Abstract Temperament is a trait of interest as it impacts ease of handling, production and reactivity to stressful situations. Excessive behavioural reactivity, as an aspect of temperament, may lead to reduced welfare and stockperson safety. Current tests of behavioural reactivity involve isolating the subject and it can be difficult to differentiate between behavioural responses. We therefore aimed to develop a startle test in sheep which quantified variability in behavioural reactivity whilst addressing the effects of social isolation. The startle response is a consistent universal reaction to sudden and intense stimulation, however, magnitude of startle can be highly variable and may be modulated by affective state. In this study, 60 ewes were allocated into three social groups: isolated; surrounded by six life-sized pictures of sheep or; three conspecifics penned on two sides (total six). Sheep were tested over two days in sets of 10 per treatment. Sheep were confined to a 2.1 m × 1.2 m area, with a bowl of feed at one end, for four minutes (min). Approximately 15 s after the sheep commenced eating, a sudden one sec blast of compressed air was delivered to the face. Tri-axial accelerometers, visual scoring, agitometer scores and body temperature were used to assess the magnitude of the startle response and the pre- and post-startle fear behaviours. In the 15 s pre-startle, isolated sheep spent less time eating (p 0.22), however each measure was positively correlated to time spent vigilant post-startle and there were significant increases in time to return to eating for every one unit increase in each of the startle magnitude measures independent of social treatment. The use of conspecifics did not provide social facilitation or buffering of the startle response. This shows promise as a behavioural reactivity test which can utilise conspecifics to reduce any potential negative effects of social isolation during testing.

中文翻译：

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一种测量绵羊惊吓程度的新方法

摘要 气质是一个令人感兴趣的特征，因为它会影响处理、生产和对压力情况的反应。作为性情的一个方面，过度的行为反应可能会导致福利和饲养员安全性降低。当前的行为反应性测试涉及隔离受试者，并且很难区分行为反应。因此，我们的目标是在绵羊中开发一项惊吓测试，该测试量化了行为反应的可变性，同时解决了社会孤立的影响。惊吓反应是对突然和强烈刺激的一致普遍反应，然而，惊吓的程度可以高度可变并且可能受情感状态调节。在这项研究中，60 只母羊被分为三个社会群体：孤立的；周围环绕着六张真人大小的羊图片或；三个同种写在两侧（总共六个）。绵羊在两天内以每次处理 10 只为一组进行测试。绵羊被限制在 2.1 m × 1.2 m 的区域内，一端放一碗饲料，持续四分钟 (min)。绵羊开始进食后大约 15 秒，突然向面部输送一秒钟的压缩空气。三轴加速度计、视觉评分、情绪计评分和体温用于评估惊吓反应的程度以及惊吓前后的恐惧行为。在惊吓前的 15 秒内，孤立的绵羊吃东西的时间更少（p = 0.22），但是每一项测量都与惊吓后保持警惕的时间呈正相关，并且每增加一个单位，恢复进食的时间就会显着增加。与社会待遇无关的惊人幅度测量。使用同种动物并没有提供社会促进或惊吓反应的缓冲。这显示出作为一种行为反应性测试的前景，它可以利用同种个体来减少测试期间社会隔离的任何潜在负面影响。