems with dams, and methodological inconsistencies limit generalisability. Overall, CCC can support key aspects of natural maternal behaviour and calf development, but outcomes are context-dependent and affects milk harvest, and practical challenges for implementation exists. Future work should prioritise controlled, longitudinal and economically informed comparisons across various CCC systems, supported by standardised reporting to improve reproducibility and synthesis.

In recent years, technology advancements and miniaturisation of sensors have made it possible to develop management systems mounted on ear-tags but the development of these systems has not focussed specifically on younger calves, and has rarely documented the impact of device shape, size, and material on calf ear injury and position. The current paper documents the steps taken to develop a “smart” ear-tag, reporting these impacts. To achieve this, a series of bench tests (phase 1), expert assessments and four animal experiments were conducted. Selected from phase 1, five shapes were tested in phase 2 on five calves, and suitability for the intended purpose assessed, alongside maximum tag weight (8 calves) and anatomical placement of the tag (6 calves). Finally, a longer-term assessment was conducted using the best prototype attached to 14 calves (phase 3). The optimum tag was a 20 g coin-cell shaped female receiver tag, made of polycarbonate-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC-ABS) and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) mixed material, placed in the inner third of the ear, between the two auricular ridges. This specific shape and weight presented minimal ear-droop and the highest retention rate.

Bovine respiratory disease is widespread, costly to the industry and has lifelong impacts. Its detection can be time consuming, and it is difficult to detect early. This study evaluated machine learning techniques using integrated data to accurately predict bovine respiratory disease in pre‑weaned calves. A total of 118 calves were monitored during their pre-weaning period (9 days ± 0.2 to 54 days ±0.3) with 100 calves included in the dataset. A newly developed management ear-tag for calf, alongside automatic feeder data, pedometer and daily environmental information were used against a gold standard daily health assessment (Wisconsin score), to build a bovine respiratory disease detection model. This study explored different machine learning modelling techniques (random forest, K-nearest neighbours, support vector machine, catboost) as well as paired-combinations of their outputs. To assess the efficacy of the modelling techniques two metrics were used: accuracy of predictions (alerts generated from the model) and accuracy of disease detection (correctly identified disease events). Individually, support vector machine and catboost were found to provide the best balance between these two metrics where 56% to 60% of the alerts aligned with a disease day and 56% to 62% of the disease events were correctly identified. The best-balanced combination was catboost and support vector machine (56% of correct alerts and 76% correctly identified disease events), but highest results were obtained by different techniques and combinations. This study demonstrated that the integration of multiple data sources and different machine learning techniques provide a viable early disease detection model in calves.

Initial periods of life, beginning before birth and lasting until weaning are characterised by the greatest neural plasticity. Early postnatal stress causes lasting changes in a variety of behaviours as well as stress reactivity. Cow-calf contact for an extended period is believed to improve the social skills of calves and has also been linked to improved productivity of mothers. This research was carried out to investigate the impact of weaning stress on the growth, behaviour and performance of Sahiwal cows and their calves. For this, 32 healthy cows and their calves were selected from the Sahiwal herd of the Livestock Research Centre, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute. They were grouped equally into two groups of 16 cow-calf pairs, which became the treatment groups (i.e., 'Fenceline' contact and 'Separated' groups). Calves in the fenceline contact group were allowed to suckle during the morning and evening milking and were housed together with fenceline separation. In the separated group, calves were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and fed colostrum and milk with a bottle throughout the experiment. Each calf was monitored for its growth and behavioural responses while cows were monitored for their production performance and behaviour. The results showed that growth and behaviour responses were better for fenceline calves compared to separated calves and also production performance and behaviour of Sahiwal cows provided with fenceline contact were better when compared to separated cows. From this study, it was concluded that fenceline cow-calf contact improved growth, behavioural response of calves; and production performance and behaviour of cows compared to separated cows and calves.

We aimed to assess the impact of early life housing and play experiences on neonatal and weaned calves play behavior. A total of 96 female dairy calves were recruited from four Scottish dairy farms and assigned to individual (n = 48), paired (n = 24) or group (n = 24) housing at birth. Play behavior was measured using IceTag accelerometers (Peacock Technology, UK) during two experimental periods in the same cohort of calves, at neonatal and weaned stages. A mixed-effects negative binomial regression analysis was used to assess how early social housing influences the play behavior of neonatal and weaned calves. The analysis also considered the impact of early play on the play behavior of weaned calves. Calves housed in paired or group pens from birth performed significantly more neonatal play compared to calves housed individually from birth. No lasting effect of early life housing on weaned calf play behavior was observed. There was no correlation between counts of neonatal and weaned calf play. Calves with lower neonatal playfulness showed a numerical increase in play behavior after weaning compared to those with higher neonatal playfulness. These findings add to the growing body of literature indicating that early life social housing provides a more positive welfare experience for pre-weaned dairy calves. The study also highlights the need for future research to understand the impact of rearing experiences and different management systems on play behavior in weaned calves.

This study aimed to identify if sensor technology could be used to detect sickness-type signs (caused by a live vaccine) in laying hens compared to physiological and clinical sign scoring and behaviour observation. The experiment comprised 5 replicate batches (4 hens and 12 days per batch) using previously non-vaccinated hens (n = 20). Hens were moved on day 1 to a large experimental room with various designated zones (e.g., litter, perches, nest box), where they wore two sensors (FitBark, TrackLab). Saline was applied using ocular and nasal drops on day 3 as a control. A live vaccine (Infectious Laryngotracheitis, ILT, vaccine), applied using the same method on day 6, was used to induce mild respiratory and other responses. Physiological and clinical signs, and behaviour from videos were also recorded by a single observer. There were significant changes in body weight (p < 0.001), feed intake (p = 0.031), cloacal temperature (p < 0.001) and three out of five clinical signs (ocular discharge (p < 0.001), conjunctivitis (p < 0.001) and depression (p = 0.009)) over days. A significant decrease (p < 0.001) in activity level (FitBark) and distance travelled (both sensors) were identified over the study days, and activity and distance travelled were highly significantly associated (p < 0.001) with total clinical scores, with hens showing reduced activity and distance travelled with worsening total clinical scores. With behaviour observations from videos, the proportions of sitting, foraging and feeding behaviours (p = 0.044, 0.036 and 0.004, respectively), the proportion of total visit duration to the litter zone (p < 0.001) and perch (p = 0.037) with TrackLab and the proportions of visit counts of hens in the litter zone (p = 0.012) from video scanning changed significantly with days. This study suggests that the vaccine challenge caused associated changes in clinical/physiological signs and activity/distance travelled data from the sensors. Sensors may have a role in detecting changes in activity and movement in individual hens indicative of health or welfare problems.

Prolonged cow-calf contact (CCC) is of growing importance to the dairy sector due to increasing societal interest, implementation of CCC on farms, and research efforts. Incorporating CCC into dairy systems may be a polarizing change for academics and farmers. However, by considering the challenges with curiosity, including those mutual to CCC and non-CCC systems, there may be an opportunity to collectively improve the management of dairy animals. The aim of this review was to describe current issues and constraints in CCC, propose opportunities to advance knowledge of CCC, and inspire forward-thinking questions for dairy systems. There are known challenges for CCC implementation, such as research reproducibility (e.g., suitable controls, validity types) and on-farm application (e.g., farmer perspectives, policies, and corporate standards). To facilitate practical solutions for farmers wanting to adopt CCC we need research describing the effects of CCC systems on animal health and behavior. Already researchers have begun to explore cow and calf performance and health, methods for decreasing stress at weaning and separation (e.g., duration of contact, gradual weaning), foster cows, and opportunities for positive animal welfare in CCC systems (e.g., affiliative and play behavior). However, because dairying takes place in a complex system, changes may affect different facets of the system's sustainability. We suggest that the development of CCC systems should happen in dialog with stakeholders. Cow-calf contact is an uncommon practice in dairy systems and exists in different contexts; thus, there are many questions to address before advice can be given to interested dairy stakeholders. Perhaps, these CCC-related questions are an invitation to contemplate how we want dairy systems to look like in 30 years.

Methods for assessing dairy cattle welfare, such as the gold standard Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA), require training and are time consuming in a sector facing labour constraints and staffing shortages. This research explores whether automated measurements from existing animal-mounted sensors can be used as a basis for objective welfare assessment in dairy cattle, supporting consumer, processor and farmer needs by demonstrating positive welfare on farm. Data (mean standing and lying duration, mean standing and lying bout frequency, mean standing and lying bout duration, mean maximum standing and lying bout duration, mean lying and standing bout frequency, mean step count) were acquired from commercially available ankle-mounted accelerometers intended for oestrus detection and compared to 20 QBA metrics from 107 animals at pasture and during housing on four dairy farms. Our analysis showed that sensor data was significantly correlated with QBA data, suggesting that sensor data can be used to accurately characterise animal behaviour. Although sensor data was influenced by location (housed and pasture), data obtained from ankle-mounted pedometers showed high accuracy (61

The increased uptake of sensor technologies and precision farming tools for the dairy cattle sector is enabling real-time monitoring of animal health, welfare, and productivity. These digital advancements provide high-frequency, objective, and large-scale phenotypic data for breeding purposes. This review explores the potential of sensor-derived data to improve genetic and genomic evaluations in dairy cattle and outlines key challenges, opportunities, and approaches associated with their implementation. While these data streams have great potential for genetic evaluations, their integration into national and international breeding programs remains limited due to fragmentation across sensor brands, lack of standardization, and challenges related to data accessibility, data access and portability rights, business interests, and governance. A crucial aspect of leveraging digital technologies in dairy cattle breeding is data harmonization and integration. We highlight the importance of establishing standardized data collection and data sharing protocols, implementing robust quality control and data cleaning methodologies, as well as defining novel sensor-based traits and estimating their genetic background. In this context, we compiled heritability estimates for novel traits derived from data recorded by sensors and other technologies in dairy cattle populations. The development of phenomics in breeding programs, which involves integrating multisource data-including sensor-based, genomic, and management information-will be key to accelerating genetic progress, especially for traits related to animal welfare, health, resilience, and efficiency. This review presents a roadmap for the effective use of sensor-derived data in genetic evaluations, advocating for centralized data infrastructures, transparent data-sharing agreements, and the role of different stakeholders from academia and industry, including organizations such as the International Committee on Animal Recording (ICAR) in establishing global standards and guidelines. By addressing these challenges, dairy breeding programs can fully harness precision dairy farming technologies to enhance production and environmental efficiency, improve animal health and welfare, and drive sustainable genetic advancements in the dairy cattle sector.

Mobility is an essential aspect of a dog's daily life. It is defined as the ability to move freely and easily and deviations from an animals' normal mobility capabilities are often an indicator of disease, injury or pain. When a dog's mobility is compromised, often functionality (ability to perform activities of daily living [ADL]), is also impeded, which can diminish an animal's quality of life. Given this, it is necessary to understand the extent to which conditions impact a dog's physiological ability to move around their environment to carry out ADL, a concept termed functional mobility. In contrast to human medicine, validated measures of canine functional mobility are currently limited. The aim of this review is to summarise the extent to which canine mobility and functionality are associated with various diseases and how mobility and functional mobility are currently assessed within veterinary medicine. Future work should focus on developing a standardised method of assessing functional mobility in dogs, which can contextualise how a wide range of conditions impact a dog's daily life. However, for a true functional mobility assessment to be developed, a greater understanding of what activities dogs do on a daily basis and movements underpinning these activities must first be established.

Lameness, an animal welfare and profitability related problem in dairy industry, was evaluated on 126 multiparous Estonian Holstein cows on a 5-point scale; score three or above indicated lameness. Milk samples of the cows were analysed for basic composition, content of mineral elements, fatty acid (FA) profile and coagulation properties (MCP). Lame cows had lower milk yield and a lower milk protein and milk fat yield compared to non-lame cows. MCP and content of mineral elements were not affected by lameness. The concentrations of most individual milk FA, their groups formed by chain length, degree of saturation or by origin were not affected by the lameness. Lameness was associated with a higher concentration of odd- and branched-chain fatty acids and C18:0. Milk from lame cows is suitable for consumers as lameness did not impair nutritional value nor MCP of the milk.

Neonatal calf diarrhea is a frequent disease of calves and may result in dehydration and metabolic acidosis. The disease causes mortality and reduces growth and future productivity. Early identification of disease improves calf outcomes and thus there is increasing interest in technological methods for detecting disease. Dehydration leads to the blood becoming more concentrated and this can be measured using serum osmolality. Research in humans has shown that saliva conductivity is correlated with serum osmolality. Saliva conductivity may therefore offer a non-invasive opportunity to assess hydration status in calves. Furthermore, as blood pH is a prognostic indicator and there is ion exchange in the salivary ducts, saliva pH may act as an indicator of metabolic acidosis. This observational study aimed to assess the relationship of saliva conductivity and pH with the clinical and biochemical parameters of calves suffering from neonatal calf diarrhea. One hundred and forty-one dairy-bred calves were recruited onto the study at approximately 1 week of age. The health of the calves was assessed daily. Calves had blood and saliva samples taken weekly until 25 days of age or the development of neonatal calf diarrhea. When calves developed diarrhea, they were sampled for three consecutive days. Hematocrit, plasma total protein, saliva pH and saliva conductivity were measured at each sampling. Saliva pH and saliva conductivity were measured using portable meters (LAQUAtwin-pH-33 and LAQUAtwin-EC22). In a subset of 30 matched samples, serum proteins and electrolytes were also measured. Saliva conductivity was not associated with diarrhea or dehydration. Saliva pH was lower in calves with diarrhea, regardless of hydration status. The Lin’s concordance correlation coefficients between saliva variables and hematocrit and strong ion difference were negligible. Dehydrated calves with diarrhea had a higher hematocrit and albumin and the lowest sodium and SID. Calves with diarrhea and no dehydration had a lower plasma total protein. While saliva conductivity has been associated with measures of dehydration in humans, this does not appear to be the case in calves. Saliva pH has not previously been considered for disease detection; however as it is associated with diarrhea, further research is warranted.

This research paper describes a validation study evaluating the ability of IceTag accelerometers (Peacock Technology, UK) to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves. Play behaviour is commonly observed in young animals and is regarded as an indicator of positive welfare states. Eight Holstein Friesian calves aged three to five months old were monitored using leg-mounted accelerometers for 48 h. Data generated by accelerometers to quantify calf activity included step count, lying times and a proprietary measure of overall activity termed 'motion index' (MI). Calf behaviour was filmed continuously over the same 48-h period using closed circuit television cameras and analysed using one-zero sampling to identify the presence (1) or absence (0) of play within each 15-min time period. A positive correlation between MI and visually recorded play was found. Visual observations were compared with accelerometer-generated data and analysed using 2 x 2 contingency tables and classification and regression tree analysis. A MI value of >= 69 was established as the optimum threshold to detect play behaviour (sensitivity = 94.4%; specificity = 93.6%; balanced accuracy = 94.0%). The results of this study suggest that accelerometer-generated MI data have the potential to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves in a more time efficient manner than traditional visual observations.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a major welfare and productivity issue for calves. Despite the extensive negative impacts on calf welfare and performance, BRD remains challenging to detect and treat effectively. However, the clinical signs of disease are only one aspect of the disease that is experienced by the individual. The assessment of emotional experience in animals is not straightforward, but it is increasingly recognised that the quality of behaviour and demeanour of an individual is a reflection of their internal emotional state. The aim of the present study was to complete the content validation stage of the development process for a health-related quality of life (HRQOL) tool. This was based around indicators from an existing conceptual framework containing twenty-three indicators in two domains (clinical signs and behavioural expression). The content validation stage involves engaging with key stakeholders. For this study, this took the form of a survey and discussions with focus groups, which are standard methods in this field. A survey and stakeholder focus groups were conducted to assess the usefulness of each indicator and its relevance for inclusion within a HRQOL tool. In the survey, participants were asked to rate the usefulness of each of the indicators using a 4-point scale which were then dichotomised into ‘useful’ and ‘less useful’. Based on the ‘useful’ result, each indicator within the domains was ranked. A similar approach was taken with the responses from the focus groups. Focus group participants were asked to select indicators that they felt were of use and the result of this was used to rank each of the indicators. The ranks of the indicators from both the survey and the focus groups along with the transcripts from the focus groups were used to determine the indicators from each domain to include within the HRQOL tool. Indicators within the clinical signs domain that were included were nasal discharge, cough, respiratory effort, ocular appearance (discharge and vibrancy), body and head posture and ear carriage. For the domain of behavioural expression, the indicators included were movement to feed, responsiveness, spatial proximity, volume of feed intake, motivation at feed and vigour. The next stage will be to validate the construction of the HRQOL tool through its use in practice. The inclusion of indicators that allow the experiential aspects of disease to be recorded in health assessments will likely increase the ability of farmers and others to detect respiratory disease in calves.

Technology-derived behaviors are researched for disease detection in artificially-reared calves. Whilst existing studies demonstrate differences in behaviors between healthy and diseased calves, intrinsic calf factors (e.g., sex and birthweight) that may affect these behaviors have received little systematic study. This study aimed to understand the impact of a range of calf factors on milk feeding and activity variables of dairy-bred calves. Calves were group-housed from ~7 days to 39 days of age. Seven liters of milk replacer was available daily from an automatic milk feeder, which recorded feeding behaviors and live-weight. Calves were health scored daily and a tri-axial accelerometer used to record activity variables. Healthy calves were selected by excluding data collected 3 days either side of a poor health score or a treatment event. Thirty-one calves with 10 days each were analyzed. Mixed models were used to identify which of live-weight, age, sex, season of birth, age of inclusion into the group, dam parity, birthweight, and sire breed type (beef or dairy), had a significant influence on milk feeding and activity variables. Heavier calves visited the milk machine more frequently for shorter visits, drank faster and were more likely to drink their daily milk allowance than lighter calves. Older calves had a shorter mean standing bout length and were less active than younger calves. Calves born in summer had a longer daily lying time, performed more lying and standing bouts/day and had shorter mean standing bouts than those born in autumn or winter. Male calves had a longer mean lying bout length, drank more slowly and were less likely to consume their daily milk allowance than their female counterparts. Calves that were born heavier had fewer lying and standing bouts each day, a longer mean standing bout length and drank less milk per visit. Beef-sired calves had a longer mean lying bout length and drank more slowly than their dairy sired counterparts. Intrinsic calf factors influence different healthy calf behaviors in different ways. These factors must be considered in the design of research studies and the field application of behavior-based disease detection tools in artificially reared calves.

The only common European Union (EU) legislation set up specifically to ensure the welfare of dairy cattle is for calves. As a consequence, there is wide diversity in how dairy cattle welfare is ensured in EU countries. A few countries have legal requirements for dairy cattle welfare, while in others, it is left to industry standards or niche production requirements, typically linked to various premium labels. In this paper, we compared animal welfare provisions in dairy cattle production across five countries with different combinations of legislative and other approaches: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Firstly, we aimed to map the diversity of animal welfare initiatives. Secondly, we used the Benchmark method of expert valuations and weightings of the relative importance of individual welfare provisions. We found that Denmark and Sweden have the highest level of dairy cattle welfare provisions as measured by the Benchmark method, partly due to high legislative welfare requirements, followed by the United Kingdom, which has an extensive industry standard with very high uptake. Germany and the Netherlands, on the other hand, have lower levels of documented welfare provisions, and correspondingly a Benchmark score closer to a baseline defined by legal requirements at EU level. We also found differences in what elements of animal welfare were focussed on. Some initiatives emphasised fulfilling the social needs of cattle, while others focused more on space and freedom to move. Also, the countries with the highest Benchmark score had a relatively high level of production of organic and other specialty dairy products. We found the effect of national legislation or ambitious industry standards on dairy cattle welfare to be much larger than previous studies have found in either pigs or poultry. At a time when the EU is considering stepping up its efforts to improve animal welfare in terms of common minimum standards, the results of this study could have important policy implications. The diversity in the level of dairy cattle welfare standards found across countries may speak in favour of having shared minimum standards, both at EU level and globally. However, even among countries with a similar Benchmark score, we found a difference in the kinds of welfare provisions at work, which may make full harmonisation of standards more challenging.