MAINTENANCE BEHAVIOR OF MURRAH BUFFALO UNDER AN INTENSIVE MANAGEMENT-SYSTEM

Maintenance activities of 15 lactating and 15 non-lactating Murrah buf faloes reared under an intensive management system with loose housing were recorded at 1-min intervals for 24 consecutive hours on seven occ asions. Time spent in eating, ruminating, idling, walking and sleeping was 272, 445, 563, 52 and 108 min day(-1), respectively, for lactatin g buffaloes, and 222, 440, 610, 56 and 112 min day(-1), respectively, for non-lactating buffaloes. Eating, idling and walking activities occ upied more time during daylight hours (06:01 h to 18:00 h) than nightt ime hours (18:01 h to 06:00 h). Ruminating and sleeping were the predo minant activities during night hours. Buffaloes used both standing and lying postures for ruminating, but the majority of idling occurred wh ile lying.