The vulnerable transition cow: Coping with illness

这项研究将为与疾病发作相关的动物行为变化提供新的见解。奶牛为研究这些变化提供了一个很好的系统，因为许多奶牛会生病，而且这种疾病大多集中在产犊前后的几周内。这些“病态行为”已经在人类和实验室动物身上进行了研究，但在农场动物身上做的工作很少。我实验室以前的工作提供了一些第一批数据，表明某些行为，如减少喂养和社会互动，可以识别产犊后有疾病风险的奶牛。拟议的研究计划的目的是发展一个更基本的了解奶牛的行为和健康之间的关系。具体来说，我提出了一系列的实验，旨在1）确定奶牛进行的疾病行为的范围，区分那些行为，提供短期和长期的利益，以牛，和2）确定方面的牛的社会环境，包括她的特殊应对策略，以一个有压力的环境，这可能会增加她对疾病的易感性。动物的适当使用和治疗是当今畜牧业面临的最重要挑战之一，产犊时的高患病率也令人非常担忧。

This research will provide new insights into the behavioural changes in animals associated with the onset of disease. The dairy cow provides an excellent system for studying these changes because many cows become ill, and much of this illness is concentrated in a period of a few weeks around the time of calving. These 'sickness behaviours' have been studied in humans and laboratory animals, but very little work has been done on farm animals. Previous work in my laboratory has provided some of the first data showing that certain behaviours, such as reduced feeding and social interactions, can identify cows at risk for disease after calving. The objective of the proposed research program is to develop a more fundamental understanding of the relationship between behaviour and health in dairy cows. Specifically, I propose a series of experiments designed to 1) identifying the range of sickness behaviours performed by dairy cows, discriminating between those behaviours that provide both short- and long-term benefit to the cow, and 2) identifying aspects of a cow's social environment, including her particular coping strategy to a stressful environment, that might increase her susceptibility to disease. The appropriate use and treatment of animals are among the most important challenges facing animal agriculture today, and the high rate of illness at the time of calving is also of great concern.