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Grant support

Research was suported by the grants EC AIR3-CT94-1124, INIA RZP 2004-08 and INIA RTA 2005-0231 (from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain and the European Regional Development Funds) and the Research Group A11 "Agro-silvo-pastoral Systems", Government of Aragon, Spain). G.Q. spent 3 months in CITA de Aragon with a grant from Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA, Treinta y Tres, Uruguay).

Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Sanz, AlbinaCorresponding Author

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November 26, 2024
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Article
Hybrid Gold

Mother-offspring bonding revisited: A blueprint for the future of beef cattle farming

Publicated to:Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 277 106346- - 2024-07-03 277(), DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106346

Authors: Sanz, Albina; Blanco-Penedo, Isabel; Quintans, Graciela; Alvarez-Rodriguez, Javier

Affiliations

Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon CITA, Avda Montanana 930, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author
Inst Nacl Invest Agr, Treinta y Tres, Uruguay - Author
Swedish Univ Agr Sci, Dept Clin Sci, Uppsala, Sweden - Author
Univ Lleida, Dept Ciencia Anim, Ave Rovira Roure 191, Lleida 25198, Spain - Author
Univ Zaragoza, Inst Agroalimentario Aragon IA2, CITA, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
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Abstract

This review summarizes the status of the art of cow-calf relationships at birth and during lactation, including the physiological mechanisms throughout suckling/nursing and weaning which can impact on productive and reproductive parameters, social behaviour across the mother-offspring pairs, and the required positive cow-calf welfare approach in beef cattle. The time spent close to the calf after birth, latency to nurse, nursing time, grooming and vocalisations can be considered fair proxies of oxytocin release and maternal care during the neonatal period. Besides, maternal contact during the first days after parturition will be crucial to guarantee the adequate establishment of mother-offspring bonding and the correct social and emotional development of young calf in beef cattle. During lactation, restricted nursing systems have been demonstrated as cost-effective management alternatives to improve reproductive herd performance. As artificial weaning of calves is considered a significant stressor in the lives of beef cattle, the use of a fence-line or the two-step weaning have been proposed, although no clear benefits in reducing cow-calf distress have been found. Modelling the perspective from a productive to a welfare approach in a beef cattle system is required. The ability of cows and calves to engage in voluntary, self-generated and goal-directed behaviour must be considered in the design of tailored management practices that maintain the trade-off between animal performance, cow-calf interactions, and positive mental state. Likewise, social interactions may be considered as part of environmental optimization to provide cow-calf pairs with opportunities for positive experiences and improve cattle welfare. The Five Domains Model is proposed to develop welfare-orientated management strategies considering aspects such as maternal deprivation, behavioural stress and socio-emotional development in beef cattle. This holistic approach of mother-offspring bonding focused on nutrition (Domain 1), physical environment (Domain 2), health (Domain 3), behavioural interactions (Domain 4) and animal 's mental state (Domain 5) will help to improve management decisions and cow-calf welfare state. Some management recommendations and opportunities for future studies to deeply enlarge the welfare perspective in the dyad are discussed.

Keywords

Affiliative behaviourBienestar animalBos-indicusCalvesComportamiento animalCow-calf separationCowsDesteteFive domains modeFive domains modelGrowtLactaciónLuteinizing-hormone secretionMastectomized cowsMaternal behaviourMaternal protective behaviorNursingOvulationPostpartum intervalSuckling-mediated inhibitionVacas de críaWeaningZero hunger

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 28/55, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Behavioral Sciences.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-07-04:

  • WoS: 5
  • Scopus: 5

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-04:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 24.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 35 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/10532/7144
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 2 - Zero hunger, with a probability of 0% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Sweden; Uruguay.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Sanz Pascua, Albina) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Sanz Pascua, Albina.