Stress Physiology of Emus

1. Influence of temperament and handling time on
the physiological indicators of stress in emus
(Dromaius novaehollandiae)
AVIAN RESEARCH CENTRE
Deepa G. Menon,Darin C. Bennett,and Kimberly M. Cheng
UniversityofBritishColumbia,Vancouver,Canada.

2. • Ratite
• Native to Australia
• Products:
Fat - Oil
Meat
Leather
Feathers
Eggs
Emu (Dromaius novahollandiae)
http://fancypigeonskerala.blogspot.ca/2011/11/end-use-of-emu-birds.html

3. • Long distance between
farms and slaughter facilities
• Economic losses
• Welfare issues
• Handling and restraint
• Susceptible to stress
• Lack of non-invasive indicators
Background

4. Objectives
(1) Record - behavioral responses of emus to handling
and transport
(2) Determine - effect of temperament and handling
time on physiological variables
(3) Identify - behavioral indicators of stress in emus

5. Experiment
• Two trials:
Trial 1: n = 24
Trial 2: n = 18
• Age group: 5-8 years
• Transport time: 6 hours
• Handling: loading, unloading, sampling
• Blood sampling: pre- and post-transport
• Statistical analysis: Anova, Pearson correlation coefficient -
Statistica (Statsoft Inc.)

6. • Major behaviors
- during handling and loading
- transport
- after unloading
• Handling times
• Cloacal temperature
• Plasma corticosterone
• Blood glucose, serum total protein, AST, CK, WBC
count
Variables measured

7. Proportion of emus (n = 42) performing each
event during pre-loading handling
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
%ofemus
Events
Trial 1 Trial 2
RESULTS

8. Handling - events
• All occurrences
• Frequency or intensity
Scores
Observations 0 1 2 3
Kick, fall, sit, balk, slip Nil Once Twice > 2
Vocalize, aggression, jump, run Nil Mild Moderate Severe
Mean total event score = 4.3 1.0 (1-10)
Loading time (min) = 3.4 ± 0.2

9. Total event scores
Variables Mean ± SE
CORT levels before transport (ng/mL) 8.7 ± 2.2
CORT levels after transport (ng/mL) 36.7 ± 3.7
Total event scores - corticosterone levels after transport;
r = 0.71, P<0.05
Total event scores - partial correlation coefficient
r = 0.69, P<0.05

10. Vocalization during handling
Recorder: R5-Roland Wave Recorder
(Roland US, Los Angeles, CA)
Analysis: Raven Lite Interactive
software, Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, NY
(http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ raven)

11. Sonogram - distress calls and normal
vocalizations
Frequency(Hz)
Time (seconds)
Female Male

12. Handling temperament
Category Approachable Catchable Manageable
Calm
and easy
Calm
Not moving away
Easy No struggling
Easy to handle
Slightly
panicky
Bird is calm
Keeping its distance
Somewhat
difficult
Moderate struggling
Easy to handle
Flighty Moving away from
handlers
Very
difficult
Struggling a lot
Difficult to handle
Categorization of emus according to the
ease of handling

13. Comparison between temperament
categories
Variables Units
Calm and
easy
Slightly
panicky
Flighty
P-value(n = 17) (n = 11) (n = 14)
Mean event scores 3.0±0.5b 4.0±0.6ab 4.9±0.5a 0.04
Body temperature oC 38.3±0.1b 38.4±0.2b 38.9±0.2a 0.02
Total protein g/L 56.2±2.8a 52.7±1.1ab 48.0±1.5b 0.03
H/L ratio 4.5±2.5b 15.1±3.1a 8.3±1.0ab 0.03
Corticosterone ng/L 31.3±5.5a 10.0±2.1b 31.4±4.8a <0.01

14. Total handling time
Variables Units ≤ 8 min
(n = 14)
>8 min
(n = 28)
P-value
Corticosterone ng/mL 15.1 4.7 29.3 3.4 0.02
Glucose mMol/L 10.1 1.0 12.7 0.4 0.03
AST IU/L 1022 577 2429 422 0.05
CK IU/L 6705 2249 15143 1642 0.004
WBC count X103/L 17.2 1.2 13.4 0.9 0.01
Effect of handling time on biochemical variables

15. Transport After unloading
Huddling
Gular flutter
Tachypnea
Open beak breathing
Slipping
Huddling
Head bobbing
Twisting of neck
Fence pecking
Pacing
Observations - behavior

16. Comparing pre- and post-transport
time budgets
• Time budgets from One-Zero scores
• Blom transformation (Blom, 1958)
• Friedman ANOVA on ranks

17. Time budgets of adult domestic emus
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
%activitytime
Behavior

18. Effect of transportation on time budgets
for major behaviors
P<0.001
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Pecking
fences
Huddling Feeding Resting Locomotion Standing Pacing Grooming Aggression
%activitytime
Pre-transport
Post-transport
P<0.001
P<0.01
Behavior

19. Effect of pre-transport separation into
groups on fence pecking
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
No separation before transportSeparated 5 days before transportSeparated 15 days before transport
%activitytime
Before transport
After transport

20. Transportation stress
• Locomotion and grooming - decreased
• Huddling, pacing - increased
• Fence pecking - separation from conspecifics
• Distress calls - signaling behaviour
Changes in time budgets -
to detect stressful events

21. Conclusions and recommendations
• Event scores - non-invasive indicator
• Temperament categories - biochemical variables
• Handling time - minimize
• Improve the well being of emus
• Habituating emus to handling and herding

22. Funding
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands;
funds administered by the UBC Specialty
Birds Research Committee.
Collaborations
TryHarder
Farms, Denholm, Saskatchewan
Code’s Corner Emu Farm, Duncan, BC.
THANK YOU
Acknowledgements