PERFORMANCE AND BEHAVIOUR OF FRESHLY CALVED BUFFALOES SUBJECTED TO STAGGERED INTEGRATION IN PAIRS INTO A GROUP OF LOOSE HOUSED LACTATING BUFFALOES
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Date
2024
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Publisher
ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL
Abstract
Buffaloes, being highly social animals, often face stress during regrouping due to changes
in social hierarchy and agonistic interactions. To address this, the present investigation was
carried out with the objectives of studying the effects of staggered entry of freshly calved
buffaloes in pairs into an established group on their behaviour, social stability, productive
performance and milk quality. For this study, a lactating herd of 70-80 Murrah buffaloes
maintained together in a loose house was considered as a resident group of animals. In this
resident group, 36 freshly buffaloes allotted at random to two groups were introduced 5
days post-partum spread over 6 months (from June, 23 to October, 2023) in order of their
calving. The buffaloes in one group (n = 12) were directly introduced individually into the
resident group of buffaloes as per existing farm practice (control, T0). The buffaloes in
treatment (T1) group (n = 24 in 12 pairs) were introduced into the resident group in pairs
in a staggered manner over 4 days. On day 1, 2 and 3 these buffaloes were kept in the
resident group for 2, 4 and 8 hours respectively and were withdrawn afterwards and housed
separately where they were provided similar conditions of feeding and housing for the rest
of the time. On day 4, the buffaloes were fully integrated into the resident group. The data
on the mean differences in behavioral, social stress, performance and milk quality
parameters of the two groups of buffaloes recorded over 100 days post-partum were
analysed by performing one-way analysis of variance in SSPS statistics 20. Results
revealed that T1 buffaloes exhibited higher (P<0.05) daily feeding time (340.81±6.55
min/d) and rumination time (432.52±9.53min/d) compared to T0 (319.56±9.38;
390.66±15.04 min/d) respectively. Water drinking time was significantly greater (P<0.01)
in T1 (13.46±0.57 min/d) than T0 (10.79±1.00 min/d). T1 also displayed increased (p<0.05)
total lying time (611.09±6.11 min/day) compared to T0 (558.50±10.86 min/d). Conversely,
T0 exhibited higher (P<0.05) standing time (881.50±10.86 min/d) and idle standing time
(355±23.53 min/day) than T1 (828.93±6.10; 283.22±25.69 min/d) respectively. Agonistic
interactions were significantly higher in T0 as compared to T1. Notably, there were no
differences in the mean daily times spent on feeding, rumination, resting and number of
agonistic interactions in the two groups of buffaloes after 3-4 weeks of introduction into
the resident group indicating their social integration into the resident group. Additionally,
T1 buffaloes demonstrated higher (p<0.05) daily milk yield (8.91 ±0.67 kg/d) and milk
flow rate (0.977± 0.04 kg/min) compared to T0 (6.17±0.98 kg/day, 0.861±0.037 kg/min).
Milk quality also favoured T1, showing lower (p<0.05) somatic cell counts (2.01±0.11
lakhs/ml) and higher fat percentage (6.82±0.17%) compared to T0 (2.58±0.13 lakhs/ml,
5.98±0.43%) respectively. Furthermore, plasma cortisol levels were significantly (p<0.05)
lower in T1 (6.59±0.59 ng/ml), indicating reduced stress compared to T0 (12.21±0.80
ng/ml). In conclusion, staggered entry of freshly calved buffaloes in pairs positively
influenced behaviour, social interactions, and productive performance. Gradual
introduction in pairs resulted in improved behaviour, enhanced milk yield, better milk
quality, and reduced stress compared to direct single integration into the resident herd.