Hair whorl position as a predictor of learning ability and locomotor behavior in cattle?

Abstract

The aim of our work was to investigate the hypothesis that the speed of solving the maze tests and locomotor behavior of heifers in open-field tests are affected by the height location of facial whorl. Fifty-eight Holstein heifers were used. Maze learning was observed at the age of 15 weeks, and an open-field test was applied at two ages, 16 weeks and 18 months. Whorl placement was recorded by one person as each heifer entered the scale. The hair whorl position was determined on the basis of two patterns: A) hair whorl high, middle and low and B) hair whorl high and low. Heifers with a high hair whorl were the fastest (77.8 ± 84.3 s) and heifers with a middle hair whorl the slowest (87.3 ± 100.3 s) in the A pattern during the maze tests. In the B whorl pattern, heifers with a high hair whorl ran across the maze in 84.5 ± 95.2 s and heifers with a low hair whorl in 84.1 ± 97.9 s. The number of crossed squares in a 5-minute open-field test in the A pattern was the non-significantly highest in heifers with a high hair whorl (43.4) at the age of 16 weeks. In the B whorl pattern, heifers with a high hair whorl were also more mobile, but neither differences in individual minutes nor in the whole 5 minutes were significant. Heifers with a high hair whorl displayed the strongest locomotory behavior (37.6 squares) and heifers with a low hair whorl (30.8) were the slowest in the A pattern at the age of 18 months. The differences were not significant. In the B whorl pattern, heifers with a high hair whorl crossed more squares, but the difference was not significant in comparison with heifers with a low hair whorl. We found that the time of traversing the maze and the locomotor activity in open-field test may not be influenced in the dairy cattle by the height facial whorl position.