| dc.description.abstract | Growing importance of and concern for the welfare of farm animals within
production systems has been the basis for an enormous amount of scientific
studies. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether both vocal and
social behaviour of sheep, under specific stress-inducing situations, could be used
as an indicator of the animals’ welfare status. Two separate experiments were
carried out with 2-3 year old adult rams. The animals were of three breeds,
namely Barbados Blackbelly Cross, Local Garut and Composite Garut. In the first
experiment twelve clinically healthy animals, four from each breed, were
subjected to three different levels of social isolation. The animals were held
completely alone, in the presence of a human and alone in a group pen adjacent to
a pen with conspecifics. During the isolation sessions both vocal and locomotive
behaviour of each animal were recorded. The recorded calls were acoustically
analyzed using specialized acoustic software. The results showed that the levels of
isolation were characterized by very specific behavioural responses with an
increased amount of locomotor activity and vocalization in partially isolated
animals. The animals that were completely isolated showed a higher amount of
inactive behaviour. No specific differences were found in the behaviour of
animals that were held completely alone and the ones which were in the presence
of a human observer. Acoustic analysis of the recorded calls showed significant
differences in a number of temporal and structural features. Spectral analysis
revealed the most notable differences in the amount of sound energy integrated in
the calls. Differences were found in both locomotive and vocal behaviour based
on isolation level and breed....dst | id |
