Can a social partner alleviate conditioned place aversion caused by isolation and pain in dairy calves?

In two experiments, we assessed the effects of social buffering in dairy calves, with and without a known conspecific, when either subjected to isolation from the larger group (Experiment 1; n = 12) or to recovery from the painful procedure of hot-iron disbudding (Experiment 2; n = 25). In Experiment 2, we also tested whether the level of fearfulness of each calf and the frequency of interactions between the two calves affected the degree of buffering.

In both experiments the effects of buffering were assessed using a conditioned place aversion paradigm, with the prediction that calves would find experiences less aversive when exposed to the stressor with a conspecific. All calves were exposed to two conditioning treatments (i.e., exposed alone or with a ‘support’ partner), each session lasted 6 h each and were 48 h apart. Conditioned place aversion tests (with calves tested alone) occurred at 48, 72, 96 h after the second treatment.