Cellier, Marjorie; Shepley, Elise; Aigueperse, Nadège; Robichaud, Marianne Villettaz; Vasseur, Elsa
Enhancing movement opportunity to support behavioral needs for movement-restricted cattle through different conditions of access to exercise Article de journal
Dans: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no 1, p. 5917, 2025, ISSN: 2045-2322.
Résumé | Liens | BibTeX | Étiquettes: Animal behaviour, Zoology
@article{cellier_enhancing_2025,
title = {Enhancing movement opportunity to support behavioral needs for movement-restricted cattle through different conditions of access to exercise},
author = {Marjorie Cellier and Elise Shepley and Nadège Aigueperse and Marianne Villettaz Robichaud and Elsa Vasseur},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-89891-4},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-025-89891-4},
issn = {2045-2322},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-02-01},
urldate = {2025-03-06},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {5917},
abstract = {Intensification in animal production has led to increased indoor confinement for animals, limiting opportunities to meet some behavioral needs such as exploration and locomotion. This poses a crucial question as to how these restrictions can be alleviated by providing additional space designed with that specific purpose in mind. Working with cows housed in tie-stalls, our study aimed to: (1) quantify how providing an exercise area outside the normal housing environment affects locomotor behavior; (2) evaluate how exercise access conditions can contribute to increase locomotor benefits for animals; (3) investigate cows’ time budgets during exercise access. Six trials involving different exercise access conditions (indoor vs. outdoor, outing duration, exercise area size, type of ground surface) enrolled 141 tie-stall-housed lactating Holsteins. A meta-analysis compared daily steps for exercise vs. non-exercise treatments, while generalized linear mixed models determined exercise conditions’ impact on daily steps. Providing 1-hour exercise access increased daily steps by 53% (304 more steps), influenced by type of access (167 more steps outdoor vs. indoor), larger space (146 more steps) and longer outings (84 more steps). Cows spent 50–85% of exercise time idle, exploring (5–20%) and socializing (5%). Our results highlight the significant impact of 1 h daily exercise on tied cattle.},
keywords = {Animal behaviour, Zoology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Intensification in animal production has led to increased indoor confinement for animals, limiting opportunities to meet some behavioral needs such as exploration and locomotion. This poses a crucial question as to how these restrictions can be alleviated by providing additional space designed with that specific purpose in mind. Working with cows housed in tie-stalls, our study aimed to: (1) quantify how providing an exercise area outside the normal housing environment affects locomotor behavior; (2) evaluate how exercise access conditions can contribute to increase locomotor benefits for animals; (3) investigate cows’ time budgets during exercise access. Six trials involving different exercise access conditions (indoor vs. outdoor, outing duration, exercise area size, type of ground surface) enrolled 141 tie-stall-housed lactating Holsteins. A meta-analysis compared daily steps for exercise vs. non-exercise treatments, while generalized linear mixed models determined exercise conditions’ impact on daily steps. Providing 1-hour exercise access increased daily steps by 53% (304 more steps), influenced by type of access (167 more steps outdoor vs. indoor), larger space (146 more steps) and longer outings (84 more steps). Cows spent 50–85% of exercise time idle, exploring (5–20%) and socializing (5%). Our results highlight the significant impact of 1 h daily exercise on tied cattle.