AsianScientist (Sep. 6, 2016) – Japanese researchers have revealed that more cows are born around a full moon, in a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Previous studies have found conflicting evidence on the effect of the moon cycle on the timing of human births. To date, many researchers remain unconvinced that the moon influences human births.
In the present study, Associate Professor Tomohiro Yonezawa of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues analyzed the birth timing of genetically similar Holstein cows reared in uniform conditions on a dairy farm in Hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture in Japan.
The researchers looked into 428 records of full-term spontaneous cow deliveries during a three-year period between September 2011 and August 2013, and the state of the moon in the moon cycle at the time of each delivery. From their records, they found that the birth rate was statistically higher during the near-full and full moon. Furthermore, the number of deliveries was higher for cows that had previously given birth.
Yonezawa explained that the results may be due to other factors disguised as the moon’s influence, such as the mothers’ nutrition, social environment and genetic background. However, he added that cows may provide a good model for teasing apart the lunar effect from other factors that also influence birth.
“As vets, we always try to see if questions that are difficult to explore in humans can be examined in farm animals,” said Yonezawa. “This study is a good example of how we’ve put this approach into practice, but before we can draw any strong conclusions, we have to verify our results with a larger sample size.”
The article can be found at: Yonezawa et al. (2016) Lunar Cycle Influences Spontaneous Delivery in Cows.
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Source: University of Tokyo; Photo: Pixabay.
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