In beef cows, docility is important for animal welfare reasons, the farmer's and veterinarian's safety as well as for economic reasons. The hormone testosterone is often mentioned in the context with aggressions and docility. The present study tested the hypothesis that higher testosterone levels in beef cows are associated with more aggressive behavior and lower docility during behavior tests. German Simmental (beef) (n=21) and Charolais heifers (n=20) were subjected with one repetition to a chute test as well as a separation and restraint test. Heart rate, thermal images of the eye, saliva cortisol as well as saliva testosterone were collected along with behavioral parameters during the tests. For all physiological and most of the behavioral parameters significant breed differences were detected. Charolais heifers (0.10±0.01ng/ml saliva) had considerably higher testosterone levels compared with Simmental heifers (0.04±0.01ng/ml; P=0.0001). Interestingly, the Charolais heifers expressed a higher docility, so across breeds higher levels of testosterone are associated with higher docility. However, all the parameters presumably linked to stress (heart rate, eye temperature, cortisol levels) generally showed stronger correlations to behavior traits than testosterone (e.g., trait "time in corner" - testosterone: r=0.25 vs. cortisol: r=-0.43 (Fisher's r-to-z: P=0.0985); eye temperature: r=-0.65; (P=0.0005); heart rate: r=-0.60 (P=0.003)). Eye temperature correlated with both heart rate (r=0.68) and cortisol levels (r=0.62; both P<0.0001). Therefore, eye temperature more so than testosterone appears to be a suitable indicator of stress, and as such also an, albeit incomplete, indicator of docility in cattle.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 January 2015.
All research outputs
#17,283,763
of 25,371,288 outputs
Outputs from Physiology & Behavior
#3,647
of 5,536 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#220,885
of 359,314 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Physiology & Behavior
#32
of 68 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,371,288 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,536 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.0. This one is in the 28th percentile – i.e., 28% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 359,314 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 29th percentile – i.e., 29% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 68 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 48th percentile – i.e., 48% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
