Maria Vilain Rørvang

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden · Department of Biosystems and Technology

Pigs are widely acknowledged for their olfactory abilities. Research on pigs’ olfactory capacities has focused mainly on aspects of olfaction that directly impact production, such as palatability of feed and pheromones to stimulate reproduction. Several basic research questions remain unanswered, such as which odors do pigs like/dislike, and how ma...

Abstract: Although the highly developed olfactory apparatus of the domestic pig suggests that odours are important to pigs, little is known about pigs’ behaviour when exposed to olfactory stimuli. As part of a larger project on odour exploration in pigs, this study aimed to develop a scale to measure pigs’ immediate behavioural reactions to novel o...

Pigs are widely acknowledged for their olfactory abilities. Regardless, research on pigs' olfactory capacities has focused mainly on aspects of olfaction which directly impact production, such as palatability of feed and pheromones to stimulate reproduction. Several basic research questions remain unanswered, such as: which odors do pigs like/disli...

Pigs are highly motivated to explore their surroundings. When commercially kept pigs are often unable to satisfy their motivation for performing this behaviour, which can be detrimental for both animal welfare and farm economy due to high occurrence of damaging behaviour (e.g., tail biting). Despite the pig’s highly developed sense of smell, the po...

Introduction and aimAlthough the sense of smell in pigs is widely recognized as being highly developed, surprisingly little is known about their sensory ability. This study aimed to (a) identify which non-social odors pigs were able to detect and distinguish between, (b) investigate the types of behavior expressed when exploring odors and, (c) comp...

Invited talk on the topic: Animal perception and learning: key aspects to ensure positive welfare

Even though truffle-hunting pigs are well-known, research into the olfactory abilities of pigs is sparse. This study investigated olfaction by mapping the behaviour of pigs when exposed to non-social odours using a Habituation/Dishabituation test paradigm. The study included 96 pairs of Hampshire pigs, weighing 50-80 kg (13-16 weeks of age). Litter...

Pigs are widely acknowledged for their sense of smell, but how much do we know about this sensory modality in pigs? There are numerous basic questions that remain unanswered, such as: What odours are pigs able to smell? And what odours are they interested in? These questions need to be addressed to identify the odours best suited to enrich the life...

As herd-living animals, cattle have opportunities to observe and learn from others. While there is evidence of simpler processes of information transfer in cattle (social facilitation and stimulus enhancement), true social learning mechanisms in cattle remain largely unexplored. This study aimed to investigate if dairy cows possess cognitive abilit...

The ability of dairy cattle to adapt to husbandry systems and management routines is crucial for ensuring higher welfare and efficient production. However, this ability can be compromised by our limited knowledge of their cognitive abilities, which may result in suboptimal husbandry and management standards. In this narrative review, we highlight t...

In spite of a highly developed olfactory apparatus of horses, implying a high adaptive value, research on equine olfaction is sparse. Our limited knowledge on equine olfaction poses a risk that horse behavior does not match human expectations, as horses might react fearful when exposed to certain odors, which humans do not consider as frightening....

Presented at the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) annual meeting 2022, 19-22 June 2022, Kansas City, Missouri. Abstract no 1317, page 126. Citation: Nawroth, C., Rørvang, M V., 2022. How can the dairy industry benefit from cattle cognition research? J. Dairy Sci. 105 (suppl 1): 126 (abstract). Abstract: The process of learning arises fro...

Dairy cows are generally calm and compliant, but some management procedures can make cows fearful or stressed. Not only are fearful cattle a threat to human safety, but fear is also detrimental to animal welfare and productivity. This study aimed to test whether fear in small groups of dairy cattle could be attenuated by the presence of a calm and...

The ability of cattle to adapt to husbandry systems and routines is crucial for the functionality of the production. However, this ability can be compromised by our limited knowledge of their cognitive abilities, which may result in suboptimal husbandry and management standards. In this scoping review, we highlight three key topics of cattle cognit...

Dairy cows are generally docile, but some on-farm procedures can result in fear reactions, which can make cattle dangerous to handle. Fearful cattle are not only a threat to human safety, but also to animal welfare and productivity. This study investigated if fear in groups of dairy cattle could be attenuated by the presence of a calm companion. Tw...

Animals can acquire new behaviors through individual and social learning. Individual learning occurs through an individual’s own experience of trial and error, whereas social learning is influenced by observing or interacting with other individuals. This study aimed to investigate if dairy cows possess the cognitive abilities to acquire new behavio...

Many frameworks have assessed the ultimate and ontogenetic underpinnings in the development of object permanence, but less is known about whether individual characteristics, such as sex or training level, as well as proximate factors, such as arousal or emotional state, affect performance in these tasks. The current study investigated horses’ perfo...

Many frameworks have assessed the ultimate and ontogenetic underpinnings in the development of object permanence, but less is known about whether individual characteristics, such as sex or training level, as well as proximate factors, such as arousal or emotional state, affect performance in these tasks. The current study investigated horses’ perfo...

Object permanence refers to an individual’s understanding that an object continues to exist even though it is out of its sight. In their daily management, horses are often faced with novel and sudden stimuli (re-)appearing from occluded areas that potentially may elicit stress responses. Knowledge of horses’ ability to track hidden objects can thus...

The sense of olfaction plays a key role in the development and expression of behaviour in mammals. In spite of this, olfaction is rarely considered in horse training and equitation science. Knowledge about the olfactory abilities of horses is thus sparse although there may be potential to use olfaction in various situatuions. In this study, we inve...

Many frameworks have assessed the ultimate and ontogenetic underpinnings in the development of object permanence, but less is known about whether individual characteristics, such as sex or training level, as well as proximate factors, such as arousal or emotional state, affect performance in these tasks. The current study investigated horses' perfo...

In spite of the highly developed olfactory apparatus of horses, implying a high adaptive value, research on equine olfaction is sparse. Our limited knowledge poses a risk that horse behaviour does not match human expectations. The benefit of acquiring more knowledge of equine olfaction is therefore twofold; 1) it can aid the understanding of horse...

In spite of the highly developed olfactory apparatus of horses, implying a high adaptive value, research on equine olfaction is sparse. Our limited knowledge on equine olfaction poses a risk that horse behaviour does not match human expectations, as horses e.g. might react fearful when exposed to certain odours which humans do not consider as frigh...

Plenary presentation Abstract: Dairy cattle are managed in modern housing systems on a daily basis. Behaving in these systems requires different aspects of cognitive functioning, ranging from simply locating food, to manoeuvre e.g. an automatic milking robot. As our current knowledge about cattle cognition and learning is still limited we need to a...

Understanding the cognitive capacities of cattle is central when designing husbandry environments and developing handling regimes. In this chapter, we outline the current knowledge on cattle learning and cognition, with special emphasis on their socio-cognitive capacities. Cattle easily learn features and spatial cues and can remember these for a l...

Many breeding organisations include a subjective scoring of rideability by a professional rider into their evaluation of sports horses, but the consistency and reliability of the scoring system is debateable. The aim of this study was to investigate (i) whether professional riders agree in their scoring of rideability, and (ii) whether rideability...

Vision, hearing, olfaction, taste, and touch comprise the sensory modalities of most vertebrates. With these senses, the animal receives information about its environment. How this information is organized, interpreted, and experienced is known as perception. The study of the sensory abilities of animals and their implications for behavior is centr...

Animals can acquire new behavior through both individual and social learning. Several studies have investigated horses’ ability to utilize inter-species (human demonstrator) social learning with conflicting results. In this study, we repeat a previous study, which found that horses had the ability to learn from observing humans performing an instru...

Abstract: Successful reproduction is central for a sustainable dairy production. Housing peri-parturient cows in individual pens have been suggested as a means to ensure a successful calving and safeguard animal welfare. This practice is recommended in several countries worldwide. However, the underlying pre-partum maternal motivations of dairy cow...

Abstract: There are several mechanisms through which the behaviour of animals can be altered from observing others. These mechanisms are fundamentally different in terms of cognitive complexity, and range from simple hard-wired processes (social facilitation) to social enhancement of individual learning (local/stimulus enhancement) to genuine learn...

Abstract: Calving is a central event in dairy production, but may be overlooked from the perspective of animal welfare. In some countries, individual maternity pens are recommended based on scientific studies. Understanding the motivation underlying pre-partum behaviour may help manage cows to enable calving in a calm and secluded place, where they...

Use of individual maternity pens for dairy cows is recommended to ensure undisturbed calving and postpartum transfer of colostrum to calves, but management of these pens is a challenge due to difficulty predicting the time of calving. If group-housed cows, however, have the opportunity to calve in a secluded area of a group pen, this may limit dist...

• An on-farm assessment of keel bone, feet, plumage and skin damage was conducted in layers in small furnished cages to evaluate welfare implications. • Thirteen farms participated, all housing Lohmann LSL layers in systems allowing eight or 10 hens per cage. • Each flock was visited at three different ages: 32, 62 and 77 weeks. During each visit,...

Transmission of fear and attenuation of fear within groups of farm animals remain relatively unexplored, despite the importance for human and animal safety. This paper reports the results of two separate experiments, aiming to explore social transmission of habituation in horses at group level. In Experiment 1, the effect of a same-age demonstrator...

As group-living animals, horses are often assumed capable of acquiring new behaviour through social learning. Solid evidence of true social learning in horses is however lacking. Research on the topic includes a variety of studies, some of which may over-estimate the mental abilities of horses. Assuming such abilities in their absence can have detr...

Prima facie, the acquisition of novel behaviors in animals through observation of conspecifics seems straightforward. There are, however, various mechanisms through which the behavior of animals can be altered from observing others. These mechanisms range from simple hard-wired contagious processes to genuine learning by observation, which differ f...

Under natural conditions, cows seek isolation and visual cover when calving becomes imminent, but the degree of visual cover necessary to provide an attractive calving site is not known. When calving indoors, preparturient cows are attracted to other cows' birth fluids, and this may influence their isolation seeking. Therefore, we aimed to investig...

Abstract: The event of giving birth is an essential part of animal production. In dairy cattle production, substantial economical and welfare-related challenges arise around the time of calving, and hence focus is placed on efficient management of the parturient cow. Aiming to understand the biological basis of bovine pre-partum maternal behavior,...

The event of giving birth is an essential part of animal production. In dairy cattle production, there are substantial economical and welfare-related challenges arising around the time of parturition, and hence increased focus on efficient management of the calving cow. Drawing on the research literature on prepartum maternal behavior, this review...

In order to improve animal welfare it is recommended that dairy farmers move calving cows from the herd to individual pens when calving is imminent. However, the practicality of moving cows has proven a challenge and may lead to disturbance of the cows rather than easing the process of calving. One solution may be to allow the cow to seek isolation...

Cow performing the last step in the training procedure for cows housed with functional gates. The video mimics the training situation as this particular cow is not an experimental cow. She was trained on randomly chosen pens and with the five other group members present. Prior to this take, the cow has been successful in all the previous training s...

Data. The data sheet provided for this study includes all necessary information in order to recalculate the results of the study. The sheet has one horizontal line for each individual cow in the experiment and each cow has its own identification number (‘cow_number’). All subsequent columns has an explanation line on the top of the sheet and whenev...

The sense of smell is likely to influence the behaviour of domestic and captive animals in a wide range of management and housing situations. In domestic cattle, there may be unexploited potential for using odours and olfaction in the management; however, published studies on bovine olfactory capacity are scarce. By applying an olfactory Habituatio...

Highlights: - Isolation seeking was influenced by social aspects: Dominant cows had the highest chance of calving in a calving pen. - The presence of an alien calf lowered the chance of calving in a calving pen. - We found no effect of a closing gate in calving pens on isolation seeking. The poster won the Best Poster Award, voted by the confer...

Olfaction is the main sensory modality in the majority of mammalian species, playing a key role in their interactions with the environment. However, the link between chemical signals and animal behaviour has often been ignored, especially with respect to large domestic species. In cattle, there may be unexploited potential for using odours and olfa...

In modern calving facilities dairy cows either calve in a group pen or are moved to a separate individual pen when calving is imminent. In practice, cows are often moved too close to calving, which poses a health risk to cow and calf. Thus, a need exists for new calving facility designs and management practices that better align with the motivation...

A calving cow and her newborn calf appear to have an attracting effect on periparturient cows, which may potentially influence the functionality of future motivation-based calving pen designs. In this pilot study we examined whether calving site selection of group-housed Holstein dairy cows was affected by the site of a previous calving. Ten multip...

Among ungulates, amniotic fluids and placenta contain olfactory cues that stimulate maternal behaviour and facilitate establishment of the mother-offspring bond. On pasture, cow’s attraction to amniotic fluids starts hours before calving, and might play a role in calving site selection. This pilot study investigated calving site selection when amni...

Parturition is painful and dystocia is associated with both economical loses and compromised animal welfare. Previous studies have shown that dairy cows prefer shelter at calving (Proudfoot et al. , J. Anim. Sci. 97: 2731-2739, 2014) and that moving the cow late before calving prolongs the process of calving (Proudfoot et al., J. Dairy Sci. 96: 163...

Parturition is an essential but however risky process for the dairy cow. Calving difficulty is known to be associated with both economical loses and compromised animal welfare. Late moving of the cow before calving and housing in free stalls have been found to prolong the process of calving. However, it is still not known whether the design of the...

Habituated horses have been found to have a calming effect on conspecifics in fear-eliciting situations. In practice, experienced horses are often used as companions when young horses are introduced to potentially frightening situations, like loading onto a trailer. However, studies of social transmission of habituation in horses are scarce. This s...

Social animals should have plenty of opportunities to learn from conspecifics, but most studies have failed to document social learning in horses. This study investigates whether young Icelandic horses can learn a spatial detour task through observation of a trained demonstrator horse of either the same age (Experiments 1 and 2, n = 22) or older (E...

Social animals should have plenty of opportunities to learn from conspecifics, but most studies have failed to document social learning in horses. This study investigated the ability of young Icelandic horses (n=46, 2-3 years old) to learn a spatial detour task by observing a trained, familiar and dominant demonstrator of either the same age (Exper...

Habituated horses have been found to have a calming effect on conspecifics, and this study investigated whether a habituated demonstrator influenced the willingness of young Icelandic horses (2-3 years old) to cross a novel surface. All horses were initially trained to go through a 4-m opening in a fence to obtain food. In Experiment 1 (n=22), a wh...