Yes, I do know of some previous work examining the relationship between stress response and time of separation. Weary and Chau (2000) separated calves and mother cows 6 hours, 1 day, or 4 days after birth. They found greater behavioral signs of distress (e.g., vocalizations, pacing, looking outside of the pen) in both calves and mothers when separation occurred later than when separation occurred earlier.
There may be room for further work identifying indicators of stress. Most of the indicators currently used are behavioral, and some of these don't have direct analogues in humans. Heart rate variability and nasal temperature have also been suggested as indicators of stress, but their reliability is questionable. There may be electrophysiological correlates which have not yet been identified, but electrophysiological signals from cows are very noisy during locomotion and rumination, which together occupy much of cows’ time.
I am certainly interested in mapping what sorts of conditions influence cows' stress levels in general. One of the projects we have been considering could partly address that question. Thank you for your suggestions!
Yes, I do know of some previous work examining the relationship between stress response and time of separation. Weary and Chau (2000) separated calves and mother cows 6 hours, 1 day, or 4 days after birth. They found greater behavioral signs of distress (e.g., vocalizations, pacing, looking outside of the pen) in both calves and mothers when separation occurred later than when separation occurred earlier.
There may be room for further work identifying indicators of stress. Most of the indicators currently used are behavioral, and some of these don't have direct analogues in humans. Heart rate variability and nasal temperature have also been suggested as indicators of stress, but their reliability is questionable. There may be electrophysiological correlates which have not yet been identified, but electrophysiological signals from cows are very noisy during locomotion and rumination, which together occupy much of cows’ time.
I am certainly interested in mapping what sorts of conditions influence cows' stress levels in general. One of the projects we have been considering could partly address that question. Thank you for your suggestions!