Supplemental Material: Assessing effects of dietary and milking frequency changes and injection of cabergoline during dry-off on hunger in dairy cows using 2 feed thwarting tests

Published: 9 April 2021| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/5vzt4f9g3x.1
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Description

We investigated the effects of dietary and milking frequency changes during a week before dry-off, as well as injection of cabergoline (dopamine agonist) after the last milking, on the feeding motivation in dairy cows using 2 feed thwarting test paradigms. Reducing feeding level, either before or on the dry-off day, resulted in behavioral changes indicative of hunger while no clear effect of reduced milking frequency was found. The effects of cabergoline on feeding motivation were unclear and deserve further investigation. The present study titled "Assessing effects of dietary and milking frequency changes and injection of cabergoline during dry-off on hunger in dairy cows using 2 feed thwarting tests" and published in Journal of Dairy Science was conducted from September 2017 to May 2019 at the Danish Cattle Research Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark. This study was part of a large project investigating the effects of dry-off management on performance, metabolism and welfare of dairy cows, as described in detail by Larsen et al. (unpublished data). All procedures involving animals were approved by the Danish Animal Experiments Inspectorate in accordance with the Danish Ministry of Justice Act No. 1306 (November 23, 2007), approval number 2017-15-0201-01230. The experimental protocol (internal ref. F19-12-1919) was registered in the experimental facility data storage system at Aarhus University. The experimental work was conducted according to Good Clinical Practice Guideline VICH GL19 (VICH, 2001) and the study as well as the unregistered use of cabergoline (Velactis, Ceva Santé Animale, Libourne, France) was approved by the Danish Medical Agency (Permit No. 2017064040). In countries where Velactis is registered, Velactis is labelled to be used with abrupt dry-off, e.g. no reduction in feeding level or milking frequency prior to the last milking. Use in other dry-off regimens is off-label. This supplemental material contains the following information: 1. Breakdown on the number of cows across treatments (feeding level × milking frequency × type of injection) included in the study and used in tests A (thwarting test in the home pen) and B (thwarting test with concentrate). 2. Analysis of the relationship between the feed delivery duration and frequencies of attempts to feed and vocalizations, as well as latency to feed within 300 s, recorded during the feed thwarting test in the home pen (Test A) 3. Breakdown on the number of vocalizations during Test A across treatments and over days relative to dry-off 4. Breakdown on the number of behaviors directed towards each of the boxes on each test day (Test B) 5. Layout of the experimental home pen where experimental cows were housed between day -7 and day 7 relative to the dry-off day 6. Layout of the test pen used for the feed thwarting test with concentrate 7. Plastic boxes used in the feed thwarting test with concentrate

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Institutions

Aarhus Universitet, University of California Davis

Categories

Animal Motivation, Animal Welfare, Dairy Cattle, Emotion, Ethology

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