Livestock Behavior Facility Opens
New laboratory aids study of animals' response to environment and
Technician Jeff Dailey places a calf into a T-maze while animal physiologist
Julie Morrow-Tesch begins collecting both instantaneous data and video records.
The maze is used to identify various preferences of young dairy
It's a high-tech laboratory for scientific research, though it looks like an
ordinary livestock building. The newest research facility for the ARS
Livestock Behavior Research
Unit is built for cattle and hogsand the scientists who study them.
"It's a real laboratory, not just a building," says
Morrow-Tesch, an animal physiologist/ethologist who heads the unit. But the
10,000-square-foot structure built in 1996 and opened in early 1997 was
designed for scientific research on a practical level.
"Our program has three specific objectives," says Morrow-Tesch.
"These are to identify how animals perceive and interact with their
environment, determine if sensory cues in their environments change animals'
behavior and response to stress, and identify their preferences for
environments or items in their environment that may affect their behavior and
response to stress."
The size and flexibility of the new building were dictated in large part by
the type of research that was to be conducted in it.
"We wanted a building large enough to conduct a wide range of studies.
Now, we can quickly create any size pen or housing system inside it," she
One important tool the building will house is a Heb-Williams maze. This is
actually a series of 12 mazeseach more difficult than the previous
onemade up of gates, alleyways, and other barriers.
"Livestock spend a majority of their time looking for food, which
requires spatial orientation," says Morrow-Tesch. "The maze allows us
to identify and quantify their learning cues to determine what is important to
them in their environments."
Historically, livestock researchers have worked in production pens and
facilities. Those settings presented challenges for scientists who wanted to
isolate individual animals or conduct laboratory-quality experiments. But the
sheer size and weight of cattle and hogs made it impractical and often costly
to design and build custom experimental pens.
The new building will enable researchers to conduct experiments in a highly
controlled environment that is comfortable for both the animals and themselves.
And the installation of post holes in the floor every 8 feet in all directions
lets scientists build custom-sized pens and mazes using standard, commercially
available livestock panels.
This will save money in the future, says Morrow-Tesch, because the
scientists won't have to special-order materials or contract out for
custom-size panels to complete their work. "We are committed to getting
the most for the taxpayer's dollar with this project."
"Cannabinoid Receptors Key to Stress Response"
Designed to be slip-proof, the floor has narrow, ¾ -inch-deep grooves
every 1¾ inches, so cattle and hogs won't lose their footing. "This
was based on scientific research and to accommodate dairy cattle, which have a
larger, cloven hoof and need a slip-proof surface to keep their balance,"
The laboratory also features a traditional physiology laboratory where
scientists can prepare samples, such as blood plasma, without having to
transport them off site. A built-in electronics shop allows researchers to
build and maintain their own equipment.
"We do a lot of things that require us to assemble equipment for
experiments. We can save money by doing this ourselves, rather than contracting
out for special projects," says Morrow-Tesch.
"Our work is not in the traditional line of animal science
research," she says. "Livestock behavior has never been examined in
depth. Many current livestock production practices are based on tradition, or
on trial and error. Our goal is to find scientific bases for behaviors and then
use that information to determine what practices are best for both livestock
For example, animal physiologist
Gary Weesner has
discovered a chemical pathway in pigs and cloned the DNA for the chemical
receptor in the pig's brain. He is currently researching the effect of the
chemical on pigs' ability to cope with stress.
Scientists in the unit have also studied typical livestock behaviors, such
as buller-steer syndrome. This is an aggressive behavior observed in feedlot
cattle in which one individual steer is singled out and bullied by the others.
It leads to illness, injury, and even death for the bullied steer and annually
costs producers thousands of dollars in lost productivity.
Other research will examine the impact of common livestock management
practices such as castration and tail docking, as well as feeding behavior in
"Our work with castration techniques in cattle shows no discernible
difference between castrating newly weaned bullseither by banding or
surgeryand performing the procedure 3 weeks before weaning," says
Morrow-Tesch. "This is important because castration affects feed intake,
weight gain, and animal health." By Dawn Lyons-Johnson,ARS.
USDA-ARS Livestock Behavior Research Unit, Purdue University, Department
of Animal Science, 1026 Poultry Science Bldg., West Lafayette, IN 47907-1026;
phone (765) 494-8022.