RELIABILITY OF QUALITATIVE BEHAVIOUR ASSESSMENT IN A COW-CALF CONTACT SYSTEM
EAST CENTRAL/EAST AND SOUTH EUROPE ISAE REGIONAL MEETING 2025, Sofija, Bulgaristan, 24 - 26 Haziran 2025, ss.18, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Sofija
- Basıldığı Ülke: Bulgaristan
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.18
- Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
In recent years cow-calf contact (CCC) systems gained increasing attention as alternatives to the conventional early separation thanks to their potential positive effect on the welfare of both cows and calves. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation and inter-observer reliability (IOR) of Qualitative Behavior Assessment (QBA) in assessing dairy cows' attitudes and emotions during the CCC phase. Five observers underwent comprehensive online training to ensure consistent QBA. They were a team with different backgrounds and levels of study. The meetings were held between May and June 2024 through videoconferencing tools. The first session aimed at familiarizing with the fixed list of terms and assessment method to reach consensus among the observers on the precise meaning of each term. A fixed list of 14 terms published in a previous study on maternal protective behaviour (Ceballos et al., Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci, 0168:1591, 2021) was used. After in-depth discussion and precise description of the terms, the assessors started QBA application on 18 short videos recorded in CCC contexts, using a 125 mm visual analogue scale (VAS). Before starting the observations, observers agreed on the focal animal. In case of disagreement on the assigned scores, a discussion was started aimed at understanding the reasons for the divergences, thus encouraging a new reflection on the terms whose meaning was not yet perceived in a uniform way. The scores of QBA attributed by observers during each session were summarized through Principal Component (PC) analysis and the first two principal components (PC1 representing activity and PC2 mood and caring) were used for the IOR. After the training sessions were completed, the assessors conducted joint on-farm observations of 10 Italian Friesian cows at approximately 7 days post-partum while with their calf. Results showed that IOR, calculated through intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, 95% CI) was reached after 3 training sessions. It improved from moderate to high agreement for PC1 during training (ICC=0.55, 0.14-0.81) and after training at on-farm assessments (ICC=0.85, 0.60-0.96). For PC2 the agreement reached during training was high (ICC=0.84, 0.68-0.93) but moderate during on-farm assessments (ICC=0.60, 0.05-0.89). The online training allowed consensus among observers and improved for the component dealing with activity whereas the reached agreement did not stay high during on-farm assessment for the component representing mood and caring. It would be important therefore to have continuous peer feedback to keep high agreement and initial on-farm trainings in these specific contexts.