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Domestic cats ( Felis catus ) currently occupy the 38th place in the Global Invasive Species Database. Free-roaming cats potentially have broad-ranging impacts on wildlife, occupying most terrestrial environments globally as house pets, strays, or feral animals. In Australia, for example, cats are responsible for the decline in many vertebrate populations and extinction of several native mammals. However, in Brazil, few studies have explored either direct impacts of predation on wildlife, or other indirect impacts, such as competition for resources, niche overlap, hybridization, and disease transmission. In this review, we summarize and discuss 34 original research reports, published between 2001 and 2020, on impacts of free-roaming cats in Brazil. We briefly contextualize the history of cat domestication and present that, in Brazil, more studies have focused on the potential of free-roaming cats to transmit disease than to exert impacts via predation or competition on wildlife. More studies were conducted in Brazilian mainland areas ( n = 23)-notably in Atlantic Forest-than on islands ( n = 11). The review highlights potential impacts of cats on wildlife. We also discuss how control management strategies can affect the welfare of domestic cats, identifying potential knowledge gaps as well as opportunities for future research. Finally, understanding risks of cat predation is necessary to inform future measures to mitigate impacts on wildlife, without neglecting cat welfare.

The reactivity of primiparous goats during milking can significantly affect animal welfare and performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the progression of milking reactivity during lactation and its effects at early lactation on milk yield, milk quality, and plasma cortisol concentration in primiparous Saanen goats. The milking reactivity of 31 primiparous Saanen goats was evaluated on days 10, 30, and 60 of the lactation period by scoring step-kick behavior (SK) and head, ear, and tail movements (MOV). Milk yield, milk protein and fat percentages, somatic cell count (SCC), and plasma cortisol concentration were measured on day 10 of lactation. Goats' milking reactivity was classified as low or high (according to the SK and MOV scores measured on day 10 of lactation). SK and MOV scores decreased over the lactation period, indicating that the goats habituated to the milking procedures. Milking reactivity only affected milk fat percentage, with the less reactive goats having more milk fat than the highly reactive ones. There was no evidence of stress when goats were subjected to milking procedures during early lactation. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationships of milking reactivity with stress response and their effects on milk yield and quality.

The management of the thermal environment to which dogs are exposed should be included in strategies to improve their welfare. An online questionnaire was administered to 624 owners of Siberian Husky dogs residing in Brazil, with the objective of assessing their perceptions regarding their dogs' capacity to adapt to heat, and its association with the owners' routine care. Owners who believed that dogs are low-heat-tolerant animals were more likely to report heat response behaviors from their dogs. Overall, owners reported walk with their dogs during early morning, late afternoon and nighttime. They also reported solar radiation as the primary criteria for determining the time to walk with their dogs. However, owners who reported walking with their dogs at noon mentioned time availability as their primary criteria. In conclusion, owners perceive Siberian Husky dogs living in Brazil as being poorly adapted to heat, and this perception appeared to influence their positive attitudes towards protecting their dogs from heat stress by choosing to walk them during times with less solar exposure. However, the lack of time for owners to walk with their dogs during cooler periods can still be a risk factor in exposing the animals to extreme hot conditions.

Reactive dairy cows are more susceptible to stress, and this may result in negative effects on milk yield and quality. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between temperament traits and concentration of milk cortisol and oxytocin, milk yield, milkability, and milk quality in Holstein-Gyr cows. Temperament traits were assessed in 76 Holstein-Gyr cows in the milking parlor (by scoring milking reactivity and recording the numbers of steps and kicks during pre-milking udder preparation and when fitting the milking cluster) and during handling in the corral (by measuring the time to enter in the squeeze chute, ET and flight speed, FS). Milk samples were collected for milk quality (% fat, % protein, % lactose, and somatic cell count, SCC), and milk cortisol and oxytocin. Milk yield, milking time, and average flow were also measured. The calmer cows during milking management (class 'low') produced milk with higher protein (p = 0.028) content and tendencies for lower fat (p = 0.056) and higher lactose (p = 0.055) contents. Regarding the hormones, the most reactive cows (class 'high') in the milking and handling corral produced milk with higher concentrations of cortisol (p<0.001) and oxytocin (p = 0.023). In addition, the temperament of the animals affected some of the productive measures evaluated. Cows with reactive temperament had lower milk flow and longer milking time than the intermediate ones and had higher fat and a tendency for lower protein percentage in milk compared to cows with intermediate temperaments. Calm and intermediate cows in the handling corral produced more milk and presented better milkability parameters, such as a shorter milking time and greater average milk flow. Our results suggest that the cows' behavioral reactivity can be related to the intensity of their response to stress during handling., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Marçal-Pedroza et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

In dairy systems with Zebu breeds, calves are not immediately separated from their dams after calving; consequently, maternal care and protective behavior are important, influencing both productive performance and stockpeople's safety. Our objectives were to: (1) investigate the effects of a training protocol involving pre-calving positive stimulation, delivered prior to calving, on the maternal care of primiparous Gyr cows; and (2) evaluate the effects of this training protocol on maternal protective behavior towards handlers during the first calf handling. Primiparous dairy Gyr cows ( n = 37) were allocated into two groups: training ( n = 16) and control ( n = 21). Animal behaviors were recorded in three periods: post-calving, first calf handling, and post-handling. Maternal protective behavior during calf handling was assessed from measures of aggressiveness, attention, displacement, and agitation. Calf latency to stand up ( p < 0.01) and sex ( p < 0.01) differed between the training and control groups. The training group had less touching ( p = 0.03), more time not interacting with the calf ( p = 0.03), tended to be less protective ( p = 0.056), and moved less ( p < 0.01) during the first handling of their calves. In conclusion, the primiparous dairy Gyr cows subjected to pre-calving training protocol displayed less maternal care and displacement during the first handling of their calves and tended to be less protective.

Individual responses to physical restraint and temperament have been assessed in birds of several species; however, there is a paucity of research which investigates both aspects, especially in captive parrots. This lack of studies raises doubts about which temperament traits, if any, are evidenced during handling and if the intensity of responses to restraint is affected by behavioral training programs, a common practice used in ex situ conservation programs. To understand more about the subject, this study aimed to identify the main temperament dimensions of parrots and investigate their relationship with response to physical restraint for blood collection. A secondary aim was to evaluate whether parrots exhibited higher responsiveness to physical restraint after training to improve flight capacity and increase aversion to humans. The main dimensions identified were activity, neophilia, vigilance, and fearfulness. The more fearful parrots in temperament evaluations were more responsive to physical restraint, showing more vocalizations and struggle attempts than the less fearful ones. After training, the parrots showed higher responsiveness to physical restraint. We suggest that physical restraint for routine handling, such as blood collection, could be a feasible option for centers of rehabilitation to use to obtain data on individual behavioral differences in fear responses.

Adaptative responses of cows to an automatic milking system (AMS) could depend on their temperament, i.e., cows with certain temperament profiles could be able to cope more successfully with the AMS. The relationships between dairy cows' temperament, behaviour, and productive parameters during the changeover from a conventional milking system (CMS) to an AMS were investigated. Thirty-three multiparous cows were classified as 'calm' or 'reactive' based on each of the temperament tests conducted: race time, flight speed (FS), and flight distance, at 5, 25, and 45 days in milk at CMS, then the cows were moved from the CMS to the AMS. During the first five milkings in AMS, the number of steps and kicks during each milking were recorded. The daily milk yield was automatically recorded. The number of steps did not vary by temperament classification, but the number of kicks per milking was greater for calm (0.45 ± 0.14) than for reactive cows (0.05 ± 0.03) when they were classified by FS ( p < 0.01). During the first seven days in the AMS, reactive cows for the FS test produced more milk than calm cows (36.5 ± 1.8 vs. 33.2 ± 1.6 L/day; p = 0.05). In conclusion, behavioural and productive parameters were influenced by cows´ temperament during the milking system changeover since the calm cows kicked more and produced less than the reactive ones.

The temperament of dairy cows interferes in milk yield and quality, but there is a lack of consensus throughout the literature. Thus, systematic review (SR) and meta-analysis (MA) methodologies were used to assess the effects of dairy cow temperament on milk yield. Our literature search included four electronic databases (CABI Abstracts, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus) and bibliographies of the publications included on MA. As inclusion criteria, we considered publications about the temperament of lactating cows and its effect on daily milk yield and total milk yield (whole lactation). A random effect-MA was carried out separately for daily milk yield and total milk yield related to each class of cows' temperament, 'low' (low reactivity, calm animals), 'intermediate' (intermediate reactivity), and 'high' (high reactivity, reactive animals). A total of eight publications reporting 75 trials were included in the analyses for daily milk yield, and three publications reporting nine trials for total milk yield. For daily and total milk yield the heterogeneity between publications was high (I2 = 99.9%). Cows of European breeds with intermediate temperament produced less milk daily than the calm (P = 0.020) and reactive ones (P < 0.001). In the case of primiparous cows, those with intermediate temperament produced less milk daily (P < 0.001) than the reactive ones, while for multiparous, the intermediate produced less than calm (P = 0.032) and reactive cows (P < 0.001). Regarding the stage of lactation, cows evaluated throughout lactation with a calm temperament tended (P = 0.081) to produce more milk than the intermediate ones, but less than the reactive ones (P < 0.001). For total milk yield, reactive cows tended to produce more than the calm (P = 0.082) and intermediate (P = 0.001) ones. Among European and primiparous cows, reactive cows produced more than the intermediate (P = 0.001). According to our results, we cannot confirm what we expected, that calmer cows would be the most productive for both daily and total yield., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of temperament and parity on milk production and metabolic responses of Holstein cows in a pasture-based automatic milking system. Thirty-five primiparous and 58 multiparous cows were classified as 'calm', 'intermediate' or 'reactive' in each of the temperament tests conducted: milking reactivity (MR), race time (RT), flight speed, and flight distance. The milk yield and milk composition, as well as the blood biochemistry, were measured during the first 10 weeks of lactation. Primiparous cows produced less milk than multiparous cows (24.0 ± 0.8 vs. 34.2 ± 0.6 L/d, respectively, P ˂ 0.0001), while the serum beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration differences according to parity were not detected. Multiparous cows that were classified as 'reactive' on MR and RT tests produced 3 kg/d more milk and had greater concentrations of milk components than 'calm' cows (P ≤ 0.05). There was no such relation in primiparous cows. Also, cows scored 'reactive' on RT showed greater milking frequency (2.50 ± 0.05 vs. 2.35 ± 0.04 milking/d; P = 0.01) and blood beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations (1.28 ± 0.09 vs. 0.92 ± 0.10 mmol/L; P = 0.04) than RT 'calm' cows. In conclusion, the cows' temperament was associated with milk production and metabolism, which depended on parity and the temperament tests used. Although productive performance was different between parities, lipomobilization was not., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The maternal care of cows can influence both the milk production and the performance of their calves, making this a topic of important relevance for the production industry that uses zebu cattle. The aims of this study were to 1) investigate the effects of parity on the behaviors of Gyr cows during the peripartum period; 2) characterize the maternal defensiveness of primiparous and multiparous cows towards handlers during the first handling of their calves; and 3) evaluate the relationships between cows' behaviors at the peripartum period and maternal defensiveness. Thirty-one Gyr cows (primiparous and multiparous), from Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais (Brazil), were used. The animals were placed in a maternity paddock monitored by video cameras. The behaviors of the animals were collected in four periods: Pre-calving, Post-calving, First handling of calf and Post-handling. Primiparous cows presented more pain signs, reflected in arched spine (P = 0.05), and tended to move more (P = 0.07) than the multiparous in the Pre-calving period. Trends were observed for both Maternal Composite Score (P = 0.06) and Maternal Protective Behavior score (P = 0.06), indicating that both primiparous and multiparous were protective, but only multiparous cows were aggressive toward the caretakers on the first handling of their calves. The most protective cows spent more time eating during the prepartum period (P = 0.03), while the least attentive cows spent more time lying down (P = 0.02) in the prepartum period. The cows who nursed and stimulated their calves more were also calmer (P = 0.02) and more attentive (P = 0.01). In conclusion, the peripartum behaviors of Gyr cows were related to maternal care and maternal defensiveness. Multiparous cows tended to be more aggressive than primiparous cows at the time of the first handling of their calves., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.