Do beef cattle react consistently to different handling situations?

Beef cattle responses to handling depend partly on the genetic characterist ics of the animals. However, the various methods used in order to assess th ese responses differ to a great extent. The purpose of this work is to stud y the relationship between two different situations extensively used to eva luate cattle reactions to handling. Moreover, the genetic variability of ca ttle responses to these two handling situations: was investigated. Behaviou ral reactions of 245 Limousine heifers, from 10 sires, were evaluated both in a docility test and in a crush test. In the docility test, a human tried to lead and then to maintain the animal in the corner of a pen during 30 c onsecutive seconds, with a maximum duration of the test of 3.5 min. A docil ity score summarised the animal's behavioural reactions to the test. The cr ush test procedure consisted of social isolation of the animal in a crush, with the head maintained in a head gate (5 min), then exposure to a station ary human (30 s), and finally stroking on the forehead (30 s). An agitation index for each part of this test was computed from PCA analyses based on a gitation behaviours. Sire effect was significant for every part of both tes ts (P < 0.05). Heifers' behavioural responses to the docility test were sig nificantly correlated with their responses to the crush test, when the anim als were in isolation (r- = 0.29; P < 0.001), when the human stood motionle ss in front of the animals (r = 0.37; P < 0.001), and when the human stroke d them (r = 0.28; P < 0.001). Sires' behavioural reactions to the docility test (computed from their daughters' scores) were correlated with their rea ctions to the crush test only when the human was present, both when motionl ess (r = 0.88; P < 0.001) and when stroking the heifer (r = 0.81; P < 0.05) . No relationship appeared between shes' behavioural reactions to the docil ity test and their responses to restraint in the crush when the human was a bsent (P = 0.17). Furthermore, the crush test did not reveal the animals wh ich presented aggressive reactions to handling in the docility test. The re sults exposed in this paper pointed out the existence of a general reactivi ty of beef cattle to handling, whether the animals are restrained or not, w hich appears influenced by the sire. Such reactivity is suggested to he mai nly a consequence of the animals reactions to humans. The human environment needs to be precisely defined in the handling test procedures before using them as a selection criteria. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.