Human-animal(Cow) interactions and Handling

An increase of big farms is occurring all around the world which causes an increase in the number of animals per handler, aiming for increased working time productivity. Together with today’s automatic milking and feeding systems this will cause a reduced human-animal interaction. But there are handling procedures that is still needed in a dairy cow herd, e.g. dehorning, ear-tagging, transportation, medical treatments and re-grouping. Therefore the interactions between animal and handler are of increasing interest and significance with regard to animal welfare and productivity within the modern dairy production.

Human-animal interaction, here cattle, can be divided in positive and negative interactions where positive interactions include touching and calm talk, while negative interaction include hitting or shouting. It is of great importance to have a positive human-animal interaction as handling of animals affects their productivity and welfare, characteristics of the handler such as emotional stableness, confidence and consistence as well as showing no aggression, have a positive effect on the human-animal interaction. Negative interactions might expose the animals for a series of physiological stress responses. Cattle might not only experience fear towards humans, but also towards other environmental factors such as introducing of new surroundings and isolation from conspecifics can cause fearfulness in the animals and because of this, a reduced milk yield.

Human-animal interaction and the physiological reactions in the cow

The animal utilizes three different biological responses to cope with unfamiliar and potentially threatening or painful stimuli..

1. The autonomic, 2.The neuroendocrine , 3.The behavioural response .

The autonomic and neuroendocrine systems’ roles are to prepare the body for the stressor, e.g. increase the heart rate. The sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system function as an emergency system and releases energy rapidly, while the parasympathetic part restore energy and prepare for a sudden energy release. These “fight- and flight responses” only last for a short period of time. If a stressor continues, the response becomes a long-term or a chronic stress response, and reduces the animal’s reproduction ability, immune function and nutrient uptake.The heart rate of the cow during milking increases in the presence of a handler. Moreover, if an animal show great fear of humans, human presence will initiate responses that include release of catecholamines, for instance epinephrine or norepinephrine, from the adrenal medulla to prepare the animal for avoidance or escape responses.

By : Dr. Sohail Basharat