The social environment influences the behavioural responses of beef cattleto handling

In cattle, a gregarious species, the social group influences individual str ess responses to fear-eliciting situations. As handling can be stressful fo r farm animals, it can be hypothesised that social partners modify individu al responses to handling. The present experiment investigated the effect of the presence or absence of social partners on behavioural reactions of bee f calves in a handling test. At the age of 10 months, 38 calves from two br eeds (Salers and Limousine) were individually subjected to the docility tes t, once while in visual contact with four familiar peers, and once in the a bsence of peers, following a crossover design. The docility test procedure included physical separation from peers (30 s; period 1), exposition to a s tationary human (30 s; period 2), and handling by human (30 s-2.5 min, acco rding to the success in handling; period 3). In absence of human (period 1) , calves in visual contact with their peers spent more time motionless than when peers were totally absent (P<0.001). The social environment also infl uenced the duration of handling (period 3); the human required more time to successfully handle calves when peers were present (P < 0.05). In conclusi on, the presence of peers affects individual calves' reactions to the docil ity test. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.