Abstract To effectively select for temperament, selection criteria must reflect an animal's response to stress. Subjective measures such as chute (CS) and exit (ES) score provide fast and easy assessments of temperament but may be subject to observer bias and inconsistency. Objective measures such as cortisol and other metabolites have been associated with increased stress in cattle, especially regarding transportation. Our objectives were to identify relationships between objective and subjective methods of evaluating temperament, and to determine whether objective measures of stress change under repeated, routine handling. Over three consecutive years, a factorial design of two measurement protocols [frequent (F), infrequent (IN)], and three recording periods (event) was used. The F measurements were collected over three consecutive days, and IN measurements only on day one, within all three events every year. Each year, 40 commercial Bos taurus heifers were randomly split into the two protocols. While restrained in a chute, behavior was quantified using CS. Thereafter body temperature and heart rate were measured, and a fecal and blood sample collected. These samples were analyzed for levels of fecal and serum cortisol, glucose, creatine kinase, non-esterified fatty acids, and blood urea nitrogen. Upon release, ES was recorded. For all heifers, the effects of protocol, event, and their interaction, were compared on day one of each of the three events. For heifers assigned to F, event and day within event also were evaluated, with as many as nine observations on each heifer. For both analyses, body weight, ambient temperature, and wind speed were included as covariates, with sire and year fitted as random effects. Pearson correlations between subjective and objective measures were calculated for the first day of all events combined. Chute (r = 0.24 to 0.32) and ES (r = 0.26 to 0.33) were positively correlated (P

中文翻译：

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量化小母牛气质的主观方法表明生理压力

摘要 为了有效地选择气质，选择标准必须反映动物对压力的反应。诸如滑道 (CS) 和退出 (ES) 分数等主观测量提供了快速简便的气质评估，但可能会受到观察者偏见和不一致的影响。皮质醇和其他代谢物等客观指标与牛的压力增加有关，尤其是在运输方面。我们的目标是确定评估气质的客观和主观方法之间的关系，并确定在重复的常规处理下，客观的压力测量是否会发生变化。在连续三年中，使用了两个测量协议 [频繁 (F)、不频繁 (IN)] 和三个记录周期（事件）的因子设计。连续三天收集 F 测量值，和 IN 测量仅在第一天，在每年所有三个事件中。每年，40 头商业 Bos taurus 小母牛被随机分成两种协议。虽然被限制在滑槽中，但使用 CS 量化了行为。此后测量体温和心率，并收集粪便和血液样本。分析了这些样品的粪便和血清皮质醇、葡萄糖、肌酸激酶、非酯化脂肪酸和血尿素氮的水平。一经发行，ES就被录制了下来。对于所有小母牛，在三个事件中的每一个的第一天比较协议、事件及其相互作用的影响。对于分配给 F 的小母牛，还评估了事件和事件中的天数，对每头小母牛进行多达 9 次观察。对于这两种分析，体重、环境温度和风速都作为协变量包括在内，将父亲和年份作为随机效应拟合。在所有事件合并的第一天计算主观和客观测量值之间的 Pearson 相关性。斜槽（r = 0.24 至 0.32）和 ES（r = 0.26 至 0.33）呈正相关（P