Publikasjoner
NIBIOs ansatte publiserer flere hundre vitenskapelige artikler og forskningsrapporter hvert år. Her finner du referanser og lenker til publikasjoner og andre forsknings- og formidlingsaktiviteter. Samlingen oppdateres løpende med både nytt og historisk materiale. For mer informasjon om NIBIOs publikasjoner, besøk NIBIOs bibliotek.
2014
Sammendrag
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Sammendrag
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Sammendrag
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Forfattere
Grete H. M. JørgensenSammendrag
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Sammendrag
The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of different winter weather conditions on shelter seeking behaviour of horses and their preference for additional heat. A total of 17 horses from different breeds were habituated to an experimental paddock with a double-room shelter. In one of the rooms a 1500 W infrared heater provided radiation heat, the other room was not heated. The horses were turned out in their regular paddocks for two hours and then moved to the experimental paddock, where they could stay either in the heated room, in the non-heated room or outside in the 10x6 m paddock. Using instantaneous sampling at one-minute intervals for one hour, a present observer recorded horse’s behaviour and location. A weather station recorded data on wind (directions and speed), precipitation, temperature and sunshine. We registered the horses’ breed, exercise level, body weight, height and body condition, and samples of the horses’ coats were taken for length and quality registration. A Kruskal Wallis test was performed on the preliminary data. We observed great individual differences in the horses’ preferred location under different weather conditions. Horses increased their activity during low temperatures, combined with wind and/or rain (P<0.05). Ponies and warmblood horse breeds used the heated room to a greater extent than cold blood horse breeds (P<0.05). Horses with a low coat sample weight used the shelter more than horses with a large coat sample weight (P<0.05), and individuals with a large body condition score moved around more than individuals with a low body condition score (P<0.05). Muscle shivering was only observed during mild weather and rain. In conclusion, not only the horses breed but its body condition and coat characteristics also affect thermoregulation during winter weather. General activity also seemed to increase with wind, low temperatures and rain.
Sammendrag
The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of different winter weather conditions on shelter seeking behaviour of horses and their preference for additional heat. A total of 17 horses from different breeds were habituated to an experimental paddock with a double-room shelter. In one of the rooms a 1500 W infrared heater provided radiation heat, the other room was not heated. The horses were turned out in their regular paddocks for two hours and then moved to the experimental paddock, where they could stay either in the heated room, in the non-heated room or outside in the 10x6 m paddock. Using instantaneous sampling at one-minute intervals for one hour, a present observer recorded horse’s behaviour and location. A weather station recorded data on wind (directions and speed), precipitation, temperature and sunshine. We registered the horses’ breed, exercise level, body weight, height and body condition, and samples of the horses’ coats were taken for length and quality registration. A Kruskal Wallis test was performed on the preliminary data. We observed great individual differences in the horses’ preferred location under different weather conditions. Horses increased their activity during low temperatures, combined with wind and/or rain (P<0.05). Ponies and warmblood horse breeds used the heated room to a greater extent than cold blood horse breeds (P<0.05). Horses with a low coat sample weight used the shelter more than horses with a large coat sample weight (P<0.05), and individuals with a large body condition score moved around more than individuals with a low body condition score (P<0.05). Muscle shivering was only observed during mild weather and rain. In conclusion, not only the horses breed but its body condition and coat characteristics also affect thermoregulation during winter weather. General activity also seemed to increase with wind, low temperatures and rain.
Sammendrag
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Forfattere
Cecilie Marie Mejdell Grete H. M. Jørgensen Linda J Keeling Janne Winther Christensen Knut Egil BøeSammendrag
Group housing of horses is not very widespread, despite obvious advantages for their development and mental well-being. One often expressed rationale for this is that horse owners are worried about the risk of injuries due to kicks, bites or being chased into obstacles. To address this concern, we developed and validated a scoring system for external injuries in horses to be able to record the severity of a lesion in a standardized and simple way under field conditions. The scoring system has five categories from insignificant loss of hair to severe, life threatening injuries. It was used to categorize 1124 injuries in 478 horses. Most of these horses were allocated to groups to study the effect of group composition (i.e. same age or mixed, same gender or mixed, socially stable or unstable groups) on behaviour and injuries. The material included mainly riding and leisure purpose horses of different breeds, age and gender. Most injuries occurred the day after mixing. Injuries of the more severe categories 4 and 5, which normally would necessitate veterinary care and/or loss of function for some time, were not observed at all. The vast majority of the recorded injuries were category 1 lesions (hair loss only). A few such injuries were found on most horses, some horses had none, and a few had many. The second most common injury type was category two (abration/scrape into, but not through the skin, and/or a moderate bruise/contusion). Category 3 injuries (a minor laceration and/or contusion with obvious swelling) were only recorded in a baseline subset of 100 riding horses, there comprising 4% of the injuries. Whereas most of the injuries were found on the body, the category 3 injuries were mainly found on the limbs and head. The reason for this is probably that the skin there is tight and thus is more easily lacerated. Icelandic horses tended to have fewer and less severe injuries compared to other breeds. There was also a breed effect on location of the injuries. We conclude that the risk for serious injuries when horses are kept in groups is generally low and fear of injuries should not be a reason to prevent horses from social interaction with other horses. However, we emphasize that most of the recordings were performed during the summer period, and many horses were unshod. The situation might have been different in winter, and special caution should be taken if mixing horses shod with ice studs.
Sammendrag
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Forfattere
Elke Hartmann Grete H. M. Jørgensen Cecilie Marie Mejdell Knut Egil Bøe Kristina DahlbornSammendrag
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