Cribbing or crib bite involves a horse holding a solid object such as a stall door or rail fence with its incisors, then curling its neck, and contracting the lower neck muscles to retract the larynx. This coincides with the flow of air into the esophagus that produces a distinctive grunt cribbing. Normally, air is not swallowed but returns to pharynx. Sucking wind is a related behavior in which the horse bends its neck and sucks air into the throat but does so without grasping an object. Sucking the wind is considered part of the plagiarism mechanism, rather than being defined as a completely separate behavior.
Cribbing is regarded as an abnormal or compulsive behavior or stereotype seen on some horses, and is often labeled a stable representative.
Cribbing is mentioned in the literature as early as 1578 and occurs in 2.4-8.3% of horses depending on breed and management.
There is evidence that stomach ulcers can cause horses to be cribber, and cribbing may be a coping mechanism in response to stress.
A 1998 study found that plagiarism increased endorphins and found no evidence that anchoring generally damaged the health of the affected horses, but later research reported that plagiarism and wind absorption were associated with a later colic or colic development.
A similar but unrelated behavior, chewing wood or lignophagia, is another unwanted habit observed in horses, but does not involve air sucking; The horse just gnaws at the rails or wooden planks as if they were food.
Video Cribbing (horse)
Description
Cribbing, or crib bite, involves a horse holding a solid object such as a cage door or rail fence with its incisors, arching the neck, and contracting the lower neck muscles to pull back the larynx to the caudal. This movement coincides with the flow of air through the crico-pharynx into the esophagus that produces a distinctive cribbing or snoring sound. Normally, air is not swallowed but returns to pharynx. It is considered an abnormal, compulsive or stereotyped behavior, and is often labeled as a stable representative.
Sucking wind is a related behavior in which the horse bends its neck and sucks air into the throat but does so without grasping an object. Sucking the wind is considered part of the plagiarism mechanism, rather than being defined as a completely separate behavior.
Chewing Wood
A similar but unrelated behavior, chewing wood (lignophagia), is another undesirable behavior that is sometimes observed in horses. Horses gnaw at rails or wooden planks as if they are food, but that does not involve sucking air.
Maps Cribbing (horse)
Prevalence and occurrence
It is reported that 2.4-8.3% of horses in Europe and Canada are coffins and occupies 15-65% of the daily budget of horses. A postal survey in 2009 found that an average of 4.4% of horses in the US were cribbers, but 13.3% of Thoroughbreds behaved. Young children and highly talented horses feed concentrated foods after weaning four times more likely to be cribbers than unedicated concentrates. In some studies, Thoroughbreds has consistently had the greatest cribbing prevalence compared to other breeds.
Wind sucking occurs in 3.8% non-racing horses in the US. One study showed that stereotypes in general, including cribbing, were more common in dressage horses than some other uses.
Geldings and stallions are more likely to show cribbing than horses and behavior has been reported to occur in horses in pasture.
Negative consequences
A study in 1998 found that plagiarism correlated with increased endorphins and decreased stress levels in horses, found no studies with evidence that anchors generally interfere with the health of affected horses. A 2008 study found cribbing and wind-sucking as a risk factor for certain colic types. A 2010 study found a correlation between cribbing and colic, but found no clear association between the degree of risk or certain colic types.
It has been stated anecdotally that horses can learn to mimic this behavior from other horses, although this is not proved by scientific research. A study in 2009 found that 48.8% of US horse owners believe that plagiarism can be studied by observation, but studies show that only 1.0% of horses were developed with cribbing after being placed in front of an affected horse.
Cause
Boredom, stress, habits and addiction are all possible causes of cribbing and wind-sucking sounds. It was proposed in a 2002 study that the relationship between intestinal conditions such as gastric or colic inflammation and abnormal mouth behavior was caused by environmental factors. There is evidence that abdominal ulcers may be correlated with cribber horses.
Researchers now generally agree that cribbing and wind-absorbing are most common in rigid horses, although once established on individual horses, horses can exhibit this behavior elsewhere. Recent studies have shown that cribbing is more common in stable horses-weaned as foals than those weaned on grasslands. In the same study, the provision of concentrate after weaning was associated with a fourfold increase in the rate of cribbing progression.
Because Horse Racing is very consistent with the most common cribs, this suggests there may be a genetic component, but this may be confusing by the different uses and management of different horse breeds.
Function
Stereotypies are sometimes considered a coping mechanism for stressful animals. The physiological stress response can be induced by injecting animals with ACTH and the animal's ability to cope with this stress can be monitored by measuring salivary cortisol. In the 2015 study, after ACTH injection, cribbers had higher cortisol levels than non-cribbers. Furthermore, cribbers who did not stereotype for 3 hours of testing had higher cortisol levels than non-cribbers, while those who stereotyped did not. The researchers conclude that plagiarism is the mechanism of coping with stressful situations and that because of this, it should not be prevented.
Cribbing and wind-sucking can cause the sensation of pleasure by releasing endorphins in the horse brain. It has also been suggested that the increase in saliva produced during wind suction can be a mechanism for neutralizing stomach conditions in horses that are kept stable and fed grains. Stereotypies have been defined as "repetitive, invariant behavior patterns without a clear purpose or function"; therefore, if plagiarism and wind absorption have any of the above possible functions, it may not be appropriate to label them as stereotypes. However, since the causes and reinforcement generated for these behaviors may be multifactorial and they remain abnormal behavior, this suggests that livestock changes are necessary for animals that exhibit cribbing or wind-sucking.
Treatment
Several methods have been designed to prevent plagiarism after the behavior begins. However, some ethologists argue that prevention of behavior without addressing the cause is not a drug and may result in plagiarism expressed in modified form, or may interfere with animal efforts to adapt to its environment.
Diet and management
It has been proven that feeding by feeding the antacid horse diet can significantly reduce the frequency of behavior. Current research shows that cribbing prevention and related behaviors are based on management conditions that allow daily free movement and feeding practices that provide higher amounts of fiber and a limited amount of concentrate. The growing body shows that fat-based diets and fiber can also produce more calm behavior patterns.
One study investigated the effect of providing feeders that delivered small amounts of concentrate feed when activated by animals. Feeders increase the feeding times of both cribbers and non-cribbers, however, although the feeder decreases cribbing, it increases again after the feeder is removed.
Physical devices
There are a number of traditional devices used to minimize or prevent plagiarism and wind sucking. However, the effectiveness of these methods is debatable because they do not address the underlying cause factors. One method involves a horse wearing a collar-like device that stops the horse from curling and swells in the neck to suck air. However, the only study of equipment shows that although wearing such collars for 24 hours reduces plagiarism in six of the eight horses, once the collar is removed, the cribbing returns to a higher level than before. The authors conclude that cribbing has a function and preventing it by using an anti-cribbing collar can harm the wellbeing of a horse.
Covering open edges with metal surfaces or wires or painting with bitter substances such as carbolineum or commercial "chewing" products can reduce the damage associated with candy on the surface, although this does not prevent the edges being gripped by the teeth.
Surgery and more
Other methods of preventing plagiarism include surgery, acupuncture, drug use, operant feeding, and enrichment of the environment.
One of the surgical techniques is a modified Forssell procedure in which the muscles and nerves in the ventral neck area are cut as well as some muscle tissue removed. This makes the horse more difficult to contract the larynx and show cribbing. The adaptation of this technique using lasers has been shown to successfully prevent some cribbers from showing behavior, although this is less successful on horses that have been cribbers for more than three years prior to surgery.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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