Effects of immunocastration on social interaction and activity budget of common eland (Taurotragus oryx)

B.Sc. Abubakar Sadiq Musa, BA (Hons)

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The common eland (Taurotragus oryx) is the second largest African antelope after the giant eland (Taurotragus dabianus derbianus). It is endemic to East and Southern Africa (Pappas, 2002) but it has been successfully bred in various part of the world. Handling these animals can be quite stressful due to their alertness and muscularity. However, castration may decrease the incidences of agonistic and aggressive behaviour in male eland. Castration would help in easing management particularity for non-breeding bulls meant for meat production and those kept in zoos. In an attempt to maintain the welfare of such animals, immunocastration is seen as good alternative to physical castration (Needham et al., 2017). Despite studies on the effects of immunocastration on the growth and meat quality (Lowe et at. 2014), no information is readily available on its use in wildlife and little information is available on its effects on social interaction and activity budget. Thirty common eland will be divided into two group of fifteen calves and fifteen sub-adults, consisting of ten males and five females of equal age in each group. The research is to be conducted from November 2018 to March 2019 at the Czech University of Life Science Eland Farm, Lány. The experimental animals are housed within a barn divided into two pens, with food and water available ad libitum. To ease handling, a squeeze chute will be used for restraining, administering of the vaccine and routine sample collection. Five males will be immunocastrated from each group while the others serving as control. Improvac® will be used for the immunocastration, administered at 2ml/animal subcutaneously at the shoulder area using a Sterimatic® needle guard system fitted with a Stericap® according to the protocol of Needham et al. (2019). The schedule for the vaccination will be four weeks between vaccination and three months between vaccination and slaughter. During this study, animals will be observed twice fortnightly after handling. Instantaneous sampling would be used for the social interaction (flehmen, mounting, yielding, wrestling, threatening, passing and pushing) while scan sampling would be used for the activities budget (eating, drinking, standing, laying etc.) at an interval of 10 minutes. Data obtained would be processed and analysed using DomiCalc and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The time activity budget of the eland will be established from the scan sampling and analysed using the variance estimation, precision and comparison (VEPAC) procedure following a mixed-model repeated-measure ANOVA approach.

Keywords

Aggression, Castration, Dominance, Improvac®, Social rank

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 26. 4. 2019

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Tersia Needham

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Animal and Food Sciences in Tropics and Subtropics