24-h sheltering behaviour of individually kept horses during Swedish summer weather
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- 作者：Elke Hartmann ; Richard J Hopkins ; Claudia von Brömssen…
- 关键词：Equine ; Shelter ; Behaviour ; Weather ; Insects
- 刊名：Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
- 出版年：2015
- 出版时间：December 2015
- 年：2015
- 卷：57
- 期：1
- 全文大小：1,067 KB
- 刊物主题：Veterinary Medicine;
- 出版者：BioMed Central
- ISSN：1751-0147
文摘
Background Provision of shelter for horses kept on summer pasture is rarely considered in welfare guidelines, perhaps because the benefits of shelter in warm conditions are poorly documented scientifically. For cattle, shade is a valued resource during summer and can mitigate the adverse effects of warm weather on well-being and performance. We found in a previous study that horses utilized shelters frequently in summer. A shelter with a roof and closed on three sides (shelter A) was preferred and can reduce insect pressure whereas a shelter with roof and open on three sides was not utilized. However, shelter A restricts the all-round view of a horse, which may be important for horses as flight animals. Therefore, we studied whether a shelter with roof, where only the upper half of the rear wall was closed (shelter B), would be utilized while maintaining insect protection properties and satisfying the horses’ sense for security. A third shelter was offered with walls but no roof (shelter C) to evaluate whether the roof itself is an important feature from the horse’s perspective. Eight Warmblood horses were tested each for 2 days, kept individually for 24 h in two paddocks with access to shelters A and B, or shelters A and C, respectively. Shelter use was recorded continuously during the night (1800–2400 h, 0200–0600 h) and the following day (0900–1600 h), and insect defensive behaviour (e.g., tail swish) in instantaneous scan samples at 5-min intervals during daytime.