Injections of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) have often been used to make infectious disease model. We examined the effects of a lower dose of LPS on respiration rate, rectal temperature, and maintenance behaviour, especially resting behaviour of steers to help to detect the early stage of illness. Six steers (6-6.5 months) were intravenously injected both with LPS (0.005 μg/kg of BW) and with saline as a control using a crossover design. Rectal temperature and respiration rate were recorded just before injection, at 1h intervals during 6h after injection and 12h after the injection. Behaviour was continually sampled for 12 h. We defined lying without rumination as resting behaviour and classified it into following resting behaviour categories (1) Lying vigilance (LV: head lifted up and moving actively without ruminating), (2) Behaviourally estimated NREM sleep (NREM: head lifted up and still if the behaviours lasted at least 16 s), (3) Behaviourally estimated REM sleep (REM: head resting against body or ground if the behaviours lasted at least 16 s). The effects of LPS on resting behaviors were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. And the effects of LPS on respiratory rate and rectal temperature were analyzed using the two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Steers showed significant increase in respiration rate during 1 and 3 h and in rectal temperature during 2, 3, and 4 h after the LPS injection (P <0.05). The average rectal temperature never increased more than 39.5 °C maximum. LPS did not affect the total time spent resting, LV and REM. On the other hand, LPS significantly increased the time spent NREM (control vs LPS: 45.3±26.0 min vs 79.8±26.7 min; P <0.05). LPS did not influence the mean duration of NREM, but significantly increased the frequency of NREM (P <0.05). In the present study, we could mimic mild physiological responses during the beginning of acute gram-negative bacterial infection. Although overall time spent resting was not influenced in such a mild infection, more detailed analysis of resting behaviour, such as behavioural status of NREM sleep analyzed in the present study could be an indicator of early onset of illness.

Controlling competition around limited resources such as shared feeding and watering areas has become important for group breeding. To investigate cow brush usage preferences for paddock usage improvement, we observed 15 Japanese Black cattle from 3 days before brush installation (control period) to 2 weeks after brush installation (experiment period). Two cow brushes were installed in a test paddock of Ibaraki University that was divided into 25 sections for descriptive purposes. The numbers of animals in the respective sections, daily frequencies of agonistic behaviour (physical, non-physical) around the hay trough, and daily frequencies of maintenance behaviours were recorded. The cow brush usage status (frequency, duration, and number of animals using cow brushes), agonistic behaviours around cow brushes, and brush investigative behaviours were also recorded for each cow. For each paddock section, the numbers of animals during the control and the experiment period were significantly different (χ²=49.5, df=24, P<0.05). The numbers of animals around the brush section were particularly greater after brush installation. Nevertheless, little change was observed for the section near the hay trough. Furthermore, no difference was observed in frequencies of physical and non-physical agonistic behaviours or in the percentages of the maintenance behaviours in the respective periods. The cow brush usage status and agonistic behaviours around brushes were not different between the two cow brushes, but investigative behaviours for each cow brush decreased significantly over time (F_(5,70)＝9.719, P＝0.001). In conclusion, results show that paddock usage can be altered by cow brush installation. However, improvement of specific resource usage, such as that of shared hay troughs, was slight.

At zoos in Japan, reindeers have been attacked by stable fly and be affected thereby. Flumethrin is known as an effective formulation against horn fly and cow ticks. We counted the numbers of stable fly attacking reindeer and incidences of grooming behavior in reindeer at Akita Omoriyama Zoo. We applied 10 ml of flumethrin 1% formulation to the limbs and abdomens of three male reindeer by spraying. In the three days before treatment and on the third and twelfth days after treatment, we observed the grooming behavior at every minute from 10:00 to 15:00, and counted the number of stable fly on the reindeer body surface visually and from a video camera. Compared with three days before treatment, using the Mann-Whitney test, the maximum number of stable fly and shivering action of reindeer at the third day after treatment decreased significantly (p<0.05), and the incidence of feeding behavior increased significantly (p<0.05). The duration time of feeding behavior was significantly increased on the third and twelfth days after application (p<0.05). The grooming behavior results showed good confirmation of Kondo et al. (1994).

We collected blood from a male donkey by husbandry training using positive reinforcement. The training procedure was as follows: 1) excitatory conditioning, 2) lead the donkey to the area where the blood will be drawn using a target and stay, 3) systematic desensitization of the blood collection area, and 4) needle insertion. Blood collection was first achieved during the 24th session from the start of training. This method of blood collection was in accordance with animal welfare because we used positive reinforcement.