Valutazione del comportamento di vitelli a carne bianca alimentati con latte contenente livelli crescenti di panello di canapa

In recent years, the cultivation of Cannabis sativa has grown in terms of surface area but also by a growing interest of industrial transformation including food industry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, green building, and textiles. Hemp plays an important role in nutrition, both as seed and as hempseed cake, because it’s an excellent source of dietary fiber, proteins, lipids with high content in polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins. Several studies evaluated the effects of hemp inclusion in farm animals feeding. Nowadays, no experimental trial has been conducted on veal calves. This thesis focuses on the inclusion of increasing levels of hempseed cake obtained after the cold mechanical extraction of the oil from the seed of hemp, in veal calves’ diets. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of hempseed cake on the behavior of 48 Belgian Blue veal calves (13 females and 35 males), of Austrian nationality. Particular attention was paid to the health and the well-being of the reared subjects. The trial was structured in 3 experimental theses that differ according to the amount of hempseed cake included in milk: 0% in control group (CTRL), 3% in T3 and 6% in T6. Each thesis included 4 animal housing pens, so 12 pens in total. The animals were divided in different pens, based on the weight they had when the first survey was taken before the beginning of the test. In order to observe the behavior of the veal calves during the test and so to verify if the diet had an influence on its expression, 12 cameras have been installed one for reach box. Animals’ behaviors were analyzed once a week. In a different moment, the same behaviors were analyzed in terms of duration and animal well-being. As a result of the analysis, the diet influenced the expression of some behaviors that we considered during the test. Veal calves of T6 thesis rest and stand less time than the other groups and played mainly in the evening, compared to the T3 thesis which spend more time playing in the morning. Sex played a role on the expression of other behavior, such as social interaction, activity, and cross-sucking. Males fed the higher concentration of hemp have shown less social interaction and activity and females fed the middle concentration of hemp had a higher activity than the other groups but also have shown the lower frequency of cross-sucking. T3 and T6 veal calves also spent more time grooming their own body, but T3 thesis has shown the higher duration of licking. As the concentration of hemp increases, females interacted more time with their conspecifics of different pens, and males reduce the time spent on interacting with the other boxes. Calves fed CTRL diet spent more time on feeding and male calves mount more than the females during the test.