How motivated is the animal to access concentrated food? A comparison between horses and mules

• Grant number: 15/19629-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2015
• End date: November 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal Investigator: José Nicolau Prospero Puoli Filho
• Grantee: Liys Aparecida de Souza Arruda
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Motivation tests aim to determine the importance of certain resources or environmental conditions for the animals. Generally, motivation is inferred from the physical effort applied to access such resources or conditions. In such tests, food items are often used as a reference resource for evaluating the effort spent in relation to the other available items. Such tests have been widely used in the literature to improve animal welfare conditions, since they allow to identify conditions considered important for the animals. However, studies with horses and mules, two species considered as of high importance for national economy, are still rare in the literature. Whereas the proper management of the concentrate food should avoid oral disorders and also losses to the producer, here we will evaluate the motivation of horses and mules (n = 8 for each species) to access such food type. For this, we will determine the individual motivation levels through differences in physical effort spent by each animal to access concentrated food. The access to this food will be blocked by a fence, whose variations in the initial weight will represent variations of the effort required to be expended by the animals to cross it and access the food. Thus, the weight of the fence will be increased gradually over three consecutive test days, and the order of the animals being tested each day will be randomized by raffling. While animals will be applying effort to access the concentrate food, we will record the frequency of behaviors which may be indicative of effort spent during 30 minutes. Also, we will register the latency of the animals to reach the food and the total time spent in effort at the fence. Aiming to accurately determine the weights that will be added to the fence, pilot tests will be carried out in the same study conditions.