Intersucking in dairy cattle—review and questionnaire

Intersucking is an abnormal behaviour in dairy heifers and cows, and it is defined by one animal sucking the teat of another animal with the intention of sucking milk. The aim of this paper is to review earlier studies on intersucking in dairy cattle and to present results from a questionnaire about intersucking in Swedish cattle. In previous studies 1–49% of the dairy farmers have reported intersucking in cows, and 0.5–40% of the cows have been observed intersucking. Many factors have been found to be related to the development of intersucking, for example, the milk feeding method and housing of calves, the feeding methods of heifers, and the feeding and housing of cows. There also seems to be a relation between cross-sucking in calves and intersucking in heifers and cows. It has been claimed that intersucking between heifers leads to mastitis in primiparous cows, and especially the Corynebacterium pyogenes mastitis. A large number of preventive measures have been tested to stop intersucking in cows, but with varying success. A questionnaire was answered by telephone interviews to 230 dairy farms in Sweden with a reply frequency of 66%. Intersucking had been observed between cows on 29.4% of the farms, and between heifers on 60% of the farms. Calves had been observed sucking under the belly of other calves on 60% of the farms. There was a significant relationship between observations of calves sucking under the belly (cross-sucking) and heifers intersucking (P