56. Lying Behavior in Meat Goats: Associations with Hoof Overgrowth and Animal-level Factors.

Clicks: 12
ID: 330392
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Steady

Ranked #602 of 847 articles by views in italian journal of animal science

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 847 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract Lying time can be an important health and welfare indicator in ruminants. Increased lying time is associated with rumination and rest, but too little or excessive lying time can indicate welfare problems like lameness or illness. This has been reported in existing literature for dairy goats, however, lying time in meat goats has received minimal attention. We investigated the associations between hoof overgrowth and individual goat characteristics on daily lying behavior. A total of 97 goats (age: 0.5-8 years) were fitted with data loggers (HOBO, Onset) on 4 commercial meat goat farms in Ontario, Canada. Goats were Kiko, Boer, and Boer/Saanen crosses. Lying behavior was recorded for a 6-d period. Individual animal measures were collected once, at the beginning of the study period. Digital images were taken of the right front and rear hooves for each goat to score overgrowth on a binary scale. Body condition (BCS) was assessed using a five-point scale and re-categorized into three levels: Low (1-2), Average (2.5-3) and Moderate (3.5-5) for analysis. FAMACHA score was used to estimate anemia (five-point scale). Data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model (SAS 9.4) with a Gaussian distribution for the outcome of lying time, and a Poisson distribution for the number of lying bouts. Fixed effects were BCS, age, hoof growth, and the interaction of age and hoof growth. Random effects were farm and goat within farm, and a repeated effect of day. Only rear hooves were modelled. Forty-three goats (45.3%) had overgrown rear hooves, while only 15 goats (15.7%) were found to have overgrown front hooves. BCS median was 3 (min=1.5, max=4). FAMACHA median score was 3 (min=1, max=4), with only 7 goats reporting a score of 4 (anemic). Goats spent a mean±SD of 9.6±3.3h/d lying (Q1=7.5 hours, Q3=11.9 hours) across a median of 9 bouts/d (Q1=6 bouts, Q3=12 bouts). No association of BCS was found on lying time (P = 0.33) or bouts (P = 0.15), and no main effect of hoof growth was detected for lying time (P = 0.41) or bouts (P = 0.68). Age was associated with lying time (F = 4.16, df = 1,91, P = 0.04); however, this effect was dependent on hoof overgrowth (interaction: F = 7.07, df = 1,88, P = 0.01). While there was no main effect of age on the number of lying bouts, there was an interaction with hoof overgrowth (F = 4.35, df = 1,88, P = 0.04). Goats with overgrown hooves showed increased lying time (0.60±0.22 h/d/y) and more bouts (1.07±0.03 bouts/d/y) with increasing age compared with those with healthy hooves, while the lying time and bouts/day of goats with healthy hooves were relatively unaffected by age. These preliminary results warrant further investigation into the factors that affect lying behavior in meat goats, particularly in older animals.
Reference Key
openalex_W7214746827 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Madison Penney, Gosia Zobel, Derek B. Haley, Charlotte B. Winder, Tracy Burnett
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal italian journal of animal science
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jas/skag272.099
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag272.099
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.