The Effect of Behavioural Indicators of Calf Discomfort Following Routine Procedures on Cow Maternal Care.

Pain causes altered arousal and specific behaviours that are rare at other times (pain indicators). We examined whether beef cows (mean age 6 years) are sensitive to pain indicators in addition to arousal following ear tagging and rubber ring castration (males only, = 31) of their calf ( = 58). Behavioural pain indicators and activity were recorded continuously for 20 min before and 2 h after handling.

The effect of gestational undernutrition on maternal weight change and fetal weight in lines of mice selected for different growth characteristics.

The present study investigated whether the genetic growth characteristics (fast or slow growing, lean or fat) of a mother influences her ability to partition nutrients to developing offspring. A total of sixty-one pregnant mice of three selected lines were used: fast-growing, relatively fat (FF, n 19); fast-growing, relatively lean (FL, n 23); and normal growth, relatively lean (NL, n 19). On day 1 of pregnancy, mice were given either ad libitum access to food (control (C): n 32) or pair-fed at 80 % of C intake (restricted (R): n 29).