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Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing
SIMPLE SUMMARY: To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. As part of this, controlling the movement of these animals is essential us...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9656181/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36359141 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12213017 |
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author | Sonne, Christian Alstrup, Aage Kristian Olsen Pertoldi, Cino Frikke, John Linder, Anne Cathrine Styrishave, Bjarne |
author_facet | Sonne, Christian Alstrup, Aage Kristian Olsen Pertoldi, Cino Frikke, John Linder, Anne Cathrine Styrishave, Bjarne |
author_sort | Sonne, Christian |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. As part of this, controlling the movement of these animals is essential using either physical or virtual fences to manage the areas of interest. Physical fencing limits migrating wildlife, while using virtual fences with GPS technology paired with collars emitting auditory and electric cues encourages the animals to stay in the desired area without physical restrictions for wild animals. However, virtual fences raise ethical questions regarding the electric impulses emitted by the collar and stress in the fenced animals, we show that the stress hormone cortisol in cow mature is not associated with the use of virtual fencing. We, therefore, conclude that there is no evidence suggesting that cows are stressed from the use of virtual fencing, thus making virtual fencing a reasonable alternative to traditional electric physical fencing for cows. We recommend using manure as a noninvasive physiological measure of large grazer stress during virtual fencing to survey and understand animal welfare. ABSTRACT: To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. Using physical fencing limits migrating wildlife, while virtual fences encourage the animals to stay in the desired area without physical restrictions on wild animals. However, virtual fences raise ethical questions regarding the electric impulses emitted by the collar and stress in the fenced animals. Here, we tested if keeping twelve Angus cows (Bos Taurus) in a virtual fencing (Nofence©) compromised their welfare. For this purpose, we collected manure samples from five cows every second day prior to and after the transition from traditional to virtual fencing over a period of 18 days. Cortisol concentrations were 20.6 ± 5.23 ng/g w/w (mean ± SD), ranging from 12 to 42 ng/g w/w across individuals and concentrations did not change over the study period. We, therefore, conclude that there is no evidence suggesting that the cows were stressed from the use for virtual fencing, thus making virtual fencing a reasonable alternative to traditional electric physical fencing of cows. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9656181 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96561812022-11-15 Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing Sonne, Christian Alstrup, Aage Kristian Olsen Pertoldi, Cino Frikke, John Linder, Anne Cathrine Styrishave, Bjarne Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. As part of this, controlling the movement of these animals is essential using either physical or virtual fences to manage the areas of interest. Physical fencing limits migrating wildlife, while using virtual fences with GPS technology paired with collars emitting auditory and electric cues encourages the animals to stay in the desired area without physical restrictions for wild animals. However, virtual fences raise ethical questions regarding the electric impulses emitted by the collar and stress in the fenced animals, we show that the stress hormone cortisol in cow mature is not associated with the use of virtual fencing. We, therefore, conclude that there is no evidence suggesting that cows are stressed from the use of virtual fencing, thus making virtual fencing a reasonable alternative to traditional electric physical fencing for cows. We recommend using manure as a noninvasive physiological measure of large grazer stress during virtual fencing to survey and understand animal welfare. ABSTRACT: To increase the efficiency and geographic expansion of nature conservation, large grazers have recently been used, either in the form of wild hoof-bearing animals or as domesticated ruminants including cattle. Using physical fencing limits migrating wildlife, while virtual fences encourage the animals to stay in the desired area without physical restrictions on wild animals. However, virtual fences raise ethical questions regarding the electric impulses emitted by the collar and stress in the fenced animals. Here, we tested if keeping twelve Angus cows (Bos Taurus) in a virtual fencing (Nofence©) compromised their welfare. For this purpose, we collected manure samples from five cows every second day prior to and after the transition from traditional to virtual fencing over a period of 18 days. Cortisol concentrations were 20.6 ± 5.23 ng/g w/w (mean ± SD), ranging from 12 to 42 ng/g w/w across individuals and concentrations did not change over the study period. We, therefore, conclude that there is no evidence suggesting that the cows were stressed from the use for virtual fencing, thus making virtual fencing a reasonable alternative to traditional electric physical fencing of cows. MDPI 2022-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9656181/ /pubmed/36359141 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12213017 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Sonne, Christian Alstrup, Aage Kristian Olsen Pertoldi, Cino Frikke, John Linder, Anne Cathrine Styrishave, Bjarne Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title | Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title_full | Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title_fullStr | Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title_full_unstemmed | Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title_short | Cortisol in Manure from Cattle Enclosed with Nofence Virtual Fencing |
title_sort | cortisol in manure from cattle enclosed with nofence virtual fencing |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9656181/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36359141 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12213017 |
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