Data from: Breed differences in oral behaviors in feed-restricted dairy heifers

Holsteins and Jerseys, the 2 most prominent dairy breeds in the United
States, differ in many regards. They have not been evaluated for
differences in oral behavior performance, despite anecdotal evidence that
Jerseys perform more abnormal behaviors than Holsteins. As abnormal
behaviors can indicate compromised welfare, we evaluated whether breed
differences existed in year-old heifers. Because many oral behaviors could
be expressed in abnormal ways, we also sought to describe performance of a
wide range of behaviors and whether these varied among individuals. We
studied 42 pair-housed heifers (33 Holstein, 9 Jersey) at 12.8 ± 1.1 mo of
age (mean ± SD) that were restricted to 50% of their ad libitum total
mixed ration (TMR) intake for 2 d as part of a short-term feed challenge.
Using continuous video recording from 0800 to 2000 h on the
second day of feed restriction, we scored time spent performing tongue
rolling, tongue flicking, selfgrooming, allogrooming, intersucking,
drinking urine, drinking water, and nonnutritive oral manipulation (NNOM)
of rice hull bedding, the feed bin, or other pen fixtures. Eating TMR as
recorded at 5-min intervals. We found that Jerseys spent more time tongue
rolling (3.3% vs. 0.2% proportion of 12-h observations) and performing all
types of NNOM than Holsteins (feed bin: 3.8% vs. 2.4%; bedding:
7.7% vs. 5.4%; other: 7.5% vs. 4.2%; total: 19.0% vs. 12.0%), and tended
to spend more time tongue flicking (1.4% vs. 1.1%). Jerseys spent less
time allogrooming than Holsteins (1.3% vs. 3.4%). There was no evidence of
an effect of breed on self-grooming (2.0%), water drinking (1.0%), eating
TMR (16.0%), or intersucking (0.06%). Urine drinking was performed by 9
total heifers and was not compared between breeds. All behaviors were
highly variable across individuals, particularly tongue rolling and
intersucking. Allogrooming was more variable than self-grooming, and each
subcategory of NNOM was more variable than total NNOM. Outliers, or
extreme performance of oral behaviors relative to the rest of our
population, were present in most behaviors. Heifers who were outliers in
one behavior were not consistently outliers in all. Overall,
there are breed differences in many oral behaviors in a feed-restricted
environment. Despite no difference in proportion of time spent eating,
Jerseys often performed higher levels of potentially abnormal behaviors
than Holsteins, though both breeds performed many oral behaviors,
sometimes at extreme levels, that may indicate a concern.