Publication | Closed Access
Behavioral Studies of Dairy Cattle Sensitivity to Electrical Currents
32
Citations
0
References
1983
Year
Livestock HealthMotor ControlPrecision DairyKinesiologyMean Path ResistancesDairy CowsPublic HealthAnimal ProductionHealth SciencesAnimal PhysiologyAnimal SensitivityAnimal PerformanceBehavioral SciencesBehavioral NeuroscienceDairy Cattle SensitivityAnimal SciencePhysiologyVeterinary ScienceElectrophysiologyAnimal Behavior
ABSTRACT ELECTRICAL resistance data were collected for eight pathways through dairy cows. Significant variation in resistance was found between pathways through individual cows and between cows. The mean path resistances ranged from 359 ohms for a mouth-all hooves pathway to 738 ohms for a front-rear hooves pathway. The distribution for the mouth-all hooves pathway showed 25% of the population below 302 ohms and 75% below 441 ohms. Three experiments assessing animal sensitivity to current based on behavioral indicators were performed. No suppression of a learned response to obtain food was found up to 6.0 mA front-rear hooves shock. However, muzzle-all hooves shocks as low as 1.0 mA suppressed plate pressing behavior. A specific avoidance response to a mouth-all hooves shock was exhibited 13.8% of the time at 1.0 mA and 92.3% at 4.0 mA, while a learned escape response to a front-rear hooves shock above a normal activity level occurred between 2.0 and 3.0 mA..