engleski

Can life experience reduce stress of early weaning in cows?

Early weaning is one of the prominent problems of animal welfare in the dairy industry, whereby calves are separated from their mothers immediately or in the first hours after calving for the purpose of greater milk production. Stress caused by early weaning can result in decreased immunity and increased risk of diseases, as well as behavioural disorders that can be manifested throughout the animal life. The response to stress in general involves three stages - alarm reaction, adaptation, and exhaustion stage. Since cortisol is the end-product of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal gland, or the result of an acute stress response, it is quite understandable that increased cortisol levels have been found in cattle after early weaning. Weaning in cattle, unlike pigs or rats, is specific because the calf is physically separated from the mother, but continues to receive milk (or milk replacer). This is the reason why stress due to separation from the mother can be investigated separately from the stress due to the transition from liquid to solid food. Relatively little is known about how maternal alert signals develop in farm animals and how they are affected by changes in breeding conditions. The aim of the study was to determine whether there are differences in stress response caused by early weaning in cows of different age groups.

early weaning, dairy, stress, age

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