The Correlation between Play Behavior, Serum Cortisol and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Welfare Assessment of Dairy Calves within the First Month of Life

Welfare assessment of dairy calves is commonly conducted through the observation their behavior and analysis physiological parameters. Despite large number studies on this topic, there a lack research possible correlation between parameters at basal level in calves. For reason, present study aimed to investigate correlations serum cortisol, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (N/L) locomotor play 21 Friesian within first month life. Every week, an arena test after blood collection was performed. A significant positive cortisol levels N/L (rrm = 0.381; 95% CI 0.083, 0.617; p 0.012) negative time spent running −0.351; −0.575, −0.077; were found. On contrary, no detected. Cortisol higher newborn had constant decrease until reaching stable value 24th day These findings suggest better predictivity N/L, compared behavior.