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Immunocastration with Improvac™ reduces aggressive and sexual behaviours in male pigs
| Contributor(s):: Brewster, Veronica, Nevel, Amanda
Surgical castration of male pigs is a common practice to reduce the risk of boar taint, an accumulation of pheromones in the muscles of pigs giving an undesirable odour to the pork of entire boars. Castration is not widely practiced in the UK for welfare reasons and indeed, assurance schemes...
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Agonistic behaviour, skin lesions and activity pattern of entire male, female and castrated male finishing pigs
| Contributor(s):: Bunger, B., Schrader, L., Schrade, H., Zacharias, B.
Fattening of intact boars is the least invasive alternative to the detrimental welfare effects of surgical castration of piglets. However, beside problems such as boar taint the divergent agonistic and sexual behaviour of boars may impair the pigs' welfare during fattening. To evaluate the...
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#SaveBenjy: sexuality, queer animals, and Ireland
| Contributor(s):: McLoughlin, E.
This paper explores the #SaveBenjy Crowdfunder campaign to save a Charolais bull in the Republic of Ireland who expressed sexual interest only in weanling bulls and not the heifers he was expected to impregnate. The prominence and popularity of #SaveBenjy is anything but coincidental. In May...
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Current attitudes toward, and incidence of, sterilization of cats and dogs by caregivers (owners) in Auckland, New Zealand
| Contributor(s):: McKay, S. A., Farnworth, M. J., Waran, N. K.
This study distributed a questionnaire to cat or dog caregivers (owners) throughout Auckland, New Zealand, to investigate the attitudes of human companions toward the sterilization of their cats and dogs and the degree to which this occurs relative to demographic information gathered. A total of...
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Some preliminary evidence of the social facilitation of mounting behavior in a juvenile bull Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus )
| Contributor(s):: Rees, P. A.
This study recorded sexual behaviour within a captive herd of 8 Asian elephants in England, UK, for approximately 230 h on 50 days over a period of 10 months (January-November 1999). A single adult and a single juvenile bull mounting cows more than 160 times were observed. When the juvenile bull...
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A note on the effects of calf stimuli on the response of Zebu cows to Synchro-mate-B
| Contributor(s):: Quesada, Y., Estrada, S., Cubero, M., Garcia, F., Galina, C. S., Molina, R., Orihuela, A.
The effect of Synchro-mate-B (SMB, ear implant containing 6 mg norgestomet) was measured on the oestrous response and the establishment of cyclicity using different calf stimuli. Multiparous Zebu cows, were divided in three groups. In the first, 32 animals were treated with SMB leaving the calves...
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A refinement and validation of the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire (MCPQ)
| Contributor(s):: Ley, J. M., Bennett, P. C., Coleman, G. J.
The investigation of canine personality has failed to find strong agreement between studies as to its structure. The area has been hampered by a reliance on human personality models and by a tendency to limit the types of dogs used as subjects. These problems were recently addressed during the...
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Do female broiler breeder fowl display a preference for broiler breeder or laying strain males in a Y-maze test?
| Contributor(s):: Millman, S. T., Duncan, I. J. H.
In recent years, the commercial broiler breeder industry has reported problems of male aggression towards females. Although this aggression is shown by the males and is apparently a defect in their behaviour, it is also possible that it stems in some way from the females. For example, broiler...
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Effect of early fenceline exposure to estrous ewes on the sexual performance of yearling rams
| Contributor(s):: Price, E. O., Borgwardt, R., Dally, M. R.
A total of 104 rams, 7-8 months of age, were given either no contact (NC), direct contact (DC) or fenceline (FL) exposure to oestrous ewes during a 3-week period in the autumn breeding season. When initially tested for sexual performance at 18-19 months, a higher proportion of NC rams exhibited...
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Effect of male-to-male aggressiveness and feed-restriction during rearing on sexual behaviour and aggressiveness towards females by male domestic fowl
| Contributor(s):: Millman, S. T., Duncan, I. J. H.
This experiment was one part of a larger study investigating problems of aggression towards females by male broiler breeder fowl. To investigate causal mechanisms, we were interested in determining (1) if feed-restriction during rearing affects behaviour towards females at sexual maturity and (2)...
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Effect of the presence of a dominant bull on performance of two age group bulls in libido tests
| Contributor(s):: Lopez, H., Orihuela, A., Silva, E.
In 2 trials, twelve 15-month-old and ten 27-month-old sexually naive Simmental bulls were libido tested in the presence or absence of a dominant mature bull. In the 1st trial, individual sexual performance tests were conducted. On alternate tests days, a mature bull was present in an adjacent pen...
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Exposure to a recently mated male increases ram sexual performance
| Contributor(s):: Maina, D., Katz, L. S.
Previous studies reported that the sexual performance of rams did not improve following observation of heterosexual behaviour, which was in contrast to effects on male cattle, goats, pigs and horses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that exposure to a recently mated...
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Male-male competition fails to sexually stimulate domestic rams
| Contributor(s):: Price, E. O., Borgwardt, R. E., Dally, M. R.
Male domestic sheep are non-territorial and mate in multiple-male mating groups in which males compete for access to females. The following study tests whether rams are sexually stimulated by participation in or observation of male-male competition for oestrous ewes and if so, whether the...
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Mating behavior of bucks and does in goat operations under range conditions
| Contributor(s):: Mellado, M., Cardenas, C., Ruiz, F.
The objectives of this study were to characterize the mating capacity of bucks under range condition and assess the effect of mating frequency on flock fertility. Two adjacent flocks of crossbred goats (Criollo x dairy goat breeds; n = 70 does, 5 bucks and 141 does, 4 bucks) were used. The mating...
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Oestrus and mating behaviour in gilts during boar induced puberty in relation to stress and housing
| Contributor(s):: Pedersen, L. J., Jensen, K. H., Giersing Linder, A.
The effect of intermittent electroshock and individual vs. pair housing on sexual proceptive behaviour was studied in 48 large White x Danish Landrace gilts. In addition, the effect of intermittent electroshock on the behavioural response to boar stimulation and on sexual receptivity during first...
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Preliminary study of the development of the Flehmen response in Equus caballus
| Contributor(s):: Weeks, J. W., Crowell-Davis, S. L., Heusner, G.
The flehmen response is commonly seen in most ungulates as well as in several other species (e.g. felids). The behaviour is most often thought to be part of the sexual behavioural repertoire of males. One reigning hypothesis suggests that this behaviour allows the male to determine the oestrous...
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Selection for contrasting adrenocortical responsiveness in Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) influences sexual behaviour in males
| Contributor(s):: Marin, R. H., Satterlee, D. G.
Selection of Japanese quail for a reduced (low stress, LS) rather than exaggerated (high stress, HS) adrenocortical response to brief restraint is associated with a non-specific reduction in stress responsiveness, decreased fearfulness, greater sociality, and enhanced male reproductive function,...
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Sexual behavior and semen characteristics of rams exposed to their own semen or semen from a different ram on the vulva of the ewe
| Contributor(s):: Lezama, V., Orihuela, A., Angulo, R.
Eighteen Katahdin yearling males were used to evaluate sexual behaviours, inter-ejaculation intervals and semen characteristics of rams exposed to their own semen or semen from a different ram in the vulva of the ewe. Each ram participated in three experimental sessions spaced 8 days apart. In...
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Sexual performance of twin ram lambs and the effect of number and sex of contemporary siblings
| Contributor(s):: Price, E. O., Bench, C. J., Borgwardt, R. E., Dally, M. R.
The objectives of this investigation were to determine the degree of correspondence in the sexual performance of twin male sheep and to compare the sexual performance of ram lambs born co-twin to another male (M-M), co-twin to a female (M-F) and as single (S) offspring. Individual ram lambs (n =...
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Social order measured in pasture and pen conditions and its relationship to sexual behavior in Brahman (Bos indicus) cows
| Contributor(s):: Orihuela, A., Galina, C. S.
The social order of 20 non-lactating, non-pregnant Brahman cows (2-6 years old) was determined by recording content and outcome of all agonistic interactions. The herd was observed at pasture for 1.5 h and in a yard for 2 h per day. This routine was undertaken every other day from 06.00 to 18.00...
