Abstract After their birth, foals are usually housed with and nursed by their mares. Because a foal’s growth and survival depend greatly on the mare’s milk for a certain time after birth, it is said that observations of suckling behaviour can indicate a foal’s growth. Nevertheless, the results of earlier studies suggest that foal suckling behaviour is not a useful predictor of milk intake. This study investigated the relationship between suckling behaviour and foal weight gain, referring to several definitions of suckling bouts and sufficient sampling methods, and including several confounding factors in the analyses. Observations were made of 17 mare–foal pairs from days 1 to 7 and days 14, 21, and 28 after birth from 18:00 to 06:00 h. The suckling behaviour was recorded using a continuous recording method and suckling bouts, successful suckling bouts, and unsuccessful suckling bouts were calculated from the recordings of suckling behaviour. The terminator of the behaviours was also recorded. Behavioural data of the ‘first week’ (data from days 1 to 6 were averaged) and the ‘next three weeks’ (data of days 7, 14, 21, and 28 were averaged), foal weights, mare parity, and foal sex were used for statistical analysis using generalised linear mixed models with Gaussian error distribution. For the ‘first week’, negative relationships were found between suckling, suckling bouts, successful suckling bouts, several foal terminating behaviours, and foal weight gain, but no relation was found between all behaviours and foal weight gain for the ‘next three weeks’. The number of mare parity was found to have a positive relationship with the foal weight gain of the ‘first week’ and negative relationships were found between suckling, suckling bouts, successful suckling bouts, and the number of mare parity in the ‘first week’. The results of this study suggest that suckling behaviours in the first week after birth are negatively correlated with foal weight gain and that mare parity affected the results. It is also suggested that in horse reproduction systems, suckling behaviour especially that which is terminated by the foal can be a negative indicator of foal growth, especially in the first week after birth.

中文翻译：

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出生后第一周哺乳行为与小马驹体重增加的负相关

摘要 小马驹出生后，通常由母马饲养和照顾。由于小马驹的生长和存活在出生后的一段时间内很大程度上依赖于母马的乳汁，因此据说对哺乳行为的观察可以表明小马驹的成长。尽管如此，早期研究的结果表明，小马驹的哺乳行为并不是牛奶摄入量的有用预测指标。本研究调查了哺乳行为与小马驹体重增加之间的关系，参考了哺乳期的几种定义和足够的采样方法，并在分析中包括了几个混杂因素。从出生后的第 1 天到第 7 天以及第 14、21 和 28 天，从 18:00 到 06:00 对 17 对母马进行了观察。使用连续记录方法和哺乳次数记录哺乳行为，成功的哺乳和不成功的哺乳是根据哺乳行为的记录计算的。还记录了行为的终结者。“第一周”（第 1 至 6 天的数据取平均值）和“接下来的三周”（第 7、14、21 和 28 天的数据取平均值）的行为数据、马驹体重、母马胎次和母马性别用于使用具有高斯误差分布的广义线性混合模型进行统计分析。在“第一周”中，发现哺乳、哺乳次数、成功哺乳次数、几种小马驹终止行为和小马驹体重增加之间存在负相关关系，但在“接下来的三周”内没有发现所有行为与小马驹体重增加之间存在关系. 发现母马胎次数与“第一周”的小马驹体重增加呈正相关，而在“第一周”的哺乳、哺乳次数、成功哺乳次数和母马胎次数之间发现负相关. 这项研究的结果表明，出生后第一周的哺乳行为与马驹体重增加呈负相关，母马胎次影响结果。还建议在马的繁殖系统中，哺乳行为，尤其是被小马终止的行为，可能是小马生长的负面指标，尤其是在出生后的第一周。这项研究的结果表明，出生后第一周的哺乳行为与马驹体重增加呈负相关，母马胎次影响结果。还建议在马的繁殖系统中，哺乳行为，尤其是被小马终止的行为，可能是小马生长的负面指标，尤其是在出生后的第一周。这项研究的结果表明，出生后第一周的哺乳行为与马驹体重增加呈负相关，母马胎次影响结果。还建议在马的繁殖系统中，哺乳行为，尤其是被小马终止的行为，可能是小马生长的负面指标，尤其是在出生后的第一周。