Publications by authors named "Catherine Stockman"
Feedlot cattle were assessed for the consistency of enrichment brush use, higher incidence of natural behaviour, and less agonistic or abnormal behaviour compared to cattle without the brush. Cattle were assigned to one of two treatment pens, (1) access to a vertical grooming brush (EB; = 89) or (2) no access control (CON; = 80), for a period of 107 days. A Principal Component (PC) analysis was used on pen-side demeanour scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLand transport is an unavoidable experience for most livestock, yet there is limited research comparing animal welfare under different conditions. We video recorded sheep responses during short (2 h) commercial road transport journeys. Using Qualitative Behavioural Assessment, observers (blinded to the treatments) scored the behavioural expression of sheep and reached significant consensus in their scoring patterns ( < 0.
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- The study monitored the feeding and drinking behaviors of 8,206 sheep in a Western Australian feedlot using RFID technology to identify patterns in inappetent sheep, potentially aiding their treatment.
- Results showed that 18.9% of the sheep barely visited the feed trough on the first day, but this dropped to 2.4% by day six, indicating increased feeding over time.
- Salmonella infections were identified as the leading cause of death among the sheep, with those affected showing notably less time spent at the feed trough, demonstrating distinct feeding behavior changes prior to death.
We tested the application of qualitative behavioral assessment (QBA) as a welfare assessment tool. Sheep were exposed to road transport treatments, and behavioral expressions were compared between experimental treatments and validated by correlation with physiological measures. We compared journeys differing in ventilation (closed vs.
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