EARLY BEHAVIOURAL INDICATORS OF GASTROINTESTINAL PARASITISM IN EXTENSIVELY FARMED SHEEP FOR A PRECISION LIVESTOCK APPROACH TO WELFARE MANAGEMENT

Sheep face several welfare challenges in extensive management conditions, including gastrointestinal (GI) parasitic infection. While the effects of GI parasites on sheep health and production levels are understood, it is unclear what kind of impact they have on the sheep’s welfare, especially at sub-clinical infection levels. For example, it is possible that levels of discomfort would increase. The aim of this study was to identify early indicators of GI parasitism and understand its welfare impact on sheep, using behavioural observation, AWIN welfare indicators and Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) tools. Twenty-four Scottish Mule ewes and their twin lambs were divided into four experimental treatment groups. Half of the animals were treated with an anthelmintic drench, acting as a “low parasitism” (LP) group while the other half were not treated and acted as a “high parasitism” (HP) group facing naturally occurring infection. Within each of these two groups, half of the ewes and lambs wore collars (HP-T/LP-T) containing an accelerometer and a proximity logger. The other half of the sheep did not wear collars (HP-NT/LP-NT). Behavioural observations were carried out in person using scan sampling to record maintenance behaviours and behaviour sampling to capture rare, short-duration behaviours such as playing and sucking bouts. During the observation periods, the proximity loggers in the collars recorded the animal’s approximate location and 15 nearest neighbours every 5 minutes while the accelerometer collected tri-axial data at a rate of 12.5Hz (12 samples/second). Lamb behaviour was not significantly affected by parasitology or technology treatment group. The factors impacting behaviour were whether the lambs were
weaned (p<0.001), and the time of day they were observed (p<0.001). Wearing collars impacted lameness (p=0.047) and dag score (p=0.01) in lambs. The accelerometer data did not reveal a significant difference between HP and LP lambs (p=0.28). It appears that sub-clinical gastrointestinal parasitism does not impact lambs’ welfare to a degree where behavioural change occurs. Wearing technology on collars had a mixed impact on the welfare of the lambs in this study, although further research is required to solidify this finding.