Search

Lying is a highly motivated behaviour in dairy cows. The level of comfort provided by the lying surface not only affects lying time, but can also affect several other aspects of welfare. We used a crossover design to compare shredded paper and sawdust bedding in relation to lying behaviour, activity, lameness, integument damage, cleanliness and productivity. Cubicles were bedded with a thin layer of bedding, which was replaced as necessary to retain its hygienic state. Twenty-eight lactating Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were divided into two balanced groups that experienced each bedding treatment for a 2 week period in opposing order. Paper bedding resulted in significantly less time spent lying down (paper: 45 %, SD ± 6.7, sawdust: 48 %, SD ± 7.3, P 0.10). Furthermore, no significant effects on step count, damage to the integument, cleanliness or milk yields were observed (P > 0.10). Slips were too rare overall for analysis. These findings indicate that paper bedding and sawdust were mostly comparable in terms of impact on behaviour, welfare and productivity when provided on a short-term basis. Future trials are recommended to determine if treatment effects persist following prolonged exposure to paper bedding. Assessing the longitudinal development of lameness and the long-term impact of reduced lying time will be essential.

The aim of this scoping review was to consolidate information pertaining to welfare and quality of life assessments of shelter dogs. Specific objectives were to identify and characterize types of welfare assessment instruments, discuss circumstances where welfare and quality of life assessments are used, and identify research gaps. A comprehensive search strategy was implemented in five databases. Literature published globally between the years 2000 and 2020 was identified using specific search terms. Abstracts and full papers were screened, relevant articles obtained, and welfare assessment methods characterized. Of 670 unique citations identified, 43 met the inclusion criteria of including a welfare or quality of life assessment for shelter dogs. There were 16 different assessment tools used to evaluate welfare and quality of life in shelter dogs. Ethogram-based assessment tools, five of which were validated, were used in 37 publications. Physiological based assessment methods were used to assess welfare in 26 publications. Overall, assessment tools were used to either evaluate a dog’s acclimation to the shelter environment or evaluate welfare interventions. Several validated tools were identified that could be useful to shelters depending on need. The Multi-Operator Qualitative Behavioral Assessment and the Quality of Life Assessment are tools allowing for quick welfare assessments by shelter staff, while the Shelter Quality Protocol and the Shelter Quality Protocol 2 are more comprehensive welfare assessments, which require some experience or training in shelter management. The review identified few papers that evaluated the effects of chronic stress on dogs housed in a shelter environment long-term. Therefore, welfare of these dogs should be a priority for future studies. The range of assessment methods underscores the complexity of evaluating welfare and quality of life in different types of sheltering environments.

The methods by which dogs are trained vary between methods involving mainly negative reinforcement and positive punishment (aversive-based methods) and methods based essentially in positive reinforcement and negative punishment (reward-based methods). However, the use of aversive-based methods is highly controversial. While some people defend their merits, others are concerned with their potential negative effect on dog welfare. To date, some studies have been performed aiming to assess the effects of aversive- and rewardbased methods on the welfare and behaviour of dogs. In the present paper we perform a comprehensive review of those studies with the aim of characterizing the state of the art of scientific knowledge of the topic. Generally, the published studies suggest that the use of aversive-based methods is correlated with indicators of compromised welfare in dogs, namely stress‐related behaviours during training, elevated cortisol levels and problematic behaviours such as fear and aggression. However, there are a number of limitations that prevent any strong conclusion from being drawn. First, a considerable proportion of the studies relied upon surveys rather than on objective measures. Second, they focused on sub-populations of police and laboratory dogs and, thus, only represent a small portion of dogs undergoing training. Finally, the empirical studies have concentrated mainly on the effects of shock-collar training, which is only one of several tools used in aversive-based training, and, in some studies, the description of the training methodologies lacks details. Here we present a description of the published studies, discuss their limitations, debate other aspects that, in parallel with the nature of the training methods, may affect dog welfare, and point to future directions for research on the topic. Ana Catarina Vieira de Castro was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia with an individual post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/111509/2015). The work undergoing the present review paper did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or notfor-profit sectors.

One Welfare describes the interconnection between animal welfare, human wellbeing and their physical and social environment. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the cause of COVID-19 and emerged as a human pathogen in 2019 although is thought to have a zoonotic source. The original wildlife reservoir and any potential intermediate hosts have not yet been identified. The combination of the virus zoonotic condition together with the impacts of disease control measures has exposed clear interconnections between animals, people and their environment from both a health and a welfare perspective. The One Welfare Framework comprises five sections that can help understand the different One Welfare levels on which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world. This paper uses the One Welfare Framework to provide an overview of examples, within each of the five sections, where evidence is and/or can be made available to document COVID-19 impacts on One Welfare. The paper identifies a number of areas where further research and evidence gathering is required to better understand the different One Welfare impacts. Based on evidence summarised in this paper the author recommends that those responsible for managing the COVID-19 impacts and for planning the future recovery phase of the pandemic should consider adopting a holistic approach, including both health and welfare, by adopting & One Health, One Welfare& policies.

All non-human great apes are endangered, and for these animals, captive individuals play an important role in the species’ conservation management plan. Therefore, information about their current enrichment activities is essential for maintaining a healthy captive population. This paper reviews research where digital media is used as cognitive enrichment for great apes with a particular focus on orangutans, and assesses its appropriateness and relevance for current and future enrichment programs. The paper provides a holistic overview of topical issues surrounding primates in captivity, including a discussion of primate cognitive abilities, current institutional enrichment strategies and practices, and a chronological review of how digital media technologies have performed within this paradigm. The paper also covers issues in enrichment such as the concept of the power of control, natural versus non-natural enrichment, naturalism/anthropomorphism, stimulation versus stereotypy, and respecting individualism in great apes. This review reveals that as technologies advance interactive digital applications will become increasingly relevant for captive great apes and other primates because of its ability to provide improved solutions where traditional non-digital enrichment may have either failed or proven less efficient. It also highlights the importance of considering the preferences and differences in cognitive abilities of each individual when selecting particular digital enrichment activities. A wide variety of factors including life history, species, sex, age, previous enrichment experience, training routines and methods, and housing conditions will all affect the success of digital media enrichment. With this in mind, this paper identifies gaps in current knowledge, highlighting the need for further studies.

Cats are one of the world’s most populous companion animals, yet little is known about how the home environment is adapted relative to their needs. Outdoor access is thought to be beneficial for both the physical and mental wellbeing of cats, yet as urbanisation increases, reducing owner access to outdoor spaces, an increasing number of cats are kept strictly indoors. The impact of an indoor lifestyle on feline behaviour and welfare is little explored and poorly understood. This study used a systematic review to assess scientifically validated knowledge concerning social and physical environments and their implications for indoor cats. A total of 61 papers were analysed. Only n = 21 papers directly addressed at-home indoor scenarios with the remainder consisting of shelter/cattery (n = 27) or laboratory (n = 16) (some papers explored multiple environments). Across studies there was little evidence of rigour or systematically controlled approaches. Methods frequently used were cat-stress-scores (CSS) and ethograms, neither of which were consistently standardised, substantially reducing the ability to compare findings among studies. Numerous studies explored similar variables (i.e. provision of hiding space (n = 9)) yielding little additional knowledge. Measures of welfare and behaviour were often assessed using single parameters in controlled environments. Although this may be useful and applicable to cat experiences within shelters, catteries and laboratories, the findings do not necessarily translate to dynamic and variable household environments. Major findings include the benefits of enrichment such as hiding boxes and vertical resting spaces, as often recommended by veterinarians and feline charities. However, other advice provided, such as the provision of feeding enrichment for psychological welfare, although not necessarily disputed, appears to be scientifically untested. Additionally, despite the social environment being likely to have a substantial effect on cat welfare, it is particularly under-studied in the home, especially in terms of its complexity (e.g. presence of young children or dogs). Overall, the review identified substantial gaps relative to cat experiences and welfare in multifactorial home environments. Understanding the impact of indoor lifestyles and promoting mechanisms to minimise any negative impacts whilst promoting positive ones, remains an important, yet underexplored, area of research.

In an effort to mitigate piglet acute responses to surgical castration, the procedure can be preceded by injections of a local anaesthetic. Regardless of potential benefits at castration, the impact of local anaesthetics on piglet welfare following the procedure remains under-documented. The present paper is based on data collected in two separate castration studies investigating the impact of injection with procaine, using different injection methods, different volumes of injected drug and different timing of injection, on behavioural responses of 3–4 day old piglets, as measured by indicators of social motivation immediately after castration (Study 1 and 2), as well as behaviours recorded continuously for 10 min upon return to the home pen (Study 2 only). Study 1 involved 597 piglets, and 13 treatments: castration without anaesthesia (CC), local anaesthesia followed by castration involving all combinations of two methods of injection (intra-funicular and intra-testicular) and four intervals between injection and castration (2.5, 5, 10 and 30 min), and sham handling separated by the same four intervals (SH). Study 2 involved 290 piglets and 5 treatments: castration without anaesthesia (CC), castration after intra-testicular injections of 0.5 or 0.3 mL of procaine per testis, and sham handling with either one (SH1) or two stays in a castration bench (SH2). Across both studies, piglets injected with procaine showed signs of reduced motivation to approach their siblings in the social motivation test compared to controls castrated without anaesthesia or sham handled. The indicators of social motivation did not differ from the controls in case of castration 30 min after drug injection. In addition, responses shown in the social motivation test were less impacted after injection of 0.3 compared to 0.5 mL of procaine per testis. In Study 2, piglets injected with 0.5 mL of procaine appeared to be less active at the udder, and displayed more huddled up postures, immediately upon return to the home pen, as compared to piglets injected with 0.3 mL of procaine or the controls castrated without anaesthesia or sham handled. Altogether, the results suggest that injections with a procaine-based local anaesthetic negatively impact the responses of piglets in a test of social motivation as well as the home-pen behaviour of piglets in the early post-operative period. The present results call for attention towards the post-surgical phase, but understanding the potential welfare impacts as well as the motivational changes underlying these findings require further study.

Effective management of pain is critical to the improvement of animal welfare. For this to happen, pain must be recognised and assessed in a variety of contexts. Pain is a complex phenomenon, making reliable, valid, and feasible measurement challenging. The use of facial expressions as a technique to assess pain in non-verbal human patients has been widely utilised for many years. More recently this technique has been developed for use in a number of non-human species: rodents, rabbits, ferrets, cats, sheep, pigs and horses. Facial expression scoring has been demonstrated to provide an effective means of identifying animal pain and in assessing its severity, overcoming some of the limitations of other measures for pain assessment in animals. However, there remain limitations and challenges to the use of facial expression as a welfare assessment tool which must be investigated. This paper reviews current facial expression pain scales (“Grimace Scales”), discussing the general conceptual and methodological issues faced when assessing pain, and highlighting the advantages of using facial expression scales over other pain assessment methods. We provide guidance on how facial expression scales should be developed so as to be valid and reliable, but we also provide guidance on how they should be used in clinical practice.

Over the past two centuries, the typical life of dogs has changed dramatically, especially in the Global North. Dogs have moved into human homes, becoming human companions. In many respects, this change seems to have led to improvements in dog welfare. However, the shift into family homes from the free-roaming lifestyle characteristic of dogs as they lived and co-evolved with humans in the past, has created a typically more confined and isolated lifestyle for dogs. In addition, over the same period, selective breeding of dogs, largely driven by human aesthetic ideals and concepts of breed purity, has transformed dog populations. In this discussion paper, based on a narrative literature review, we compare the welfare of companion dogs with that of modern village dogs. We adopt this comparison because dogs have lived in ways resembling village dog life for most of their history. As such, the comparison may serve as a good basis for assessing the effects of the ‘petification’ of dogs. We argue that compared to the typical village dog, the typical modern suburban or urban companion dog experiences good welfare in a number of respects. This is especially the case when it comes to security, satisfaction of nutritional needs (though companion dogs have problems with a high prevalence of obesity), and proper veterinary care. However, in other ways the modern companion dog often suffers from a range of human-created challenges leading to poor welfare. We examine two key challenges for companion dogs: 1) unrealistic social demands that can lead to anxiety, depression, and aggression, and 2) ill devised breeding schemes that result in breeding-related diseases for many companion dogs.

Music can have powerful effects on human health and wellbeing. These findings have inspired an emerging field of research that focuses on the potential of music for animal welfare, with most studies investigating whether music can enhance overall wellbeing. However, this sole focus on discovering what effects music have on animals is insufficient for advancing scientific and practical understanding of how music can be used as an enrichment tool and can also lead to problems in experimental design and interpretation. This paper argues for a different approach to the study of music for welfare, where music is used to address specific welfare goals, taking account what animals hear in music and selecting or creating ‘musical’ compositions that test current hypotheses about how music is able to influence animal behaviour and physiology. Within this conceptual framework, we outline the process through which perceptual abilities influence welfare outcomes and suggest reframing music for welfare research as Auditory Enrichment Research which adopts a targeted approach that does not purpose music as an all-round welfare enhancer but rather investigates whether auditory enrichment can ameliorate specific welfare problems based on species-specific perceptual abilities, needs, and welfare goals. Ultimately, we hope that these discussions will help to bring greater unification, vision, and directionality in the field.

Transmission of fear and attenuation of fear within groups of farm animals remain relatively unexplored, despite the importance for human and animal safety. This paper reports the results of two separate experiments, aiming to explore social transmission of habituation in horses at group level. In Experiment 1, the effect of a same-age demonstrator was investigated in eight groups of four 2-yr old horses (n = 32). The socially highest-ranking horse (determined through feeding tests) in each group was used as demonstrator. Half of the demonstrators were habituated to the sudden appearance of a stimulus while feeding from a container in a test arena, and the other half remained non-habituated. During testing, each group member fed from containers placed in a semi-circle to control for position during stimulus exposure. Behavioural reactions (on a scale of 0 to 4; 0 being no reaction, and 4 being a flight response), latency to resume feeding after exposure, and heart rates were recorded for all naïve horses. Behavioural reactions were reduced (P = 0.024) in groups with habituated demonstrators, whereas latencies and heart rates were not significantly affected. In Experiment 2, a similar set-up was used to investigate the effect of adult, habituated demonstrators (n = 32, one adult and three 2-yrs old horses per group). Naïve horses grouped with a habituated, adult demonstrator showed reduced behavioural reactions (P < 0.001), latencies (P = 0.002) and a tendency towards lower heart rate responses (P = 0.065), compared to naïve horses grouped with non-habituated adult demonstrators. This suggests that social transmission of habituation from experienced group members can lead to attenuation of fear in groups of young horses. The result may have important practical applications since fear reactions in horses lead to a high number of serious injuries and human fatalities every year.

This study aimed to apply qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) to horses farmed in single boxes, in order to investigate their emotional state and explore its association with indicators of human-animal relationship. A fixed list of 13 QBA descriptive terms was determined. Three assessors experienced with horses and skilled in measuring animal behaviour underwent a common training period, consisting of a theoretical phase and a practical phase on farm. Their inter-observer reliability was tested on a live scoring of 95 single stabled horses. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted to analyse QBA scores and identify perceived patterns of horse expression, both for data obtained in the training phase and from the on-farm study. Given the good level of agreement reached in the training phase (Kendall W = 0.76 and 0.74 for PC1 and PC2 scores respectively), it was considered acceptable in the subsequent on-farm study to let these three observers each carry out QBA assessments on a sub-selection of a total of 355 sport and leisure horses, owned by 40 horse farms. Assessment took place immediately after entering the farms: assessors had never entered the farms before and were unaware of the different backgrounds of the farms. After concluding QBA scoring, the assessors further evaluated each horse with an avoidance distance test (AD) and a forced human approach test (FHA). A MANOVA test was used to assess the association of the AD and FHA tests with the on-farm QBA PC scores. The QBA approach described in this paper was feasible on farm and showed good acceptability by owners. In the analysis of on-farm QBA scores, the first Principal Component ranged from relaxed/at ease to uneasy/alarmed, the second Component ranged from curious/pushy to apathetic. Horses perceived as more relaxed/at ease with QBA showed less avoidance during the AD test (P = 0.0376), and responded less aggressively and fearfully to human presence in the FHA test (P

This paper presents data on the success rate of African elephants in human scent matching to sample performance. Working with equipment and protocols similar to those used in the training of forensic canine units in Europe, scent samples were collected on cotton squares from twenty-six humans of differing ethnic groups, sexes and ages, and stored in glass jars. Three African elephants were trained to match human body scent to the corresponding sample. In total, four hundred and seventy trials, during which the elephant handlers were blind to the experiment details, were conducted. Each trial consisted of one scent that served as the starting (target) sample to which the elephant then systematically determined a potential match in any of the nine glass jars presented. Elephants matched target and sample at levels significantly higher than indicated by random chance, displayed no loss of working memory, and successfully discriminated target odours. They also discriminated between related human individuals spanning three generations and including sibling pairs. In addition to demonstrating scent matching capabilities, this experiment supported the elephants’ significant ability to perform well at operant conditioning tasks.

The aim of the present follow-up study was to assess sibling competition during nursing on Day 1 post-partum (i.e., 24 h after the end of parturition), as well as whether sows respond to increased sibling competition. A total of 19 healthy sows and their piglets were directly observed and video recorded for 6 h on Day 1 post-partum. Piglet behaviours (presence at the udder, fighting and screaming) were scored at 15 s intervals, commencing 5 intervals (i.e., 75 s) prior to milk ejection, and continuing for 9 intervals (i.e., 135 s) after milk ejection. The proportion of piglets which missed the milk ejection, postural changes by the sow, and whether the nursing was without milk ejection (non-nutritive nursing) were also noted. The mean number of piglets per sibling exhibiting fights (FIGHTS), and exhibiting fights with screams (FIGHT-SCRES) was calculated for both before (pre-massage) and after milk ejection (post-massage). There was a significant correlation between the number of piglets exhibiting FIGHTS and the number of piglets exhibiting FIGHT-SCRES during pre-massage (ρ = 0.92), as well for post-massage (ρ = 0.93). Based on this high correlation, only the results for the number of piglets exhibiting FIGHTS were included in the paper. A higher number of piglets exhibiting FIGHTS (P

Temperament, i.e. consistent inter-individual differences in behavior, has been documented in many species. Especially, boldness-shyness continuum is the ecologically relevant trait most frequently used to describe temperament among species. Reactions along the bold-shy axis demonstrate an organism’s ability to cope with environmental conditions and reflect its response to environmental stress. Our study investigated the existence of boldness-shyness continuum in 16 captive Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus) housed in 2 zoological parks. We first aimed to establish a valid methodology to measure boldness and shyness using behavioral tests. Additionally, our study explored 2 other potential temperament dimensions: sociality and reactivity to humans, and their association with boldness. Finally, since animals were kept under human care, we investigated human perception on manatees’ temperament. We conducted behavioral tests i.e. novelty tests involving novel objects, a novel sound, and an unfamiliar human. We recorded behaviors related to exploration as well as social interactions (i.e. physical proximity, social contacts) and we assessed manatees’ reactivity to humans through a participation score during hand-feeding sessions. Finally, we collected keepers’ subjective impression about individuals’ temperament through traits rating method. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that tested manatees’ reactions to different novel stimuli in order to determine their temperament. Our results first allowed us to identify the most relevant stimuli and variables to measure boldness and to classify individuals as bolder or shier. Individuals characterized as bolder displayed significantly more approach, longer approach and more contact toward stimuli than shier individuals. Moreover, boldness score was significantly associated with physical proximity with conspecifics, as well as with the participation score to hand-feeding sessions in one zoo. Finally, surveys completed by keepers were reliable and positive associations were found between rated items and behavioral observations. These findings support that as many species, manatees demonstrate boldness-shyness traits. More investigations on a larger sample size are needed to explore manatees’ temperament dimensions, and how these traits could modulate their interactions with their conspecifics and their environment. Studying manatees’ temperament could help improving the management and welfare of the species under human care. It could also facilitate their management in wildlife reserves by understanding manatees’ movements and evaluate the anthropogenic impact on wild populations.

In England and Wales the welfare of animals, including horses, is protected by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Welfare agencies play a role in the investigation of equine welfare concerns and catching, containing, transporting and boarding (caring for) horses that have been rescued. Horses regularly have to be rescued in difficult circumstances from challenging and potentially dangerous environments. Equitation science uses a multi-disciplinary approach to objectively explain horse-human interactions and determine the efficacy of horse training practices and their impact on the horse. This paper reviews common horse rescue practices used by welfare agencies in the UK and evaluates them using a learning theory-based equitation science framework to determine whether they are effective, humane and safe. Due to the debilitated state many horses are found in physical health is often prioritised over psychological well-being, and the rescue process itself has the potential to negatively impact on the horse’s mental state, for example through flooding and learned helplessness. Anecdotal evidence suggests that rescue personnel may not fully understand how horses learn, particularly with regards to the use of negative reinforcement. In addition, there may be a lack of appreciation that all horse-human interactions are potentially part of a learning process that result in the horse being trained. Rescue practices may inadvertently trigger fear responses and behaviours indicative of conflict, potentially putting human safety at risk and contributing to the development of fearful, dangerous and/or unwanted learned behaviours that require re-training at a later date. Ultimately, such practices may negatively impact on the horse’s recovery and affect the charity’s ability to successfully re-home the horse. This review highlights the need for welfare agencies to continue to develop their knowledge and skills in the light of new evidence, particularly with regards to the ethology of horses, their mental abilities and how they learn. Further research is also needed to elucidate the true impact rescue practices have on both the short and long-term welfare of the horse.

Ever since the phrase, ‘the happy athlete’ was introduced into the FEI rules for dressage (Article 401.1) there have been discussions about what this actually means and whether it is possible to recognize and reward positive emotions in working horses. For those interested in the study of equine behaviour, the use of such subjective terms for assessing horse emotion during training and performance, is interesting in that this suggests that horse trainers, riders and judges feel that there are meaningful behavioural expressions of emotional state that can be accurately assessed whilst the horse is at work and during competition. Although there has been much more research into the recognition of negative emotions such as pain, fear and stress in horses, recently there have been a number of studies attempting to look at what horses choose and how they may express pleasure or even happiness. ‘Putting the welfare of the horse as a happy athlete at the heart of everything we do’, is one of the main values quoted by equestrian bodies, however if we are to manage equine welfare we need to measure it and how successfully this can be done relies upon the development and validation of robust yet practical welfare indicators. Until recently, welfare assessment has traditionally focused on the absence of experiences that induce negative emotions. However, the notions of quality of life, a life worth living and the concept of the happy animal are starting to become more accepted within the animal welfare field with the assumption that if an animal is experiencing positive emotions, then its welfare needs can be said to be met, and if negative, then they are not and welfare is of concern. So the pertinent question is, what is welfare in the context of the horse used for equitation purposes? And what are the most useful welfare indicators for judging the emotional state of an individual horse within the context of the training and performance situation? In this review paper we will examine the results of recent work in this area, and the challenges such research poses both in relation to the science, but also to the use of horses for recreation and sport.

Public concern for farm animal welfare calls for reliable scientific tools to measure it. Measuring cognitive bias, i.e., the influence of affective states on cognitive processing, has gained importance during recent years. The one most often adapted experimental design to test cognitive bias in non-human animals is the spatial judgement task, where animals must judge a goal box/pot based on its location. First, they learn to discriminate between a positively reinforced and a negatively reinforced location, and then they are confronted with ambiguous, intermediate locations. The responses to these so-called probe cues are assumed to be influenced by the animal’s affective state. Current methods for the assessment of cognitive bias in domestic pigs, one of the most intensively housed farm animal species in Europe, still need to be refined and validated. Hence, we developed an improved, reliable design to test pigs repeatedly and induce graded responses to graded probe cues. For this, we used a spatial judgement task in a go/no-go paradigm with partial reinforcement and a mildly aversive negative reinforcer. A total of 16 female juvenile German Landrace pigs underwent discrimination learning of the rewarded vs. punished goal box location; this was then repeatedly tested on three probe locations in between (eight times in four weeks). The subjects learned to discriminate between the two reference locations and showed graded responses (latency to open the goal box) to the probe locations. Analyses of the subjects’ general behaviour implied that additional information on the animals’ state can be derived. The subjects showed no signs of learning with respect to the outcome of probe cues but exhibited stable response levels during test weeks two to four. In conclusion, the design presented in this paper is suitable for spatial judgement tasks in domestic pigs. After successful validation it might be used for testing affective valence based on judgement bias and hence can contribute to our understanding of the welfare of this intensively farmed species.

Research into the impact of sociality on stress has largely focused on social factors as stressors, but it is now well-known that the mere presence of a conspecific can reduce an animal’s stress – a phenomenon termed ‘social buffering’. Stress, in terms of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, is in itself a versatile mechanism appearing to optimise fitness. Reduction of the stress response would thus also be expected to serve some evolutionary end. Buffering requires that the focal animal registers its conspecific’s presence, and transduces that to a physiological result – the former can be via many sensory modalities, whilst the latter largely works through the oxytocin pathway. Simultaneously, many intrinsic and extrinsic variables may modulate the buffering process or block it completely. By examining the mechanisms of buffering, as well as how the effect is mediated by various factors, this paper discusses the nature of the process as well as its possible adaptive functions. Studying the mechanisms and functions underlying social buffering will not only deepen our understanding of both stress and sociality, but also inform our attempts to improve animal health, fitness and welfare.

The growing recognition of animals as individuals has broader implications for farm animal welfare research. Even under highly standardized on-farm conditions, farm animals show heterogeneous but individually consistent behavioural patterns towards various stimuli, based on how they appraise these stimuli. As a result, animal welfare is likely to be highly individual as well, and studying the proximate mechanisms underlying distinct individual behaviour patterns and appraisal will improve animal welfare research. We propose to extend the framework of affective styles to bridge the gap between existing research fields on animal personality and affective states. Affective styles refer to consistent individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation and can be predicted by baseline cerebral lateralization. Likewise, animals with consistent left or right motor biases—a proxy measure of individual patterns in cerebral lateralization—have been shown to differ in their personality, emotional reactivity, motivational tendencies or coping styles. In this paper, we present the current knowledge of the links between laterality and stable individual traits in behaviour and affect in light of hypotheses on emotional lateralization. Within our suggested framework, we make recommendations on how to investigate affective styles in non-human animals and give practical examples. This approach has the potential to promote a science of affective styles in nonhuman animals and significantly advance research on animal welfare.

Traditionally, UK equines are kept in “gilded cages”; sanitised spaces which aim to provide every comfort, whilst shielding the horse from any form of harm or distress. Horses are typically provided with a “bedroom”; a private space where they may rest on a comfortable clean bed, wear fashionable and warm clothing, enjoy plentiful food, and perhaps play with some toys. These safe spaces may extend to the provision of individually isolated turnout in relatively small, sterile squares of grass. Yet, these spaces are a far cry from the natural lifestyle of the horse. Horses are grazing animals which would naturally live in herds and cover wide spaces while seeking food with their herd-mates, and inevitably many horses whose needs are not met display unwanted behaviours such as biting, bucking, or barging. Despite this, the equine community traditionally perceives isolated, comfortable lives as the ideal for horses, often describing them as “living like kings”. The COVID-19 pandemic presented an interesting turning point: during the initial lockdown (March-May 2020), horsepeople themselves experienced life in a gilded cage. Suddenly, the human population was plunged into many of the same conditions which are seen as optimal for our horses; we had to “stay at home”, experienced a lack of social contact, restricted movement and, perhaps most importantly, a lack of choice. In this paper, we review published equine welfare research to compare the ways in which human lockdown reflects standard equine management. We compare the ways in which published literature about human responses to lockdown give insight to common equine management issues, and finally we consider the literature around human-animal relationships during lockdown, and how the culmination of these fields might alter human-equine relationships and equine welfare as we move forward. These changes have implications for the long-term treatment of equines in the UK, as well as for other companion animals who traditionally live their lives in “gilded cages”.

The Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ©) ( http://www.cbarq.org ) has been used to measure behaviors associated with release or graduation from several assistance dog programs, however it has never been evaluated within a prison environment. This study investigated whether a modified version of the C-BARQ© can be utilized in a prison puppy-raising program (Puppies Behind Bars, PBB) to identify behaviors that are associated with dogs’ career outcomes. PBB dogs that successfully complete the program are placed as service dogs or explosives detection dogs (EDD). Dogs are released from the program as a result of behavioral or medical problems. The PBB program has more than one career outcome, facilitating an assessment of the C-BARQ© as a tool to identify specific working dog roles based on differences in C-BARQ© subscale scores. We examined the associations between subscale scores and career outcomes by comparing the scores of dogs with successful outcomes (service or EDD) with those released for behavioral reasons. We assessed the questionnaire’s application to the PBB setting and its ability to distinguish between outcomes. 314 paper copies of the C-BARQ© were completed by puppy raisers from seven correctional facilities in the New York area when their assigned dog was between 6 and 16 months old. Dogs that had successfully completed the PBB program or had been released due to behavioral issues were included, whereas dogs still in training and those released for medical reasons were excluded. A total of 271 completed C-BARQ© questionnaires were analyzed. Service dogs and EDDs were compared with released dogs to determine whether C-BARQ subscale scores were associated with outcome. Multinomial log-linear models containing one subscale score and fixed factors (age group, medical category, sex, neuter status within sex, the interaction between age group and medical category) and outcome as the dependent variable, were fitted for each subscale. Service dogs had lower stranger-directed aggression, owner-directed aggression, dog-directed aggression, dog-directed fear, dog rivalry, chasing, stranger-directed fear, and separation-related problems than released dogs. EDDs had lower trainability, dog-directed fear, dog rivalry, and attachment/attention-seeking behavior than released dogs. These findings suggest that some of the C-BARQ© subscales might be used in the future to predict outcomes for young dogs. Results show that the C-BARQ© can be applied to the PBB program; however, the omission of seven questions is recommended.

This paper describes a method in which horses learn to communicate by touching different neutral visual symbols, in order to tell the handler whether they want to have a blanket on or not. Horses were trained for 10–15min per day, following a training program comprising ten steps in a strategic order. Reward based operant conditioning was used to teach horses to approach and touch a board, and to understand the meaning of three different symbols. Heat and cold challenges were performed to help learning and to check level of understanding. At certain stages, a learning criterion of correct responses for 8–14 successive trials had to be achieved before proceeding. After introducing the free choice situation, on average at training day 11, the horse could choose between a "no change" symbol and the symbol for either "blanket on" or "blanket off" depending on whether the horse already wore a blanket or not. A cut off point for performance or non-performance was set to day 14, and 23/23 horses successfully learned the task within this limit. Horses of warm-blood type needed fewer training days to reach criterion than cold-bloods ( P 0.05 ). Horses were then tested under differing weather conditions. Results show that choices made, i.e. the symbol touched, was not random but dependent on weather. Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold (χ 2 =36.67, P 0.005 ). This indicates that horses both had an understanding of the consequence of their choice on own thermal comfort, and that they successfully had learned to communicate their preference by using the symbols. The method represents a novel tool for studying preferences in horses.

A human-dog relationship is characterized by living close together in the same environment which might provoke social conflicts around particular resources, such as food and social partners. Dogs developed behavioural patterns in response to dog-human social conflicts as well as to receive reinforcement and to prevent punishment. However, few studies have investigated the behavioural responses of dogs to dog-human social conflict situations. Therefore, 22 dogs’ behavioural responses to the thwarting of food by a human over a period of 180 s (frustration-provoking situation) and to an operant conditioning task were studied. The 2 testing situations were applied in a random order to each dog. Dog-human interactions, such as gazing and seeking out contact, passive and active behavioural responses, exploration and submissive behaviour were recorded. The dogs’ behavioural responses in the frustration-provoking test and the learning test were analysed using descriptive statistical and repeated measures analysis of variance within the linear mixed models procedure. Throughout both test situations, the main behavioural responses displayed by the dogs were interacting with the experimenter or standing alert. The dogs tried to get to the withheld food using their mouth (frustration-provoking test: mean = 70.97 s, SD ± 45.23; operant conditioning task: mean = 12.72 s, SD ± 18.99) and gazed at the experimenter (frustration-provoking test: mean = 26.86, SD ± 40.86; operant conditioning task: mean = 11.55, SD ± 13.96). The time the dogs tried to get to the withheld food using their mouth and gazing at the experimenter significantly influenced the time the dogs took to lie down (F1,15 = 28.15, P = 0.000). Standing alert, a passive behavioural response to a social conflict, significantly influenced the time the dogs needed to lie down in the operant conditioning task (F1,30 = 61.16, P = 0.000). There was a significant relationship between the standing alert and withdrawal behaviour (rs = 0.670, P = 0.000), that means the dogs moved backwards a few steps before they stood alert. All dogs licked their noses or lips 1–32 times (mean = 11.59, SD ± 7.84) throughout the frustration-provoking test and only half of the dogs performed those behaviours 1–14 times (mean = 2.91, SD ± 3.10) throughout the operant conditioning task. The data suggest that dogs primarily show the same behavioural responses when comparing a frustration-provoking situation to an operant conditioning task during dog-human interaction. This paper highlights the importance to increase our understanding of dog’s behavioural patterns and body language displayed during dog-human conflicts.

Clicker training is a popular technique used in companion animal training. It employs a handheld signalling device called a clicker, which emits an audible “click” noise when pressed. Trainers press the clicker when an animal performs a desired behaviour, usually following the click with presentation of a food reward. The clicker is purported to facilitate learning, but scientific evidence to support this claim is limited. Of five studies comparing a clicker-type signal + food group with a food-only control group, only one found that animals in the signal + food group learned faster. Further investigation is therefore required to better understand the circumstances under which clickers might help or hinder learning. To inform future studies, it is important to consider mechanisms by which the clicker may function. In this paper three proposed mechanisms are presented, which we term the Reinforcing Hypothesis, Marking Hypothesis, and Bridging Hypothesis. To begin understanding which (if any) of these three mechanisms is the means by which clickers may operate, we evaluate relevant laboratory animal studies. Based on available behavioural and neuropsychological evidence, it is concluded that clickers and other clicker-like stimuli likely function as conditioned reinforcers, but may also have marking and bridging properties. Ways to investigate how this translates to clicker use in applied settings are identified.

Laboratory mice housed at typical temperatures and provided with crinkled paper nesting material build fully enclosed nests, increasing welfare, and reducing cold stress, but complicating daily animal observations by care staff. Anecdotal reports by animal care staff indicate that ill mice are not found within the nest and do not nest build. We hypothesized that both nest shape and whether or not ill mice were found outside the nest could be used as tools to identify ill mice. Forty two female C57BL/6NCrl mice were provided 10 g of nesting material and assigned to a social treatment of either solitary or group housing. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injected intraperitoneally at 1 mg/kg was used to induce malaise in 0, 1, 2, or 3 mice/cage; all others received saline. Prior to the study, mice were habituated to handling and injections with positive reinforcement. In order to blind the nest scorer to treatment novel, but experienced, handlers administered the experimental injections. Nest score, number of mice in the nest, and anhedonia measured by sugared cereal consumption were recorded at the following time points: baseline, cage change, saline injection, injection, and injection + cage change and data were analyzed using GLMs with post-hoc contrasts. The number of mice observed outside the nest was not affected by any treatment. Nest score was not significantly altered in group housed mice but LPS-injected solitary mice had significantly lower nest scores than saline-injected solitary mice at the injection + cage change time point. Saline-injected mice also had a significant reduction in nest score from baseline at injection + cage change. It is likely that receiving the injection from novel handlers were likely the cause for this alteration, yielding the unexpected result that nest building in mice is affected by a novel handler. LPS-injected mice, regardless of social treatment, ate ≈2 g less sugared cereal per mouse at both injection and injection + cage change time points compared to their baseline cereal consumption and saline-injected mice at the same time points. Group housing appears to mask changes in nest score if other cage residents are healthy and acutely ill individuals were not observed to have a location bias, in or out of the nest, after LPS injection. However, a reduction in nest score has the potential to be a useful tool to identify acute illness after cage change in solitary mice. Changes in nest complexity may be useful to identify illness earlier for general husbandry and welfare purposes and may be a more robust tool in chronic, rather than acute, disease models.

Questionnaire-based personality and behavioural assessments for domestic dogs are widely used by professional dog handlers, researchers and those working in welfare. In order for behaviour tests to provide accurate, useful information about the future behaviour of test subjects, they need to reflect aspects of personality despite the limited context and time in which they are conducted. It is therefore important for questionnaires used to assess external validity of behaviour tests, to measure aspects of canine personality, and for assessors to understand how context-specific behavioural traits, such as those measured in battery tests, relate to broader personality traits in domestic dogs. Furthermore, the reliability of questionnaire-based tools using behavioural ratings can be significantly affected by questionnaire design and application, particularly when owners are asked to rate their own dogs and when the experience of raters is varied. This paper investigates the hierarchical structure of canine personality by assessing correlations between factor scores from three published owner questionnaires, two of which were designed to assess aspects of canine personality and one designed to assess narrow, behavioural traits that are somewhat context-specific. Between-factor correlations were also compared between sub-groups of owners and dogs based on demographic factors, to investigate the stability of these relationships in a mixed sample of volunteer pet dog owners and pet dogs. Several broad clusters of traits were identified, which each correlated with a number of context-specific behavioural traits. Three of these traits, ‘Neuroticism’ and ‘Extraversion’ in the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire-Revised and ‘Behavioural Regulation’ in the Dog Impulsivity Assessment Scale, show similarities to personality traits identified in other species. However, notable differences were identified in the relationships between some factors in owner groups which varied in dog-related work experience, which calls in to question the validity of structure identified. These variations may reflect a lack of reliability in some measures when experience level within a rater sample is mixed. Further investigation of the hierarchical structure of canine personality is required, using tools which behave more reliably with a mixed group of raters.

Self-injurious behaviors (SIBs) are a welfare and practical concern in laboratory rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ), and may share a similar etiology to human SIBs. This review uses a Tinbergian perspective to investigate why rhesus monkeys perform SIBs. In addition to reviewing research specifically focused on rhesus macaque SIBs, this paper reports data on human SIBs to help explain the behavior in non-human primates. This review is broken into four distinct sections based on Tinbergen’s ‘four whys’ of behavior: phylogeny, ontogeny, causation, and function. The first section, phylogeny, presents a few studies that link SIBs to monoamine-related genes. Phylogeny of SIBs as a whole, however, is insufficiently researched in non-human primates, as data are scarce on at-risk primate species and heritable factors. The developmental section attributes SIBs to rearing experiences ( e.g ., isolation housing and surrogate rearing), history of stressful experiences ( e.g ., husbandry and research protocols), and at-risk life stages ( e.g ., adolescence). Together these two sections help explain the origin of SIB-vulnerable phenotypes. Next, the causation section looks at potential internal mechanisms ( e.g ., neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, hormones, and affective states), behavioral and psychological correlates of SIBs ( e.g ., stereotypic behaviors, floating limb syndrome, and cognitive inflexibility), and external stimuli ( e.g ., individual housing, outdoor housing, and environmental enrichment). Lastly, the function section utilizes data on human self-report to consider putative benefits of SIBs such as self-stimulation and coping with stress and/or perhaps neuropathic pain. It addition, this section considers how these behaviors may alternatively represent brain dysfunction. In the final discussion and conclusion, treatment implications inspired by each of the four whys are considered, as well as the merits of using Tinbergen’s approach to study abnormal behaviors.

Using training to prepare laboratory animals for biomedical research is one important behavior management task. With increased knowledge about factors influencing training success, training programs may be optimized, resulting in a refinement of primate husbandry. Even when animals are trained under the same conditions there are individual differences in how they respond to training. The current paper focuses on two of the factors potentially influencing training success: social rank and personality. Five observers rated the personality and the social rank of 34 long-tailed macaques ( Macaca fascicularis ) in an observer trait rating survey. Training success was measured in 22 of these individuals and from four of their shaping protocols; hand-feeding, target training, presenting hands and presenting feet. From the factor analysis four personality traits could be identified: ‘Emotionality’, ‘Activity’, ‘Sociability’, and ‘Tolerance’. A Multiple linear regressions with backward elimination showed that the personality trait ‘Activity’ was associated with training success (adj. R 2 = 0.71, p R 2 = 0.30, p = 0.005) on training success in group-housed long-tailed macaques. We propose that training success can be conceptualized as consisting of two components: access to the trainer and problem solving. In the case of personality, the two components combine to promote training success: curious animals gain access to trainers, and playful animals are good problem solvers; both these adjectives were present in the trait ‘Activity’. In contrast, with regards to rank, qualities that increase access to the trainer (dominance) and traits that promote problem solving (subordinance) counteract one another, potentially explaining why in this study, training was better explained by personality than by rank. We discuss the importance of successfully training different types of personalities in order for the selection of animals in biomedical research to remain random and non-biased, rather than excluding those that do not respond well to training.

The Kong™ ball test has been used extensively to assess lateral bias in the domestic dog. Implicit in this challenge is the assumption that dogs use their dominant paw to stabilise the ball. This study examined whether or not this is the case. A comparative approach was adopted, exploring limb use in dogs and humans. In Experiment 1, the paw preference of 48 dogs was assessed on the Kong™ ball test. Analysis revealed an equal distribution of paw use, although significantly more dogs were paw-preferent than ambilateral. Significantly more male dogs were classified as right-pawed, while more females were ambilateral. There was no significant effect of canine sex or castration status on the dogs' paw preferences. In Experiment 2, 94 adult humans were assessed on their ability to remove a piece of paper from a Kong™ ball with their mouth, using their left, right or both hands to stabilise the ball. 76% of the right-handed people used their left hand, and 82% of the left-handed participants used their right hand, to hold the Kong™ steady. It is concluded that dogs, like humans, are most likely using their non-dominant limb to stabilise the Kong™ ball and their dominant side for postural support. This has potential applied implications from an animal welfare perspective.

In the literature on companion animal behaviour, a diverse range of repetitive behaviours in dogs have been referred to as symptoms of an underlying canine compulsive disorder analogous to obsessive-compulsive disorder in humans. It is claimed that the two disorders are behaviourally equivalent and have the same neurophysiology and response to pharmacological treatment. These claims are largely derived from the bio-medical perspective and have neglected the cognitive-behavioural model of obsessive-compulsive disorder in humans which accounts for the development and maintenance of the disorder in terms of learning theory and cognitive processing. In order to develop a fuller understanding of canine repetitive behaviours it is important to consider all perspectives and avoid limiting therapeutic approaches. This paper reviews the claims of equivalence from the cognitive-behavioural perspective and also reviews the evidence for any pathophysiological similarities between the two disorders. The review finds that claims of behavioural equivalence are based on the superficial characteristic of repetitiveness whilst neglecting the function of the behaviour; there are no reliable or consistent indications of the same neuroanatomy or physiology being specifically associated with the two disorders and whilst both appear to show a partial response to the same pharmacotherapy, it is not clear that this response is specific to both disorders. The review concludes that although there is little research data with which to make a comprehensive comparison, the available studies suggest that abnormal repetitive behaviours in dogs are unlikely to be the equivalent of human obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is considerable scope for further investigation of the cognitive, behavioural and emotional components of canine repetitive behaviours using current and emerging methodologies.

This study aimed to identify the risk factors for aggressive behaviour in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in Mainland China. This information has never been estimated before for owned dogs in China, therefore, there has been a lack of information to help guide veterinarians and dog behaviourists when giving advice to owners of dogs considered to have such behaviour problems. In order to establish this information, questionnaires were completed in electronic and paper format by dog owners: 2575 completed questionnaires were received. The majority of owners (2215, 86 %) reported that their dogs exhibited at least one behaviour they considered a problem: the main behaviour problem categories reported by owners were barking (871, 33.8 %), lunging and biting other dogs or people (586, 22.7 %), urinating inappropriately (566, 22 %), being destructive (537, 21.9 %), and eating non-food items (354, 13.7 %). When asked specifically about aggressive (any of growling, baring teeth, snarling, snapping or biting) and biting behaviours, 1578 owners (61 %) reported their dogs regularly being aggressive to other dogs or people, and 883 (34 %) reported that their dog had bitten other dogs or people. By using binomial logistic regression analyses, significant risk and protective factors were found for aggressive (X2(24, N = 2575) = 112.613, Nagelkerke R2 = .058, p 2.5) for being reported for aggressive behaviour include: terriers; and little time spent with the owner. Variable categories with the largest odds ratios (>2.00) for being reported for biting include: living with children older than 10 years of age; and being acquired from ‘other types’ of sources (compared to e.g. being found as a stray, which was protective). These results are very similar to those found in other geographical areas, for example in the USA, Sweden and Taiwan. The investigation of risk factors for aggressive behaviour will help veterinarians and dog behaviourists provide more appropriate advice to owners regarding their dogs’ aggressive behaviour, which will in turn improve dog welfare and public safety in China.

Video surveillance technology has been applied in many farms and a large amount of video data has been generated. Extracting valuable information about the pig industry from video data is a challenging problem. Pig behavior recognition is one of the research hotspots. In order to facilitate scholars to systematically understand the research status and development trends of this field, the paper summarizes the research on pig segmentation, pig detection and pig behavior recognition. The applications of traditional image processing methods and deep learning methods are introduced. The recognition strategies for different kinds of behavior, such as postural behavior, locomotion behavior, area-related behavior and interactive behavior, are summarized. Finally, some of the existing challenges in the current research are highlighted and future research work envisioned to address these is proposed.

The aim of this paper is to describe the ontogeny of the circadian activity rhythms in captive-born Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) from birth to subadult age and to verify if they develop a bimodal circadian pattern similar to the one they show in the wild. The amount of daily activity and the circadian rhythmicity of 61 Iberian lynx (48 mother-raised and 13 hand-reared) cubs were studied in two breeding centers. During the first month of life, the cubs were active 30% of the day. Activity increased up to 50% during the following two weeks, and then it remained constant until the end of the lynx physical development. The location of the breeding center affected the amount of daily activity of the cubs probably as result of different climatic conditions. Once the lynx cubs had completed their development, there was no difference in the time spent active between wild and captive lynx. Newborns had a constant level of activity throughout the day (24 h) during the first month of life. During the second month, once they had developed sufficiently to leave the den, a crepuscular bimodal circadian rhythm started to emerge. This pattern was completely defined by the third month of life. The overlap in circadian activity was over 0.88 when comparing the sexes, breeding centers and rearing methods. However, there was a significant difference between mother-raised and hand-reared cubs – the latter being more active in the morning–, as well as between breeding centers – again due to climate differences. Finally, an overlap of 0.85 in circadian activity pattern was observed between wild and captive lynx, although the wild animals were more active at night.

Many studies have attempted to use music to influence the behavior of nonhuman animals; however, these studies have often led to conflicting outcomes. We have developed a theoretical framework that hypothesizes that in order for music to be effective with other species, it must be in the frequency range and with similar tempos to those used in natural communication by each species. We have used this framework to compose music that is species-appropriate for a few animal species. In this paper, we created species-appropriate music for domestic cats and tested this music in comparison with music with similar affective content composed for humans. We presented two examples of cat music in counterbalanced order with two examples of human music, and we evaluated the behavior and response latencies of cats to each piece. Cats showed a significant preference for and interest in species-appropriate music compared with human music (median (interquartile range (IQR)) 1.5 (0.5–2.0) acts for cat music, 0.25 (0.0–0.5) acts for human music, P P r 2 =0.477, P

Each year, the UK rears around 20–30 million pheasants and 3–6 million red-legged partridges for shooting purposes. However, welfare organisations and some members of the gamebird industry itself have raised concerns about the use of raised laying units for breeding gamebirds. Although the proportion of breeding gamebirds kept in raised systems is relatively low there is some evidence that numbers may be increasing yet the incidence and severity of the challenges to gamebird welfare when housed in raised cages has never previously been assessed. Concern has also been raised over the ethics of confining semi-wild birds in barren cages as gamebirds are deliberately bred to retain their semi-wild behaviour which may be related to flying characteristics. The Farm Animal Welfare Committee and some sections of the gamebird industry have voiced concerns that such systems are incompatible with their ethical values, suggesting that the welfare of gamebirds in cages justifies rigorous assessment. Currently, an assessment of whether cage-based breeding systems meet duty of care requirements is constrained by a lack of understanding regarding the needs of captive gamebirds. Identifying the birds’ needs is a necessary step in defining what constitutes suitable enrichment for breeding gamebirds to optimise both welfare and animal production. Any caged-laying environment must therefore take into account the breeding ecology of the species in question and, importantly, allow the birds to display behaviours necessary to maintain health and welfare. This is the first review to examine the behavioural ecology and, specifically, the breeding systems, of the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufus) with the aim of highlighting areas where a species-specific behaviour would indicate a requirement for a specific resource to be made available to the birds. This review highlighted possible behavioural needs for resources targeting foraging behaviours, foot and claw function, suitable materials for dustbathing and privacy areas where birds can lay eggs or escape social pressures. These behavioural needs may be met by furnishing cages with a suitable type of solid floor and perching apparatus for enabling natural foot and claw function, by provision of dustbathing material to satisfy both dustbathing and foraging behaviour and by provision of privacy areas where birds can escape unwanted social encounters or lay eggs. The outcomes of this paper form the basis with which to develop and assess the welfare impacts of enrichment strategies and to provide an evidenced-based approach to inform gamebird management, codes of practice or legislation.

This paper reports three experiments that aimed to validate the use of state-dependent learning (SDL) as a novel welfare assessment tool to evaluate the hunger state of feed-restricted broiler breeders. In each experiment, birds alternated every 2 days between two food rations: quantitative feed restriction (QFR) and ad libitum access to the same feed (AL). Each food ration was paired with a different, end of day, coloured food reward. It was predicted that the reward associated with hunger (QFR FR) would be preferred to the food reward associated with AL (AL FR) in a subsequent choice test. The SDL preference testing took place after 4 and 8 days of training. Each bird was tested twice (once per food ration fed on the test day). In experiment 1 (pilot, n = 4), birds preferred the QFR-associated reward during both tests (mean (±S.E.M.) preference: QFR FR: 35.0 (±3.5) g; AL FR: 2 (±1.3) g, but differential food reward intake between hunger states during training confounded the results. In experiment two (n = 12) a smaller food reward was used during training to try and equalise intake. The birds preferred the QFR FR in test 1 only (least significant difference (L.S.D.) = 15.08, P < 0.05). The mean (±S.E.M.) consumption in test 1 was: QFR FR: 31.6 (±4.3) g; AL FR: 9.41 (±2.3) g. However, differential reward intake continued to confound the findings. In experiment three (n = 8), the food reward was made more palatable by feeding moist and food reward intake during training was equalised between hunger states. During testing, birds continued to show a significant preference in test 1 only (L.S.D. = 13.73, P < 0.05). It was concluded that SDL-derived preferences observed do exist but are not a robust phenomenon. Therefore, further research is needed to quantify factors influencing SDL development and maintenance before using SDL as a tool to assess hunger in feed-restricted broiler breeders.

For some decades, grazing by cattle and horses is used as a management tool to achieve different nature management goals. For managers there are still questions to be answered about the effects of herbivore densities on their performance, vegetation development and biodiversity. This study examines the effect of density on diet composition, diet quality and body condition of cattle and horses. We expressed density as the ratio between consumption and net primary production of the preferred grasslands. Over a period of one year, we studied sward height and diet composition, diet quality and body condition of free ranging cattle and horses in two different study areas with different ratios between consumption and production. Our results showed that the amount of preferred high quality grasses in the diet of cattle and horses was lower when herbivore density was higher. As a result diet quality was lower and as a result of that body condition was affected. In October body condition of cows was lower and in March body of cows and mares was lower in the high density area. A striking difference between cattle and horses was that during the growing season and at high densities, the amount of preferred grasses in the diet of cattle decreased whereas that of horses increased. This was most likely caused by sward height which became probably too low for cattle. As cattle prefer grass heights of 9–16 cm, grass heights lower than those make it difficult for cattle to achieve a sufficient instantaneous intake rate. This means that in homogeneous areas and at high herbivore densities, horses can outcompete cattle. In this paper the effects of density dependent diet selection on vegetation development and conservation management are discussed.

Harvesting of broilers is a stressful event, whether done mechanically or manually. The use of harvesting machines might compromise animal welfare less than manual harvesting methods because it is less influenced by environmental and flock-specific factors. In this paper, a mechanical and a manual harvesting method are compared in regard to stress-induced behavioural and physiological reactions. The stationary person test and the avoidance distance touch test were applied before harvesting to estimate pre-treatment fear of humans in the flocks. We then recorded the behaviour of the flocks during harvesting and evaluated stress-induced behaviour such as wing flapping and escape behaviour. Furthermore, we took blood samples at the abattoir and analysed the corticosterone concentration and heterophil/lymphocyte ratio. In a statistical analysis, all assessed parameters were related to environmental and flock-specific factors, as well as to the risk of lesions such as haematomas and fractures. Our aim was to figure out if the use of a harvesting machine, in this case the Apollo Generation 2, puts less stress on broilers during harvesting than manual catching. The applied behaviour tests indicate the excitability and fear of humans of the flocks but are complex to interpret. Compared with mechanical harvesting, manual harvesting was more influenced by environmental and flock-specific factors such as average weight (odds ratio [OR] = 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.11; 2.22]) or catching duration (OR = 1.79; 95% CI [1.44; 2.19]). The results verified a correlation between stress-induced behaviour and the occurrence of lesions. The risk for haematomas was influenced by escape behaviour during manual harvesting (OR = 1.07; 95% CI [1.02; 1.13]) and by bumps against the containers (OR = 1.06; 95% CI [1.05; 1.07]) and flips (OR = 6.23; 95% CI [3.99; 9.27]) during mechanical harvesting. The risk for fractures during mechanical harvesting was influenced by the occurrence of flips (OR = 2.74; 95% CI [1.07; 5.67]). The risk for wing flapping was twice as high during manual harvesting as during mechanical harvesting (OR = 2.11; 95% CI [1.82; 2.44]). The blood parameters showed no correlations with the initial behaviour test results and the assessed stress-induced behaviour during harvesting. Corticosterone concentration was strongly influenced by light intensity (beta = 3.75; 95% CI [2.55; 4.95]) and outdoor temperature (beta = 46.34; 95% CI [39.18; 53.27]) during manual harvesting. The results showed weak points of both harvesting methods, and we offer suggestions to improve animal welfare during harvesting.

Personality is defined as individual behavioral differences that are consistent over time and across contexts and is constructed from a number of underlying traits. Over the last 27 years, studies on pig personality have investigated links between personality traits and behavioral and physiological responses. The objective of this paper was to review the literature on personality studies in pigs. Eighty-three peer-reviewed research articles were included. The most common objective of these studies was to identify personality types in pigs by comparing their response across multiple situations. The relationship with physiological responses was the next most common objective. Results were difficult to compare as there was little consistency in terminology or experimental design across studies. Only 24.1% of the studies reported reliability and even fewer explicitly assessed validity. The backtest was the most common test (used in 67.5% of the studies), though it is unclear what specific trait is being measured. Classifying pigs as proactive or reactive personality types using the backtest was common, but the relationship between backtest results and other variables are inconsistent. The human approach, novel object, and food competition tests were also popular methods. Exploration, aggressiveness, reactivity to humans, and fearfulness were the most common personality traits studied in pig populations. There was moderate support for relationships with physiological responses. Personality was related to other behaviors, such as vocalizations and social aggression. Studies on genetic control are promising, with the heritability of personality traits falling within the range seen for other traits already selected for in pigs, suggesting these traits can be considered in breeding programs to improve welfare. Pigs with reactive personality types were more influenced by their housing environment than proactive pigs. Housing influenced reactive pigs’ immune response, manipulative oral behavior, response in cognitive tasks, play behavior, and gastric lesions, which has serious implications for the management of pigs. Few studies explored the predictive power of personality traits on future physiological or behavioral outcomes of pigs, however, there is support for the potential use of personality research in improving pig welfare and productivity. In order to move forward with this field, researchers need to agree on consistent terminology and methodologies, and investigate the reliability, validity, and practicality of common personality measures in pigs.

There are young managers in commercial animal agriculture in the United States, United Kingdom, Asia, and other countries, who are unaware of the scientific field of animal ethology. They may have an agricultural degree with no training in animal behavior. Some have no idea that scientists have already conducted many research studies on animal behavior. In this opinion paper, the author discusses ways to cross this divide. Basic animal behavior principles should be taught to both veterinary and animal science undergraduate students. The basic information that should be taught to undergraduates is: 1) Behavioral principles of livestock handling, 2) importance of good stockmanship to improve animal productivity, 3) principles of animal learning, 4) bull, ram and boar safety, 5) the importance of behavioral needs and environmental enrichment, 6) how to recognize abnormal behaviors, and 7) formation of dominance hierarchies. This material should be in introductory courses with practical explanations about why it is important. For example, a nutritionist needs to understand how dominance behavior may reduce access to feed. When I communicate directly with students, they are eager to learn about behavior. Students should also be taught to use the major academic databases. The second step is that researchers must communicate with producers in jargon-free language. The third step is training graduate students for management jobs on farms or research careers in industry. In the developed countries, there is a shortage of academic positions for new Ph.D.’s. Graduates in animal behavior subjects can have excellent careers outside of academia. Training in animal behavior may help them influence the policies of their employers to improve animal welfare. There are also factors in the future that may block free flow of scientific information. Unfortunately, some research results remain proprietary commercial industry information and they are not published in the scientific literature. To promote the spread of knowledge, academic researchers should avoid signing long-term non-disclosure agreements with industry. These agreements may block scientific publication. Everybody in the field of animal behavior needs to communicate outside their field and explain why behavior is important.