Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Activities  " Collaboration between U Minnesota and UCDavis (Tucker) - Additional statistical analyses were conducted on a study to evaluate accurate sample size for outcome-based dairy welfare assessments and audits. " A study in MN is evaluating the association of social, resting and feeding behavior during the prepartum period with health and production of early lactation dairy cows. " Research is concluding on USDA AFRI (2009, J Siegford, J Swanson et al) on developing a sensor to monitor laying hen activity and resource use " Research is underway on large comparative housing commercial laying hen project (2010, D Karcher et alincluding J Siegford & J Swanson) at Michigan State University. " Research is concluding on evaluating health and behavior of dairy cows on pasture during transition (J Siegford & E Karcher, 2010) at MSU " J Swansons (MSU) PhD student is starting work examining fear and feather pecking in turkeys " J Siegford (MSU) is completing research correlating behavior, temperament traits, meat quality and phenotype in cattle with colleagues at MSU " J Siegfords (MSU) MS student examined the impact of milking frequency and pasture on immune, metabolic and behavioral responses during the transition period " J Siegfords (MSU) 2nd MS student is examining the impact of stall and feed rail stocking rate on dairy cows milked by automatic milking systems " C Heleskis (MSU) PhD student (co-mentored with Professor Hilary Clayton) is concluding research on cervical pain and riding in horses; another PhD student (Camie is on her committee) is concluding research on aggressive riding behaviors by some youth involved with barrel racing activities " J Siegford (MSU) received a grants with colleagues at Purdue, USDA ARS and Ohio State to pursue research on group housing of sows " C Tucker (UC Davis) and her PhD student, Eranda Rajapaksha, have made progress using muscle activity (as measured by EMG) to evaluate the comfort of standing surfaces for dairy cattle. They have found that cattle shift their weight and use more muscle acitivity when discomfort is under a single hoof; discomfort under all 4 hooves remains difficult to assess. " The UC Davis station (Mench) is using the Welfare Quality Assessment tool in two commercial-scale projects: 1. Joint with MSU (Siegford, Swanson)  comparing aviary, conventional cage, and enriched colony 2. Joint with ISU (Millman)  comparing organic and conventional non-cage laying flocks in CA and IA In both cases, the UC Davis station (Mench) is validating and refining the tool. Data are still being collected; both are long-term studies and the second is epidemiological. However, some aspects of validation are: 1. The WQ fear tests are not valid for comparing fear responses in different systems because they have to be measured in different ways that means that they are confounded by other motivational states  for example, for the novel object test the object is placed in the feeder for caged hens but on the floor for non-cage hens. We have conducted the tests in different locations in the different systems and at different times of day and will present results after our final data collection this month 2. The WQ feather scoring system is too restricted to capture meaningful differences across systems; we are refining it to capture those differences 3. The WQ beak-scoring system in not adequate to differentiate between relatively minor beak problems and those that actually impair function  this is also being refined Outputs  " A manuscript on the results of the sampling evaluation study (collaboration between U Minnesota and UCDavis) is in final preparation to be submitted to the Journal of Dairy Science (submitted Sept 6, 2013). " One graduate student from U Minnesota working on a study on the effect of dry cow grouping strategies on health of early lactation cows graduated December 2012. " Various abstracts from U Minnesota were presented at the annual ADSA meetings and some manuscripts were published. " An abstract from U Minnesota was presented at the first North American Dairy Welfare Symposium in Guelph. " C Heleski attended Equitarian Initiative Workshop, Tlaxcala, Mexico in October 2013; gave PPT presentation on Working Equid Welfare  observations from southern Brazil & Mali " J Siegford & 2 students attended and presented at the International Society for Applied Ethology in 2013 " J Siegford & 1 student attended International Society for Applied Ethology in 2013 " C Heleski attended the 2012 International Society for Equitation Science conference " J Siegford gave two invited presentations on housing systems for laying hens (discussing welfare of and collection of data from hens)