Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season

Abstract

Background: The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of floor enrichment with rubber mattress of calving pen on prepartum
calving behaviour of Tharparkar cow during the winter season.
Methods: A total 28 Tharparkar cows were taken in study during winter season (November to March) and divided into two groups
each contain 14 animals. One group placed in floor enriched with rubber mattress and other group kept on bare concrete floor calving
pen. Preparturient behaviours like lying time, standing time, lying bout duration, number of lying bouts, rumination time ,rumination
bouts, self grooming and frequency of self grooming were evaluated on -12 hr, -7th day, -14th day and -21st day prepartum for period
of 12 hr in a day. Repeated Meausures ANOVA was used for the analysis of the data.
Result: It was found that lying time, lying bout duration was significantly more in rubber mattress group as compare to concrete floor.
However, 12 hr before parturition standing time was significantly high compare to any other observational day within the group.
Similarly, rubber mattress had positive effect on rumination time, lying duration and self grooming frequency as compare to bare
concrete floor. It was concluded that rubber mattress had beneficial effect in calving pen of Tharparkar cow during winter season due
to its softness and insulating property. It provided comfort and warmth to the parturient cows. which was evident by increase in
rumination time, more lying duration and reduced self grooming frequency

Full text

Volume Issue 1
B-4707
[1-6]
RESEARCH ARTICLE Indian Journal of Animal Research
Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving
Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter
Season
Vandana, Mukesh Singh, Brijesh Kumar, G.K. Gaur,
Med Ram Verma, A.K.S. Tomar, Triveni Dutt 10.18805/IJAR.B-4707
INTRODUCTION
The provision of a comfortable environment around
parturition minimises the risk of dystocia and enhances the
subsequent health of the cow and calf (Mee, 2004). Calving
is an essential and natural phenomenon to initiate lactation
and maintain the lineage. However, parturition is stress full
and intensive management of cattle in late pregnancy is
essential to ensure neonatal and maternal survival, health
and welfare. Comfortable housing with proper flooring is vital
for adequate rest, sleep and to exhibit normal behaviour.
Straw is the choice of bedding as it is easily available and
has good insulation property. However, due to shortage of
dry fodder, farmers are widely using bare concrete flooring.
Concrete flooring is hygienic and maintenance free but
causes abnormal standing, lying and transitional
movements, as well as reduced traction, which can lead to
injuries Cozzi et al. (2013). When given the choice, cattle
prefer other flooring substrates, such as straw, wood chips
or rubber mats as compared to concrete alone (Schutz and
Cox, 2014). In recent years, rubber mats and wooden slats
have also begun to use as alternative flooring materials.
Impact of the various flooring materials on the dairy
performance, welfare and health of the cows were
investigated by several researchers (Vanegas et al., 2006;
Norring et al., 2010). In the last 10 years, there has been a
growing body of literature investigating the enrichment,
design and management of an appropriate calving site when
provided in an indoor calving facility (Rørvang et al., 2017a,
2018a; Proudfoot et al., 2019). The alternate or modification
to conventional concrete floor particularly in winter is having
great role. However, very limited reports are available on
effect of floor enrichment with soft rubber mattress during
winter season on preparturient behaviour in Tharpakar cows
(Bos indicus). Therefore, the present study was designed
to investigate the effect of floor enrichment with rubber
mattress of calving pen on prepartum behaviour of
Tharparkar cow during winter season.
Livestock Production and Management Section, ICAR-Indian
Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly-243 122, Uttar
Pradesh, India.
Corresponding Author: Brijesh Kumar, Division of Animal
Reproduction, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar,
Bareilly-243 122, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Email: drbrijeshvet02@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Vandana, Singh, M., Kumar, B., Gaur,
G.K., Verma, M.R., Tomar, A.K.S. and Dutt, T. (2021). Effect of
Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on
Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season.
Indian Journal of Animal Research. DOI: 10.18805/IJAR.B-4707.
Submitted: 06-07-2021 Accepted: 10-11-2021 Online: 09-12-2021
ABSTRACT
Background: The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of floor enrichment with rubber mattress of calving pen on prepartum
calving behaviour of Tharparkar cow during the winter season.
Methods: A total 28 Tharparkar cows were taken in study during winter season (November to March) and divided into two groups
each contain 14 animals. One group placed in floor enriched with rubber mattress and other group kept on bare concrete floor calving
pen. Preparturient behaviours like lying time, standing time, lying bout duration, number of lying bouts, rumination time ,rumination
bouts, self grooming and frequency of self grooming were evaluated on -12 hr, -7th day, -14th day and -21st day prepartum for period
of 12 hr in a day. Repeated Meausures ANOVA was used for the analysis of the data.
Result: It was found that lying time, lying bout duration was significantly more in rubber mattress group as compare to concrete floor.
However, 12 hr before parturition standing time was significantly high compare to any other observational day within the group.
Similarly, rubber mattress had positive effect on rumination time, lying duration and self grooming frequency as compare to bare
concrete floor. It was concluded that rubber mattress had beneficial effect in calving pen of Tharparkar cow during winter season due
to its softness and insulating property. It provided comfort and warmth to the parturient cows. which was evident by increase in
rumination time, more lying duration and reduced self grooming frequency.
Key words: Floor enrichment, Prepartum behaviour, Rubber mattress, Tharparkar cow, Winter season.

Indian Journal of Animal Research
2
Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Location of the study
The present study was carried out at Cattle and Buffalo Farm,
Livestock Production and Management Section, Indian
Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, UP, India.
The institute is located at an altitude of 568 ft above the
mean sea level, at latitude of 28.22N and longitude of
79.22E. The climatic condition of the place touches both
the extreme viz. cold (approximately 5C in winter) and hot
(approximately 45C in summer).The relative humidity
ranges between 15 and 85 per cent and average rainfall
about 90 to 120 cm.
Source of experimental animals and animal selection
A total of 28 advance pregnant (six week prepartum)
Tharparkar cows maintained at Cattle and Buffalo Farm,
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar which were
belonging from 2nd to 4th parity, were considered for the study.
The experiment was conducted during winter season i.e.
November, 2020 to March 2021. All 28 animals were
uniformly divided based on the parity into 2 groups i.e. 14
animals in each group. One group was transferred to pen
with concrete floor which was considered as control group,
whereas, another group was transferred to pen with rubber
mattress and considered as treatment group. They were
transferred to calving pen 6 weeks before expected date of
their calving. The specifications of rubber mattress were 5 x
8 feet, thickness 1.5 cm, tensile strength 3.0-3.5 MPA and
weight 14 kg.
Housing of experimental animals
Animals were maintained under loose housing system with
1/3rd covered and 2/3rd open parturition pen with pucca
flooring. During winter season cows were offered with adlib
green fodder chiefly Berseeem, Mustard sp and Barley and
some amount wheat straw along with optimum quantity of
concentrate mainly crushed maize, wheat bran, soyabean
meal, standard quantity of mineral mixture and salt and also
fresh clean water.
Recording of behaviours
For observing the various pre parturient behaviours of the
cow, video recording was done with a low light-intensity
camera and a time-lapse digital video recorder (Hik vision,
Turbo HD DVR, Country). Four cameras were fit in the
calving pen (two dome types and two bullet type) and one
camera was also placed in the open paddock. 40 W
Fluorescent lamps of 40 W capacity were installed in the
calving pen to facilitate the data recording at night hours.
All cows were given minimum ten days acclimatization period
before recording of actual behaviours and behaviours were
analyzed between 6.00 AM to 6.00 PM in a day. In brief the
important behviours like lying time describe total time spent
on lying in 12 hr of observational period similarly standing
time indicate duration standing in 12 hr and number and
duration of lying bouts indicate how many times cow sit in
12 hr and what was the average duration of a single lying
bout respectively. Total time spent on rumination 12 hr period
indicate the rumination time and in same period how many
set of times rumination activities were performed by cow
represent the rumination bout. Self grooming time indicate
the time spent by the animal on grooming her body by own
or scratching against some inanimate object like wall, pillers
etc. and the number of self grooming activities performed
by the animal in 12 hr recording period.
Statistical analysis
The effect of rubber mattress, day pre-partum and their
interaction on the dependent variables of prepartum
behaviors such as lyting time, lying bouts, standing time,
rumination time, frequency of self grooming was analyzed
by full factorial repeat measures Anova. The pair-wise
multiple comparisons between the groups was done by using
Tukey test. Significance was set at 95%. The analysis was
done by JMP 9.0 software.
Following general linear model was used for the analysis-
Where= kth observed value of the response variable for
ith group for the jth period.
= General mean effect.
= Random effect.
= Effect of ith group.
= Effect of the jth period.
= Interaction effect of ith group and jth period.
= Error term.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Cows clearly prefer lying surfaces with more bedding, and
spend more time lying down in well bedded stalls than in
those with little or no bedding (Tucker and Weary, 2004).
Softer lying surface reduces injuries to legs and also have
a positive effect on the lying behaviour and movements
(Haley et al., 2000; Rushen et al., 2007). Norring et al. (2010)
reported that installing soft rubber mats on concrete floor
can ameliorate the adverse effects of reduced bedding on
lying behavior. It appears that when a small amount of straw
is available, cows lie down more on soft rubber mats. Further
rubber mat have insulating property which is absent in bare
concrete flooring. Similar type of observation were reported
in winter calving of Tharparkar cow in present study wherein
prepartum lying time was relatively higher in floor with rubber
mattress as compare to bare concrete floor on each
prepartum observational day and significantly high
(315.4±10.40 min./12 h vs 269.14±14.80 min./12 h) on day
7 prepartum (Table 1) possibly air layers underneath the
rubber mat could have improved its thermal properties during
winter temperatures that ranged from +5°C to +18°C. On
the day of calving, there is an increase in the number of
standing bouts, possibly indicating restlessness Huzzey et al.
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Volume Issue 3
Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season
(2005). Significantly low lying time was recorded, 12 h before
prepartum as compared other days of prepartum in either
group. In contrast, preparturient cows spent significantly
more time in standing 12 h before calving as compare to
other days (Table 1 and 2).
During the last 24 h before parturition, cows managed
in the indoor housed conditions spent less time lying down
compared with previous days, showing a greater number
of shorter duration lying bouts  transitions between standing
and lying  per day (Jensen, 2012; Ouellet et al., 2016).
When the stalls were all bedded with the same small amount
of straw, the cows preferred stalls with soft rubber mats over
those with concrete Fregonesi et al. (2007). These findings
support the results of present study where lying bout
duration was relatively higher in rubber mattress group
compare to concrete floor. The lying bout duration was
significantly low on 12 hr prepartum as compare to any other
day of prepartum within the group. Similar finding where
reported by Titler et al. (2015) and Black and Krawezel,
2016, that lying bouts (transitions standing/ lying) increases
12 h and 24 h before calving and also frequency of transitions
from lying to standing Neave et al. (2017). In present study,
the frequency of lying bout was significantly higher in number
on 12 h prepartum as compared to other days (Fig 1 and 2)
during winter season.
Changes in the rumination behaviour were evaluated
as a signal of impending calving for cows housed in
confinement (Ouellet et al., 2016; Mishra et al., 2018). Soriani
et al. (2012) observed that rumination time declined
progressively in the week before parturition; further, on the
day of calving, it decreased 3 h compared with the dry period.
Calamari et al. (2014) found that the decrease in rumination
time on the day of calving was 70% on average of the dry
period. In the present study, rumination time significantly
decreased on 12 h prepartum in the both groups compared
to other days of prepartum. However, rumination time was
significantly higher on day 7 and 14 prepartum and
rumination bouts were higher on day 14 and 21 prepartum
in the rubber mattress group than that of concrete group
(Table 3 and 4).
Table 4: Prepartum rumination bouts (Mean ± SE) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
Groups Rumination bouts (no./12h) at different days of prepartum
-12 h -7th -14th -21st
Control 5.29±0.39aA 5.29±0.27aA 3.64±0.30bA 3.64±0.26bA
Treatment 4.4286±0.36aA 5.14±0.25aA 5.0±0.28aB 4.50±0.25aB
Different small case superscripts within a row indicate a significant difference, while upper case superscripts indicate a significant
difference within a column. Calving was considered as day 0.
Table 3: Prepartum Rumination time (Mean ± SE) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
Groups Rumination time (min/12h) at different days of prepartum
-12 h -7th -14th -21st
Control 170.36±3.97bA 191.07±8.21aA 185.71±6.51aA 195.92±7.16aA
Treatment 185.36±3.38bB 202.57±7.85aB 207.93±6.55aB 205.0±7.71aA
Different small case superscripts within a row indicate a significant difference, while upper case superscripts indicate a significant
difference within a column. Calving was considered as day 0.
Table 2: Prepartum standing time (Mean ± SE) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
Groups Standing time (min.)/12 hr at different days of prepartum
-12 h -7th -14th -21st
Control 493.78±13.59aA 450.85±14.80bA 443.85±12.18bA 430.64±15.25bA
Treatment 465.64±11.75 aA 404.57±10.40 bA 408.28±11.02bA 410.64±14.63bA
Different small case superscripts within a row indicate a significant difference, while upper case superscripts indicate a significant
difference within a column. Calving was considered as day 0.
Table 1: Prepartum lying time (Mean ± SE) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
Groups Lying time (min.)/12 hr at different days of prepartum
-12 h -7th -14th -21st
Control 226.21±13.59 bA 269.14±14.80aB 276.14±12.18aA 289.36±15.25aA
Treatment 254.35±11.75bA 315.43±10.40aA 311.71±11.02aA 309.36±14.64aA
Different small case superscripts within a row indicate a significant difference, while upper case superscripts indicate a significant
difference within a column. Calving was considered as day 0.

Indian Journal of Animal Research
4
Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season
Cows preferentially ruminate when lying down. Because
rubber mattress favoured the lying behavior, both the lying
time and lying bout duration were more in the cows of rubber
mattress group. Increased self grooming was associated
with elevated cortisol concentrations Matamala et al. (2021).
It follows that periparturient cattle may demonstrate
increased auto-grooming (Munksgaard and Simonsen,
1996; Kruk et al., 1998; Hussain et al., 2015) due to elevated
cortisol level at approaching parturition. Increased time as
well as frequency of self grooming in >90% pregnant
Tharparkar cows (Fig 3 and 4) of either group at 12 h before
calving is consistent with the above reports.
Jensen et al. (2012) and Lange et al. (2017) observed
that during the final 12 h prior to calving, multiparous cows
frequently turned their head toward their abdomens,
behaviour that increased during the final 2 h prior to calving
and typically occurred during contractions. Pain and
discomfort associated with abdominal contractions during
the second stage of parturition (Mainau and Manteca 2011)
likely explain that cows might be turning their head due to
-12th hr -7th d -14th d -21st d
0
10
20
30
40
Self grooming time
Pre par tum period
Self groom ing time (min.)/12 hr
Conventional floor (Pucca)
Floor en riched with rubber mattress
Fig 3: Self grooming time (Min./12hr) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
-12th hr -7th d -14th d -21st d
0
5
10
15
Lying bouts (no.)
Pre pa rtum perio d
Lying bouts (no./12h)
Conventional floor (Pucca)
Floor enriched with rubber mattress
Fig 2: Lying bout (No/12hr) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
-12th hr -7th d -14th d -21st d
0
50
100
150
Lying bout duration
Pre partum perio d
Lying bout dn(min.)/12 hr
Conventio nal floor (Pucca)
Floor e nriched with rubb er mattress
Fig 1: Lying bout duration (min/12hr) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.

Volume Issue 5
Effect of Floor Enrichment with Rubber Mattress of Calving Pen on Prepartum Behaviour of Tharparkar Cow during Winter Season
-12th hr-7th d -14th d -21st d
0
20
40
60
80
Pre p ar tu m p e ri od
Self groom ing bou ts (No./12h)
C on ven tion al floor (P uc ca )
Floor e n ric he d w ith rubb er mattres s
Self groo min g bouts
Fig 4: Self grooming bouts (No/12hr) of Tharparkar cows under different flooring regimes during winter season.
pain experienced during contractions as described by
Jensen et al.(2012), especially during the last hours before
calving. In present study also frequent turning of the head
were also observed and majority of the time cow lick the
abdomen with tongue and or rub their neck and shoulder
region against the pole.
CONCLUSION
It was observed from the above experiment that floor with
rubber mattress during winter season improved lying time,
lying bout duration, rumination time and decreases standing
time, self grooming time and frequency of self grooming as
compare to bare concrete floor. Therefore, the calving floor
with rubber mattress might be recommended for pregnant
Tharparkar cows during winter season as the rubber
mattress had beneficial effects on the wellbeing of animals.
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
We thank the Director, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research
Institute for providing necessary facilities and financial
support in carrying out this research work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflicts of interest reported by authors.
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