Abstract From November 2005 to October 2006 thirty-two buffalo heifers from the same
commercial farm were used to evaluate the effect of rearing system on a range of
behavioural and immune variables. Sixteen heifers were group-housed in indoor slatted
floor pen (3.0 m2/animal) with an outdoor paddock (3.0 m2/animal) at~ 5m above sea level
(group IR). Sixteen others were kept at~ 600m above sea level. They grazed a fenced
Mediterranean maquis of~ 40ha (group ER). At the end of the experimental period the …