Using qualitative behavior assessment to characterize maternal protective behavior in Nellore cows

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of qualitative behavior assessment (QBA) as a methodology to characterize the maternal protective behavior (MPB) in Nellore cows. The QBA was assessed by using visual analogue scales for 15 behavioral adjectives ('active', 'relaxed', 'fearful', 'agitated', 'calm', 'attentive', 'irritable', 'comfortable', 'aggressive', 'indifferent', 'tense', 'worried', 'distressed', 'interested' and 'permissive') as descriptors of MPB. This methodology consists in interpret the cow's body language and then quantifying each adjective along a 125 mm visual analogue scale. The adjectives values were obtained by measuring the distance in millimeters from the left edge to the observer's mark, considering the minimum as absence of expression and the maximum value, as the most intense expression of each trait. The method was applied in 275 cows 24 hours after calving, when the newborn calves were handled for navel care, ear tattooing and weighing. The data was analyzed using factor analysis with varimax rotation. The first factor, named reaction towards handling, explained 39.54% of total variance in the data set and represented a continuum between "relaxed-calm-permissive" that had the highest negative loadings (-0.86, -0.84, and -0.78, respectively), indicating the best response to handling; and "agitated-irritable-aggressive-distressed" that had the highest positive loadings (0.77, 0.73, 0.86, and 0.76, respectively), indicative of the worst response to handling. The second factor, described as attention to the newborn, explained 16.25% of the remainder variance, showing that more 'attentive' (0.92) and 'worried' (0.74) cows were less 'indifferent' (-0.91) towards the calves. These results clearly showed the possibility to separate interrelated behaviors. In conclusion, we found that QBA can discriminate different behavioral profiles of Nellore cows and, therefore, it can be considered a promising methodology to characterize maternal protective behavior in beef cattle.