Is there vertical social transmission of the animal-human relationship between calves and their foster cows?

Social transmission of the animal-human relationship from mother to offspring has been found in horses, but we do not know whether it exists in cattle or other farmed animals. Vertical social transmission could facilitate a good animal-human relationship in calves raised by cows that have a good relationship with humans. We investigated the effect of a person interacting gently with foster cows on the later reactions of their foster calves toward humans. A total of 33 foster calves in 2 batches were assigned to 2 different treatments: 18 calves could observe a handler stroking and talking to their foster cow, and 15 calves only experienced the handler's presence and talking. Each calf experienced the respective treatment 5 times per week during the first 3 wk of life for 5 min/d. During the treatments, we recorded the behavior of the cows to assess whether they perceived the situation as positive. After the treatment period, we assessed the avoidance distance (AD) of the calves toward the handler and toward a less familiar person (the helper) in the home pen and the approach behavior and AD toward the handler in an unfamiliar environment. At ∼6 mo of age, we assessed the AD toward the handler and the helper of all available calves in the home pen. During the treatments, the cows displayed few behavioral signs of enjoyment, such as neck stretching or ear hanging. At 3 wk of age, we found no effect of the treatment on the calves' AD toward the handler or helper in the home pen, nor a significant effect on the AD or approach behavior toward the handler in the unfamiliar environment. The AD at ∼6 mo of age did not differ between the treatments. Calves that had the possibility to observe gentle interactions between a person and their foster cow did not have a better animal-human relationship than the calves experiencing the person's presence and talking alone. Because the cows did not show behavior indicative of enjoyment, the transmission of a positive animal-human relationship was impossible. In addition, direct learning effects might have occurred during the experiment, masking the effect of the treatment. Therefore, further investigations would be useful.

University of Life Sciences in Lublin
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Universität für Bodenkultur