Mother-young relationships in Belgian Blue cattle after a Caesarean section: characterisation and effects of parity

The systematic use of Caesarean section in "double muscled" Belgian Blue ca ttle can induce ethical concerns. The aims of the following study was to ch aracterise mother-young relationships in such a situation and to assess the effect of parity. Fifteen heifers and 15 cows of the Belgian Blue breed we re observed using video recording when isolated with their calf during the 3 days following Caesarean, a rapid surgery with rare occurrence of aggress ive behaviour and no sign of cows' discomfort or weakness. All calves were bottle-fed mother's colostrum once before first suckling occurred. Heifers' calves received a supplementary number of three such artificial meals, whi le cows' calves needed only one. The overall median time to first Licking o f the calf by the mother was 3.3 min without any effect of parity. The mean licking frequency was 29.2 +/- 15.8 per 24 h: heifers licked their calf le ss frequently than cows, respectively 23.4 +/- 15.3 per 24 h versus 35.1 +/ - 14.5 per 24 h (P < 0.05). The mean total Licking duration was 42.2 <plus/ minus> 25.9 min per 24 h: there was no significant difference between heife rs and cows. The overall median time to first suckling was 6.1 h, without a ny effect of parity. The mean suckling frequency was 8.4 +/- 4.8 per 24 h: for half of these suckling bouts, the calf was situated on the left side of the mother, i.e. the side of the scar. The suckling frequency was negative ly correlated with the number of artificial meals (r(s) -0.45, P < 0.05). H eifers suckled their calf less often than cows, respectively 6.1 <plus/minu s> 3.1 per 24 h versus 10.7 +/- 5.2 per 24 h (P < 0.01), but the left side proportion was not significantly different. The mean suckling total duratio n was 35.3 <plus/minus> 21.0 min per 24 h. The calf was on the left side of the mother during half of this time. Heifers suckled their calf during a s horter time than cows, respectively 26.9 +/- 20.0 min per 24 h versus 43.8 +/- 19.1 min per 24 h (P < 0.05), and the left side proportion was not sign ificantly different. Licking frequency and suckling duration were positivel y correlated (r = 0.43, P < 0.05). Only 10% of the mothers tone heifer and two cows) butted their calf and kicking was never observed. Despite the dif ficult comparison with results of the Literature according to various metho dologies, mother-young relationships were considered as similar to those re ported after natural calving. In our study, cows can be considered as bette r mothers than heifers. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.