Behaviour of dairy cows subjected to an aversive veterinary procedure

On small dairy farms that lack appropriate handling facilities, cows can be restrained and subjected to veterinary inspection or treatment in their milking environment, which in turn might influence the behaviour of the animals, disrupting routine management. A group of seven dairy cows kept on an intensive rotational pasture system and machine milked twice a day by two familiar handlers were exposed to a thorough clinical examination for three consecutive days. Behavioural data before and after the procedure were analyzed by ANOVA. The behaviour of all the cows during the procedure indicated strong aversiveness. Treatment did not influence the flight distance (metres) kept from the veterinarian or from a person unknown by the cows, assessed before and after the procedure (veterinarian: before = 1.2 ± 0.1; after 0.8 ± 0.2; unknown: 1.0 ± 0.2 after 1.2 ± 0.2; p=0.3), nor did it affect the number of agonistic interactions within the group observed before (7.1 ± 2) and after (11.5 ± 3) the procedure (p=0.3), or reactivity score (p=0.2). These results do not support the conclusion that the repeated application of unavoidable aversive veterinary procedures in the milking environment will influence the behaviour of cows during milking or their reactivity to humans.