EFFECTS OF YARDING AND HANDLING PROCEDURES ON STRESS RESPONSES OF REDDEER STAGS (CERVUS-ELAPHUS)

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relative stressfulnes s of different components of typical yarding and close handling proced ures on red deer stags. Behavioural observations, remotely collected b lood samples and heart rate measures were obtained from undisturbed an imals at pasture, during one of three procedures involving yarding, ha ndling and restraint, and after return to pasture, The 'Pen' group (si x stags per group) was left undisturbed in an indoor pen for 12 min. T he 'Draft' treatment required a handler to enter the pen (twice) and m ove the animals around. The 'Crush' procedure required animals to be d rafted from the group and restrained in a pneumatic drop-floor crush f or 2 min. Plasma cortisol, lactate and glucose levels were elevated re lative to pre-handling levels after all three handling procedures, wit h the greatest increases following the Crush treatment. Heart rate and three haematological parameters (haematocrit, red blood cell number a nd haemoglobin) also increased as a result of the handling treatments, with increases following Draft and Crush being greater than after Pen . Behaviourally, animals exposed to the three handling procedures spen t similar total amounts of time standing, walking, grazing and lying u pon release back to pasture, but Crush animals began grazing 20-40 min later than the Pen and Draft groups. These data indicate that the thr ee handling procedures examined resulted in perturbations (from levels in undisturbed animals) of measures which are indicators of stress re sponses. However, given that all measures rapidly returned to resting values, deer wellbeing does not appear to be unduly compromised by suc h handling practices. The present study again demonstrates the usefuln ess of remote blood sampling devices for collecting blood from free-ra nging flighty animals by eliminating the confounding effects of stress associated with manual blood sampling techniques.