Mayara Andrioli , Joseph K. Grajales-Cedeño , João Alberto Negrão , Mateus J.R. Paranhos da Costa
{"title":"Effects of training of Saanen goats for the first milking on behavior, milk yield, and milk quality traits","authors":"Mayara Andrioli , Joseph K. Grajales-Cedeño , João Alberto Negrão , Mateus J.R. Paranhos da Costa","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106444","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106444","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aimed to assess the effects of prepartum milking training of primiparous goats on behavior, plasma cortisol concentration, and milk yield and quality traits. Thirty-one primiparous Saanen goats were assigned into two treatments: CT = milking-trained (n = 16) and ST = not milking-trained (n = 15) goats. Milking training consisted of the handler entering the pen where the goats were and walking calmly among them for 20 minutes/day for seven days, and then driving the goats to the milking parlor, positioning them in the stanchion, and gently touching their ribs, legs, and udders for five minutes for seven days. Behavioral assessments were carried out measuring the latency that each goat took to get close to a known person (voluntary approach = LC) and the flight distance (FD) before training (BT), just after training (AT), at the beginning (between days five and seven, d5–7) and 30 days of lactation (d30). Milking reactivity was assessed by recording the step-kick (SK) and head, ear and tail movement (MOV) scores. Plasma cortisol concentrations (PCC) were measured after milking. All measurements were recorded at 5–7 (d5–7), 30 (d30), and 60 (d60) days of lactation, defining the assessment days. The number of animals that required restraint during milking was also recorded. Milk yield was recorded daily throughout the 120 days of the lactation period, and milk quality traits (dry matter, density, fat, protein, lactose, minerals, acidity, SCC, Staphylococcus and total bacterial count - TBC) at d5–7, d30, d60, d90, and d120. The goats’ reactivity decreased throughout lactation. CT goats showed a lower LC on d30 than before training. PCC showed higher values on d60 than prepartum. At the beginning of lactation, 73 % of ST goats were restrained for milking, while for CT goats, 45 %. Milk yield was highest in the period from 8 to 90 days of lactation and 0.5 kg/day higher (although not significant) in CT than in ST. Milk quality traits showed significant differences between assessment days, except for TBC and <em>Staphylococcus</em> counts. In conclusion, the training protocol did not significantly impact goats' reactivity during milking, PCC, and milk quality traits. However, there was a tendency to increase milk yield and reduce the number of animals restrained during milking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106444"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah E. McPherson , Laura E. Webb , Marie C. McFadden , Anna Flynn , Eddie A.M. Bokkers , Emer Kennedy
{"title":"Exploring baseline behaviour in group-housed, pre-weaned dairy calves","authors":"Sarah E. McPherson , Laura E. Webb , Marie C. McFadden , Anna Flynn , Eddie A.M. Bokkers , Emer Kennedy","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106446","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106446","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With increasing public concern for farm animal welfare, understanding their current welfare status is paramount. Animal welfare can be inferred from their behaviour, as behaviour represents the combination of internal and external cues. The aims of this study were to quantify a behavioural baseline for group-housed, pre-weaned dairy calves that were reared under conventional management conditions, and to determine how different internal (i.e. age) and external (i.e. temperature) factors affected this behaviour. Female dairy calves (n=47) were allocated to 1 of 3 pens based on birth date and reared under conventional Irish management conditions; after 3–4 d in individual pens, calves were moved into group pens where they had <em>ad libitum</em> access to water, concentrates, and forage (first barley straw, then hay). Milk replacer (6 L/d) was fed through an automatic milk feeder; calves were gradually weaned from day 42–84. A 24 h period/week of video recording was used for behaviour scoring for 8 consecutive weeks (scan sampling at 10-min intervals). Behaviours included posture (lying or standing) and activity (17 behaviours). Calves were scored for clinical health twice weekly and only healthy calves were used in the analysis (n=39). Behaviour proportions were analysed using generalised linear mixed models. Proportion of time spent lying decreased as calves aged (week 1 vs. 9; percentage mean ± standard deviation; 79.8 ± 4.04 vs. 72.1 ± 6.52 %; P=0.004), while time spent ruminating (2.0 ± 2.51 vs. 14.1 ± 8.72 %; P<0.001), eating bedding (0.8 ± 1.16 vs. 6.1 ± 4.66 %; P<0.001), eating forage (0.9 ± 1.20 vs. 1.8 ± 1.81 %; P=0.007), and eating concentrates (0.5 ± 1.15 vs. 2.2 ± 1.72 %; P=0.018) increased with age. On days when the minimum shed temperature was <4°C compared to >6°C, calves spent more time lying (75.9 ± 5.27 vs. 72.3 ± 5.78 %; P<0.001) and less time eating concentrates (0.8 ± 1.11 vs. 1.4 ± 1.49 %; P=0.035), eating forage (0.8 ± 0.91 vs. 1.5 ± 1.57 %; P=0.005), eating bedding (2.7 ± 2.87 vs. 4.0 ± 4.78 %; P=0.003), and walking (1.5 ± 1.20 vs. 2.0 ± 1.40 %; P=0.017), independent of age. These findings provide a normal behaviour baseline for future calf behaviour studies and highlight potential areas of improvement in current, conventional calf rearing practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106446"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhe Li , Jingjing He , Shanshan Zhou , Jie Ying , Kaida Xu
{"title":"Improving effectiveness of environmental enrichment: The role of light intensity in rock bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus) rearing","authors":"Zhe Li , Jingjing He , Shanshan Zhou , Jie Ying , Kaida Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106421","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106421","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Environmental enrichment is a potential approach to enhance the fitness and survival of hatchery fish stocked for conservation purposes. Its effectiveness presumably depends not only on ecologically relevant features of physical enrichment but also on light condition applied. Despite the importance, few studies have reported on the role of light in enriched rearing. This study sought to optimize the enriched rearing of juvenile rock bream (<em>Oplegnathus fasciatus</em>) particularly regarding their physiological and behavioral performance by regulating light intensity. Juveniles were reared in either standard tanks (no enrichment) or enriched tanks with polyethylene ropes simulating drifting algae at three different light intensities (400, 800 or 1600 lux) for 32 days. Our findings revealed that cortisol levels of the fish increased with light intensity even in the presence of the physical structure. No significant effect of light intensity was detected on growth. Compared to standard fish, fish reared with enrichment showed higher levels of caudal fin damage and cortisol at all the light intensities, suggesting increased chronic stress; in addition, the fish displayed higher shelter-seeking behavior. These results highlight the importance of maintaining low light intensities to minimize chronic stress in the fish. Moreover, adjustments to the enriched rearing condition are recommended to mitigate adverse effects on physiological aspects before incorporated into practical implementation in stock enhancement programs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106421"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gustavo Campos Bueno Dias , Aline Freitas-de-Melo , Juan Pedro Bottino , Maria Jesús Frisch-Braga , Adroaldo José Zanella , Germana Vizzotto Osowski , Raquel Pérez-Clariget , Rodolfo Ungerfeld
{"title":"Multiparous ewes have greater mating success when competing with nulliparous ones","authors":"Gustavo Campos Bueno Dias , Aline Freitas-de-Melo , Juan Pedro Bottino , Maria Jesús Frisch-Braga , Adroaldo José Zanella , Germana Vizzotto Osowski , Raquel Pérez-Clariget , Rodolfo Ungerfeld","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106443","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106443","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The hypothesis of this study was that multiparous ewes are more attractive to rams than nulliparous ewes, leading to more intense courtship and mating displays by rams in competitive environments. Thus, this study aimed to compare the sexual interactions of multiparous or nulliparous estrous ewes tested together or individually with sexually active males. Seven sexually experienced Corriedale rams, 21 multiparous, and 21 nulliparous Corriedale ewes were used. Competitive and individual sexual behavior tests were performed for 3 consecutive days immediately after estrous detection. Seven rams were tested with seven different dyads of one multiparous and one nulliparous female daily, totaling 14 ewes per day. The competitive sexual behavioral test evaluated a ram together in a pen with one multiparous ewe and one nulliparous ewe for 10 min. In the individual sexual behavioral test, each ram was tested twice for 10 min, with the same multiparous and nulliparous females used in the competitive sexual tests. The sexual behaviors of rams were recorded in both tests, and ewes' behaviors were registered in the competitive sexual tests. During the competitive sexual tests, rams approached, mated, and tended to sniff the multiparous ewes before the nulliparous ewes (p=0.03; p=0.01; p=0.056, respectively). In those tests, rams mated the multiparous ewes more efficiently than nulliparous ones (p=0.002), meaning that rams mounted multiparous fewer times to ejaculate. The number of flehmens and their length were greater in nulliparous than in multiparous (0.01 and 0.002, respectively). The nulliparous ewes urinated more times and tended to do it in greater duration and tended to walk more than the multiparous (p=0.01; p=0.06; p=0.08, respectively). During the individual sexual behavioral tests, rams showed no differences in the sexual behaviors displayed toward multiparous and nulliparous females. In conclusion, multiparous ewes were preferred as sexual partners over nulliparous ewes, with rams showing greater efficiency in ejaculating with multiparous ewes. This increased sexual attractiveness was primarily due to the ewes' attractive signals rather than their proceptive behaviors. However, multiparous and nulliparous ewes were courted and mated similarly when rams had no choice, increasing the likelihood of reproduction in both groups. While nulliparous ewes signaled their reproductive status more frequently through urination, this signal did not compensate for the other signals provided by multiparous ewes, which contributed to their higher sexual attractiveness. These findings offer practical insights, emphasizing the importance of separating multiparous and nulliparous ewes to optimize reproductive outcomes in collective breedings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106443"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jakub Pacoń, Barbara Kosińska-Selbi, Jarosław Wełeszczuk, Joanna Kochan, Wojciech Kruszyński
{"title":"Modelling behavior of Crested gecko (Correlophus ciliatus) using classification algorithms","authors":"Jakub Pacoń, Barbara Kosińska-Selbi, Jarosław Wełeszczuk, Joanna Kochan, Wojciech Kruszyński","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Animal behavior plays a crucial role in evolution of many species. Many studies focused on animal behavior enhance the ability to collect large and detailed data. However, this kind of data is surpassing the capability of traditional statistical methods for analysis. In this study we propose to use artificial intelligence (AI) with machine learning models (ML) as tools to study animal behavior and potentially assumed evolution patterns in their behavior. For the Crested gecko (<em>Correlophus ciliatus</em>), some guidelines have been published regarding the breeding of these reptiles, focusing on their behavior. However, little is known about moderating their behavior using AI and advanced ML algorithms. In this study, based on information collected from twenty individuals, we proposed building a supervised classifier model using simple Decision Tree classifier (DT), Gradient Boosting classifier (GB) and Extreme Gradient Boosting classifier (XGBoost). Our results show that the highest accuracy (above 60 %) was achieved for variables which were not complex in terms of animal behavior. The analysis presented in this study, demonstrates that it is possible to model Crested Gecko behavior using ML models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106436"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Heather W. Neave , Jean-Loup Rault , Emma Hvidtfeldt Jensen , Margit Bak Jensen
{"title":"Salivary oxytocin response of dairy cows to nursing and permanent separation from their calves, and the influence of the cow-calf bond","authors":"Heather W. Neave , Jean-Loup Rault , Emma Hvidtfeldt Jensen , Margit Bak Jensen","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106429","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106429","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Oxytocin is a hormone involved in milk let-down, facilitating maternal behavior and parent-young bonding, and attenuating the stress response under challenge, but the release of oxytocin also appears to be dependent upon the social context. Dairy cows are commonly separated from their calves at birth, preventing maternal behavior and the establishment of a social bond. The growing interest in maintaining cow-calf contact provides a practically relevant context to study how oxytocin is affected by differing levels of cow-calf contact. Furthermore, the oxytocinergic system is likely affected by the stress of permanent cow-calf separation, depending on weaning method and strength of the cow-calf bond. Dairy cows were managed with full-time (23 h/d of calf contact), part-time (10 h/d of calf contact) or no calf contact (separated 48 h after birth), and then weaned by either: 50 % reduction in original calf contact time in wk 8 and 9 (‘reduced-contact’), or calf contact time remained unchanged (‘unchanged-contact’). Permanent separation from their calves occurred at wk 10 (n=14 for each treatment combination). Saliva was sampled in wk 8 before and after a nursing event over 3d, and in wk 10 before and after permanent separation (2 h after, and every 24 h thereafter for 3d), and analysed for oxytocin concentration. Cow-calf bond was measured as: motivation for cows to reunite with their calves (pressure cows were willing to exert on a weighted gate), and frequency and duration of social interactions between dam and calf. Cows with the most opportunity for calf contact (full-time; unchanged-contact) tended to have higher oxytocin concentrations around nursing, and oxytocin concentration around nursing tended to be positively related to proportion of total daily time together spent in physical contact. Over the 4-d post separation period, oxytocin response was generally stable for cows with male calves, but the pattern was variable for cows with female calves and in opposing directions for full- and part-time cows. Reduced-contact cows had greater oxytocin concentration over the separation period than unchanged-contact cows, but only if they had a male calf. In unchanged-contact cows, the oxytocin response to separation tended to increase if the cow-calf bond was stronger. These results highlight the complexity of the oxytocin response to different social situations, which depended on prior level of calf contact, calf sex, and strength of the cow-calf bond. Future research should explore how management practices influence social bonds and the oxytocinergic system, given their role in modulating stress resilience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106429"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How to write a good Revision Note","authors":"Péter Pongrácz, Irene Camerlink","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106445","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106445","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"280 ","pages":"Article 106445"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142662082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna C. Trevarthen , Agustina Resasco , Emily M. Finnegan , Elizabeth S. Paul , Michael T. Mendl , Carole Fureix
{"title":"An exploration of the postural, location- and social contact- related sub-characteristics of inactive but awake behaviour as a depression-like indicator in mice","authors":"Anna C. Trevarthen , Agustina Resasco , Emily M. Finnegan , Elizabeth S. Paul , Michael T. Mendl , Carole Fureix","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106431","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106431","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Inactive behaviour is essential to life. However, specific forms of inactivity may be indicative of compromised welfare in certain captive conditions. Inactive but awake behaviour (IBA - spontaneous, motionless awake behaviour without interacting with the surroundings) has been documented in some species and may be associated with poor welfare and negatively valenced affective states. In our previous work in laboratory mice, we have identified environmental risk factors (non-enriched housing) and curative factors (antidepressant drug Venlafaxine) for IBA and we hypothesise that greater levels of IBA may represent a depression-like state in this species. Here we aimed to identify which specific sub-characteristics of IBA would show construct validity as a depression-like state by exploring the posture (i.e. lying, curled lying or sitting), social contact position (i.e. in physical contact with a cage mate or not) and location of mice while performing the behaviour during two experiments (respectively investigating the aetiology and the curative factors of IBA). In both experiments we expected that more IBA would be displayed in standard (non-enriched) laboratory cages, compared with large highly-enriched cages and that a move from a highly-enriched to a non-enriched cage would increase IBA, while the opposite treatment would result in a decrease. In our second experiment (curative factors investigation), we predicted that less IBA would be displayed by mice that voluntarily ingested an antidepressant (Venlafaxine) <em>versus</em> a placebo. Because we could not control the number of instances of each IBA sub-characteristic we measured and we had no a <em>priori</em> predictions about which IBA sub-characteristics would match our general IBA treatment predictions, we compared the effect size and the direction of the effect between our treatment groups to explore which of the sub-characteristics matched our general IBA predictions. Overall, we found little variation in the location IBA was performed, with the majority being seen in the nest. Across treatment comparisons in both experiments, overall, the largest effect sizes were measured for IBA performed when in contact with the cage mate and performed when lying and both characteristics generally matched the direction of our treatment-related predictions. We suggest that future work should perform more detailed analyses of the specific characteristics of IBA by identifying behavioural sequences and the co-occurrence of the sub-characteristics to obtain a more complete picture of IBA as a depression-like indicator.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"281 ","pages":"Article 106431"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142658699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dana L.M. Campbell, Madan Lal Kamboj, Vijay Pal Singh, Kris Descovich
{"title":"Preface for the special issue of the 54th international congress of the ISAE","authors":"Dana L.M. Campbell, Madan Lal Kamboj, Vijay Pal Singh, Kris Descovich","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105807","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105807","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"261 ","pages":"Article 105807"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9708102/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9564174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is diagnostic performance of SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs reduced -due to virus variation- over the time?","authors":"Elcin Ozgur-Buyukatalay , Yasemin Salgirli Demirbas , Gulendam Bozdayi , Gorkem Kismali , Mustafa Necmi Ilhan","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105825","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105825","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Medical detection dogs have a high potential for use as alternative diagnostic tools not only for organic diseases, but also for infectious diseases. However, new variants emerging over time may affect the accuracy and sensitivity of diagnostic methods including medical detection dogs in case of viral pandemics. To the best of our knowledge, this is a pioneer study aimed to investigate diagnostic performances and generalization ability of SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs against the new variant after being trained with the original virus. Two SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs were used in this study. In total, 1002 samples including the Omicron variant were introduced to the dogs using a double-blinded design. Two different refresher training sessions were conducted to train the dogs to identify the scent of the Omicron variant. In the first refreshment training, mixed samples (original virus and Omicron variant) were used. The diagnostic performances of the dogs were significantly increased only after the second refreshment training where only the Omicron variant was introduced. This study illustrates that diagnostic performances of SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs were not consistent over time with the emerging new variants. Thus, refreshment training with new variant(s) should be conducted with every new variant which may affect the diagnostic performances of those dogs in such infectious outbreaks.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 105825"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9788989/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9210594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}