EVALUATION OF BODY CONDITION SCORE AND BASIC BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS IN LACTATING DAIRY BUFFALOES IN NORTH KARNATAKA
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Date
2022
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KARNATAKA VETERINARY, ANIMAL AND FISHERIES SCIENCES UNIVERSITY, NANDINAGAR, BIDAR – 585401
Abstract
The current experiment was conducted in 30 lactating dairy buffaloes to study the
relationship between body condition score, body weight changes, milk yield and its
composition and to study the Basic behavioural patterns (Ethogram) under intensive farming
system. The results showed that the average values of body condition score for lactating dairy
buffaloes in different parities and stages of lactation were in the range from 3.39±0.06 to
3.68±0.06, while the overall average values for body weight, height at withers, height at
hook, heart girth and body length in buffaloes were 497.02±2.94 kg, 132.61±0.61 cm,
138.49±0.44 cm, 194.46±0.45 cm and 142.46±0.85 cm, respectively. The overall average
values for the milk production traits viz., daily milk yield, Fat, SNF and Protein per cent
were 6.17±0.13 kg, 7.06±0.02, 9.65±0.04 and 4.03±0.01, respectively. The statistical
analysis revealed positive and highly significant (P<0.01) correlation between body condition
score, body weight changes and body measurements. Similarly, the negative and significant
(P<0.05) correlation was found between body condition score and average milk yield, fat
percentage, whereas the coefficients of correlation between body condition score and Solids-
Not-Fat per cent was negatively correlated, there was non-significant association. There was
positive and significant (P<0.05) correlation observed between body condition score and
protein per cent. The observations for basic behavioural patterns were made for a total period
of 300 hours with an average six-hour observation in a day. Eight main behavioural
categories consisting of forty-seven different patterns were grouped under different title,
were employed for the study. Buffaloes exhibited 40 behavioural patterns out of 46 patterns,
of which 9 patterns more commonly occurred (MCO), 9 patterns were commonly occurred
(CO), 13 patterns rarely occurred (RO), 9 patterns very rarely occurred (VRO) and six
patterns were not observed (NO) in buffaloes during the study period. Hence the results of
the study suggested that the buffaloes to be selected for the best production performance
should possess the body condition score in the range of 3.5 to 3.75. The knowledge about
behavioural patterns in buffaloes is a boon for proper planning and adoption of general as
well as planning for proper feeding managemental practices.