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This study compared welfare assessment results in aviary flocks using 3 approaches: 1) A novel Aviary Transect method, 2) AssureWel, and 3) the Norwegian farm advisors’ NorWel method. The Aviary Transect time requirement, interobserver reliability, and within- and across-house sensitivity to detect welfare indicators were also evaluated. The study was conducted on 6 randomly chosen commercial white-strain layer flocks of similar age and flock size, kept in multitiered aviaries. The Aviary Transect method comprised standardized walks along each aisle while screening the whole flock for 12 welfare indicators: feather loss (FL) on head, back, breast, and tail, wounds on head, back, tail, and feet, dirty birds, enlarged crop, sick birds, and dead birds. AssureWel involved scoring FL on head and back, and dirtiness of 50 random birds, and flock-level evaluation of beak trimming, antagonistic behavior, flightiness, birds needing further care, and mortality. NorWel involved scoring 8 welfare indicators on 50 random birds: FL on head, back, breast, and tail, dirtiness, and wounds on head, back, and tail. The AssureWel detected flock differences in both minor and major FL on the back (P < 0.01) as well as somewhat dirty birds (P < 0.01). The NorWel method detected flock differences in both minor and major FL on the head (P < 0.01), back (P < 0.001), breast (P < 0.001), and tail (P < 0.001) and somewhat (score 1) dirty birds (P < 0.05). The Aviary Transect method detected flock differences in FL on head, back, breast, and tail (all P < 0.001), dirty birds (P < 0.05) and enlarged crop (P < 0.001). More birds with FL on breast, and more dirty birds, were found in wall vs. central transects (P < 0.05). There was good interobserver agreement, except for dirty birds (P < 0.01), and positive correlations (P < 0.05) were identified between the Aviary Transect method and the other sampling methods for FL on head and back, and dirtiness. The three methods took similar time to complete (about 20 min/flock). In conclusion, all 3 methods detected significant differences in welfare indicator prevalence between flocks. The new Aviary Transect method provides egg producers with an efficient and sensitive whole-flock assessment of hen welfare status in multitiered aviaries.

Nest building is important in sow preparation for motherhood. However, straw or other bulky materials can block drains, and a finer-grained material such as peat is of interest as an alternative. The main aim of this study was to evaluate effects of different nesting materials on maternal behaviour during farrowing and early lactation. Norsvin Landrace x Swedish Yorkshire sows (n = 54) were loose-housed in individual farrowing pens with wood-shavings as litter. Mean (± SE) parity was 2.9 ± 2.0 (range 1–9), and 16 were primiparous. They were provided with peat (n = 18) or straw (n = 17) as nesting material from two days before expected farrowing until they farrowed, or received wood shavings litter only (controls, n = 18). From video recordings positive (i.e. sniffing, grunting, nudging) and negative (i.e. pushing, threatening barks, biting) communicatory behaviours from sow to piglets during farrowing (≤4 h) and on Day 1 post-partum (4 h) were registered by one-zero sampling at 1-min intervals. Nursing behaviour on Day 2 post-partum (6 h) was registered by continuous observation. During farrowing, sows provided with straw or peat as nesting material showed a lower frequency of negative communication towards piglets compared to controls (P

Wildlife management, conservation interventions and wildlife research programs often involve capture, manipulation and transport of wild animals. Widespread empirical evidence across various vertebrate taxa shows that handling wildlife generally induces a severe stress response resulting in increased stress levels. The inability of individuals to appropriately respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions during and after manipulations may have deleterious and long-lasting implications on animal welfare. Therefore, mitigating stress responses in the frame of conservation interventions is a key animal welfare factor. However, we have a poor understanding of the metrics to adequately assess and monitor the dynamic physiological changes that animals undergo when subjected to stressful procedures in wild or captive conditions. A growing number of studies provide good evidence for reciprocal interactions between immune processes and stress. Here, we review the existing literature on a relatively new technique—Leukocyte Coping Capacity (LCC), a proxy for stress quantifying oxygen radical production by leukocytes. We discuss the strength and weaknesses of this immunological approach to evaluate stress, the individual capacity to cope with stress and the resulting potential implications for animal welfare. Additionally we present new data on LCC in captive roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) under long-time anesthesia and free-ranging Asiatic wild asses (Kulan; Equus hemionus kulan) were LCC was used to assess stress levels in animals captured for a reintroduction project. stress, leukocyte coping capacity, endocrine-immune interaction, animal welfare, wildlife management, conservation interventions

Domestic sows are still highly motivated to build a nest before farrowing. Many pig houses have slurry systems that do not allow use of long straw or other bulky materials that could block the drains, which provides an incentive to investigate the functionality of finer-grained materials for nest building. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of providing peat or straw on the overall amount of nest-building behaviour, number of different behavioural elements performed during nest building, and behavioural time budget of sows in the nesting period before farrowing. Fifty-four hybrid sows (Norwegian Landrace x Yorkshire) ranging in parity from 1 to 9 (mean ± S.E., 2.9 ± 2.0), of which 16 were gilts, were loose-housed in individual farrowing pens. From two days before expected farrowing until farrowing the sows received nest-building material, with refills if necessary: peat (4 kg, 2 kg refills, n = 18), straw (2 kg, 1 kg refills, n = 17), or served as controls (n = 16). Behaviour in the last 12 h before onset of farrowing was instantaneously scan sampled at 5-min intervals from video recordings of each sow. Sows provided with straw or peat engaged in nest-building behaviour in a higher proportion of scans compared to the sows in the control group (P < 0.001), and the sows in the straw group displayed the highest number of nest-building elements (P < 0.001). Sows in the straw group also lied more (P < 0.001) and performed less stereotypic behaviour (P < 0.001) than sows in the other two groups. Overall, total nest-building behaviour increased to a peak at 6–4 h before farrowing and declined in the final three hours (P < 0.001). The number of different nest-building elements followed the same pattern (P = 0.032). Sows of parity ≥4 (n = 16) exhibited more nest-building behaviour compared to gilts and sows of parity 2–3 (P < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that both straw and peat stimulated more nest building compared to the control condition. However, straw elicited more complex nest-building behaviour, increased lying time and reduced time spent on stereotypies in the 12 h before farrowing, suggesting that straw has a better function as nest-building material than peat. Nest-building behaviour and activity budgets of sows provided with different materials