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Globally, predator aversion training has assisted naive prey species to learn to evade introduced predators, improving translocation success. Eastern barred bandicoots (Perameles gunnii; hereafter ‘bandicoot’) are extinct on mainland Australia due to habitat loss and introduced predators, and are the focus of a long-term captive breeding and reintroduction program. Our trials showed that captive bandicoots failed to recognise cat (Felis catus) scents as belonging to a predator, suggesting prey naivety towards cats. We trialled five stimuli to elicit short-term fear behaviour in bandicoots. An automatic compressed air spray and automatic bin lid were most effective. We coupled these stimuli with cat urine during predator aversion training and presented them to bandicoots on three occasions. Bandicoots learnt to avoid the area containing cat urine, suggesting bandicoots are capable of learning new behaviours rapidly. Six trained and five untrained captive bandicoots where released onto Summerland Peninsular, Phillip Island (with cat densities at 1.1 cats/km2). Both had high survival and recapture rates 7 months after release. Training endangered species to avoid introduced predators could assist with long-term species recovery.

Context Animal production plays a critical role in many global challenges around sustainability, including climate change and resilience, One Health and food security. With this role comes pressures on livestock welfare. Aims This paper demonstrates key contributions animal welfare makes to global sustainability challenges. Methods This paper highlights ‘win–win’ improvements for both animal welfare and other aspects of sustainability by using the following four case studies: tail docking Australian sheep, agroforestry systems in Ethiopia, the Australian dairy-beef industry, and strategic feeding of goats in Pakistan. Key results These case studies show how animal welfare can be improved alongside livelihoods. However, even in these win–win situations, the adoption of improved practices is not guaranteed. Conclusions Long-term, sustained change in animal welfare can simultaneously make in roads to other challenges around sustainability. To do this, we must have a broader understanding of the system in which the animals are raised, so that barriers to change can be identified. Implications Lessons from these case studies can be applied to other production contexts and challenges, highlighting the universal value of understanding and addressing animal welfare.

Temperament in sheep is commonly presented as unidimensional, with a 'nervous' temperament indicative of fear and reactivity towards humans and novel environments. However, temperament is multidimensional, with some traits expressed only under certain conditions (context-specific). There is evidence that a common temperament test in sheep, the isolation-box (IB), measures level of activity and not fearfulness as intended, and that behaviours measured in the IB test are indicative of different traits. To investigate this, 16 behavioural responses to a human, to being startled, and to confinement (IB test) were measured in 89 lambs, twice, three months apart. Our results agree with previous studies that vocalisations in all tests and locomotion in two, show high repeatability over time. A principal component analysis identified that vocalisations are domain-general, and are indicative of the trait 'sociability', however locomotion is context-specific' and captures the traits 'exploration-avoidance', 'boldness-shyness' and 'general activity'. A cluster analysis identified four behavioural profiles that indicate the trait 'boldness-shyness' captures reactivity towards humans. This suggests the IB test, which measures 'general activity', is unsuitable for measuring reactivity towards humans in sheep, and that when studying the impact of temperament on other factors, multiple conditions should be used when identify temperament traits.

Human-directed fear in extensively reared sheep is often high due to the aversive nature of common husbandry procedures and infrequent interactions with humans. This study investigated whether additional human exposure provided to weaned lambs reduced human-directed fear and behavioural reactivity. Ninety Merino lambs were either exposed to low or moderately stressful human exposure sessions, or had no additional human contact, and their fear responses and behavioural reactivity to humans, a startle stimulus and confinement were tested. Overall, the imposed interventions did not reduce behavioural reactivity during these tests, suggesting fear towards humans had not been altered.

This study quantified the welfare of 423 cattle and water buffalo in four Bangladeshi slaughterhouses to identify facility and species-specific factors that influence welfare. The majority of animals arrived at the slaughterhouse with injuries, signs of dehydration and oculo-nasal discharge. During slaughter, buffalo experienced more stabbing at the throat (21%), compared to local cattle (10%, P = 0.011), and significantly more cuts to the neck during slaughter (5.1 ± 1) than Hariana (3.9 ± 1) or local cattle (3.6 ± 1.1; P < 0.001). These results indicated that welfare compromise is common to all species, but that the risk to buffalo was greater. Partial severing of carotid arteries was common and affected time to unconsciousness. There was a statistical interaction between facility and species on the time taken for animals to reach unconsciousness, suggesting that welfare within a location could be improved; however, animal welfare was compromised at all facilities. Immediate welfare improvements could be made by training for effective halal slaughter, and future welfare improvements could be gained by improved facility infrastructure for restraint and halal approved pre-slaughter stunning.

Attentional biases towards threatening stimuli are increased when animals are in anxious states. An ability to assess negatively valanced affective states such as anxiety are important as they may be related to poor welfare. Flight speed and crush score are two well established tests of temperament in cattle, but little is known about their relationship with anxiety. This study was conducted to validate an attention bias test as a measure of anxious states in cattle and to determine whether the temperament trait(s) measured by flight speed and crush score tests were associated with anxiety. Thirty six Angus steers received one of the following pharmacological treatments: 1) anxiogenic (increase anxiety; 1-methy-chlorophenylpiperazine; m-CPP), 2) anxiolytic (decrease anxiety; diazepam) or, 3) control (saline). Thirty minutes later the steers were tested for crush score, flight speed and attention bias. The attention bias test involved measuring the response of each animal to the presence of the threat of a dog for 10 s after which behavioural responses were recorded for 3 min. Steers treated with m-CPP showed increased attention towards the threat (P 0.05). Crush score and flight speed were not affected by treatment (P > 0.05). The results suggest that the pharmacologically induced anxiety state may not be related to these traditional tests of temperament. Increased attention towards the threat and differences in behaviours and body temperature during the attention bias test confirm that this test indicates increased anxiety in cattle. Attention bias testing provides promise as a measure of some negatively valanced affective states in cattle.

Simple Summary Cognitive enrichment gives animals the opportunity to challenge themselves and control aspects of their environment through problem solving. Despite the known benefits of giving captive animals cognitive enrichment, not much is known about how it is used in zoos. This survey found that staff within zoos think that cognitive enrichment is very important for the welfare of animals. However, its use is not widespread. While some animal groups like carnivores commonly receive cognitive enrichment, animals like fish and reptiles are overlooked. Time and financial support were found to be common factors that had a high impact on the use of cognitive enrichment, while zookeeper interest was said to be important for its success. Findings suggest that animal keepers, who are most often involved in enrichment programs, need to be better supported to deliver cognitive enrichment. Enrichment programs need to be prioritized with the creation of job roles specifically for enrichment or increased time and training given to keepers to carry out these duties. Abstract Information on the practical use of cognitive enrichment in zoos is scarce. This survey aimed to identify where cognitive enrichment is being used while identifying factors that may limit its implementation and success. Distributed in eight languages to increase global range, responses to this survey (n = 177) show that while agreement on what constitutes cognitive enrichment is poor, it is universally perceived as very important for animal welfare. Carnivores were the animal group most reported to receive cognitive enrichment (76.3%), while amphibians and fish the least (16.9%). All animal groups had a percentage of participants indicating animal groups in their facility were not receiving cognitive enrichment when they believe that they should (29.4–44.6%). On average, factors relating to time and finance were rated most highly in terms of effect on cognitive enrichment use, and keeper interest was the highest rated for effect on success. Results of this study indicate that cognitive enrichment is perceived as important. However, placing the responsibility of its development and implementation on animal keepers who are already time-poor may be impeding its use. A commitment to incorporating cognitive enrichment into routine husbandry, including financial support and investment into staff is needed from zoos to ensure continued improvement to captive animal welfare.

Maintaining a territory and being able to hunt are imperative for the success of African lion Panthera leo prides. We aimed to determine whether captive-origin prides display similar territorial and hunting behaviour to wild lions. Behaviours and locations of two captive-origin prides and one wild pride were collected through direct observation. All prides established territories, and core areas corresponded to resource requirements. There was no evidence that pride origin affected territorial or hunting behaviour. Captive-origin prides exhibited behaviours that lead us to be optimistic about each pride's ability to establish and defend a territory successfully, and to hunt, following reintroduction.

Evaluation of activity budgets provides an indication of whether captive history has influenced the daily behaviour of animals within an ex situ reintroduction program. We conducted the first study to compare activity budgets of prides of captive-origin African lions (Panthera leo) to a wild pride investigated under the same methodologies. Behavioural data were collected via direct observations of individual lions. The vegetation type in which each pride was located was recorded at the beginning and end of each observation session. Behaviours were analysed via linear mixed models, using restricted maximum-likelihood analysis. Age, sex, origin, time observed and vegetation type were fitted as fixed factors to assess the main effects of significant interactions, while average temperature was fitted as a covariate. Resting and alert behaviours were found to vary at sex and age levels, with expected peaks and lows coinciding with observation session times. Captive-origin prides showed a decrease in resting and increase in alert and movement behaviours post-1700 hours, while this behavioural change was not observed for the wild prides. Males of the wild prides were observed to rest more than captive-origin counterparts, while this variation was not observed for females across origins. Vegetation was found to influence behaviour, with cubs being more alert and active in riverbed vegetation, and adults and sub-adults in shrubland. Overall, all prides were observed to exhibit behaviours at natural levels. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the daily activity of lions critical to the pre-release evaluation of prides within an ex situ reintroduction program.

This study examined the relationships between the attitudes and the management behaviour of the farmer and the on-farm welfare of their ewes. To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating these relationships in extensive sheep farming systems. Thirty-two sheep farmers and 6200 ewes were sampled across Victoria, Australia. Questionnaire interviews and on-farm animal welfare assessments were conducted. The ewes were assessed at two-time points, mid-pregnancy and weaning. To examine relationships between farmer and ewe variables, categorical principal component analyses, correlations and logistic regressions were used. The main findings of this study indicate relationships between farmer attitudes and management behaviour, consistent with findings from other more intensive livestock industries. Farmers were more likely to check the body condition of their ewes (Odds ratio = 2.37, P = 0.03), perform ultrasound pregnancy diagnosis (Odds ratio = 1.16, P = 0.02) and test for egg count before deworming sheep (Odds ratio = 2.88, P = 0.01) if they perceived these activities were important/valuable. In addition, farmers that performed these activities had a more active management style, and ewes in better welfare: fewer lame ewes at mid-pregnancy (r = -0.38 P = 0.04), and fewer ewes in need of further care at mid-pregnancy and weaning respectively (r = -0.47, P = 0.01; r = -0.50, P = 0.01). When combining the qualitative and quantitative analyses, behavioural attitudes (attitudes towards specific management behaviours) and perceived behavioural control (perceived barriers to performing the behaviour) emerged as the two main drivers underpinning farmer management behaviour. The results of this study indicate that the way farmers manage their ewes influences welfare outcomes, and management decisions are influenced by attitudes towards management practices. These findings demonstrate the opportunity to create change in farmer management behaviour and improve sheep welfare via targeted education programs.

The aim of this study was to identify the main on-farm welfare issues likely to be encountered in extensive sheep farming systems. Thirty-two commercial sheep farms in Victoria, Australia were involved in this study. Of the 32 farms involved, 30 were visited twice (at mid-pregnancy and weaning), and 2 farms only once (both at weaning). In total, 62 visits were conducted and 6,200 ewes (aged 2-5 years) were examined using six animal-based indicators: body condition score (BCS), fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score and lameness. In addition, the number of ewes that needed further care (such as sick or injured sheep) was recorded and reported to the farmers. Generalised linear mixed models were conducted to investigate associations between welfare outcomes and visit, ewe breed and location, with all three, and their interactions, as fixed factors. In all instances, farm was set as a random factor to account for specific variation between farms. Overall, the welfare of the ewe flocks, based on the six indicators measured, was considered good. A total of 86.9% of the ewes were in adequate BCS (2.5-3.5), 91% had good fleece condition, 69.2% had no skin lesions, 97.1% had low dag scores, and overall lameness was 4.7%. An important and prevalent risk to welfare identified across farms was short tail length; with 85.7% of ewes having tails docked shorter than the third palpable joint. While the welfare of the flock was good, ewes in need of further care were identified at all farms. There were 185 (3.0%) cases needing further care, and the extent of welfare compromise of these animals was considered significant. Main reasons for further care were moderate/severe lameness or foot-related issues, BCS ≤ 2 and active dermatophilosis or broken wool. To our knowledge, this study constitutes the largest assessment of ewes conducted in Australia, and the findings provide valuable insight into the main welfare issues likely to be encountered in extensive sheep farming enterprises. Future studies should develop practical technologies that can assist in the detection of the welfare issues identified in this study. In addition, the thresholds identified here could be used for future comparison and sheep welfare benchmarking programs to assess farm performance and measure continuous improvements.

Increasing our understanding of personality, at an individual and group level, is crucial to the pre-release assessment of social species within ex situ reintroduction programs. We conducted the first exploration into the personality of a captive-origin pride of African lions (Panthera leo), assessing behavioural variations and consistencies in daily activity, social and hunting behaviour, and boldness. Data were collected via direct observations, while a species-specific protocol for testing boldness, using playbacks, was developed. Differences in sex, age and session time for the activity budget were evaluated using Pearson correlations and repeated-measures ANOVA, while social interactions were analysed using social network analysis. Spearman’s correlations were conducted to assess for associations between boldness scores, activity and sociality. The two boldness tests provided a range of scores per lion, indicating that the test was effective. Correlations and variations in individual behaviour indicated that adults and sub-adults have specific roles within pride behaviour. Correlations between boldness and activity and social behaviours provided information on the role of individuals, allowing investigation into the behaviour of a dominant and a social keystone. Our study indicates that evaluating various aspects of behaviour in conjunction with boldness has the potential to assist the pre-release assessment of a pride within an ex situ reintroduction program.

This study reports novel information on the animal handling, management and human-animal interactions in Indonesian cattle abattoirs. The slaughter of 304 cattle was observed and there was a high percentage of re-stuns in all abattoirs (range: 8-18.9%) when compared to a variety of international auditing guidelines. The average stun-to-neck cut time was within international recommendations (average: 9 s; range: 4-15 s). Time spent in lairage varied between animals and facilities and was compliant with international guidelines. Handling times were extremely variable (2 s-23 min 40s), but were only weakly correlated with a variety of handler techniques including the total number of handler interactions (sum of visual, auditory and tactile interactions, suggesting that long handling time does not increase handler interactions. There was a moderate correlation between the subjective handling scale and most of the objective behaviours, indicating that this may be a useful way to summarise handler behaviour in future assessments. The current study provides novel information about animal welfare in Indonesian abattoirs and highlights that management practices at the four abattoirs generally comply with international standards. The results also suggest that the subjective handling scale was moderately associated with the frequency of handler interactions, and so may be a useful measure of handler behaviour.

Riding is considered to be an arousing activity for horses. It has been suggested that wither scratching may be a more useful tool for relaxation compared with the common practice of neck patting. In the current study, 18 horses were exposed to 3 treatments, including control or no interaction, neck patting, and wither scratching, for 1 min each following a short obstacle course. Heart rate, heart rate variability, and a variety of behaviors were measured in the horses. Wither scratching produced a significantly longer duration of relaxed-type behaviors. Wither scratching could be a useful tool to help a horse relax while under saddle. Additionally, the study identified 2 ear positions that may be useful for future research in horse behavior.

Background Tail docking is common practice in the sheep industry to prevent soiling of the breech and flystrike. To ensure optimal healing after tail docking and reduce the risk of arthritis, perineal cancers and prolapses, it is recommended to dock tails equivalent to the length of the vulva. However, recent studies have found that some tails are docked too short (24–86 per cent). Methods To address this issue, this study aimed to identify key drivers behind tail docking length decisions. Two focus groups, phone (n=30) and online surveys (n=21) were conducted in regional Victoria, Australia to examine farmer knowledge of and attitudes towards appropriate lamb tail length and barriers to best practice. The focus group data were analysed qualitatively, and the surveys were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results In total, 57 per cent of farmers were classed as docking tails short. Short tail docking appeared to be influenced by unawareness of the recommended length and docking at a length that shearers approve of. Other potential factors included lack of knowledge of negative health consequences associated with short tails, importance placed on dag and flystrike prevention, and impracticality of measuring where to dock. Conclusion Addressing these factors in future education and intervention programmes may improve tail docking practice and sheep welfare.

The personality trait of curiosity has been shown to increase welfare in humans. If this positive welfare effect is also true for non-humans, animals with high levels of curiosity may be able to cope better with stressful situations than their conspecifics. Before discoveries can be made regarding the effect of curiosity on an animal’s ability to cope in their environment, a way of measuring curiosity across species in different environments must be created to standardise testing. To determine the suitability of novel objects in testing curiosity, species from different evolutionary backgrounds with sufficient sample sizes were chosen. Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) n = 12, little penguins (Eudyptula minor) n = 10, ringtail lemurs (Lemur catta) n = 8,red tailed black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksia) n = 7, Indian star tortoises (Geochelone elegans) n = 5 and red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) n = 5 were presented with a stationary object, a moving object and a mirror. Having objects with different characteristics increased the likelihood individuals would find at least one motivating. Conspecifics were all assessed simultaneously for time to first orientate towards object (s), latency to make contact (s), frequency of interactions, and total duration of interaction (s). Differences in curiosity were recorded in four of the six species; the Barbary sheep and red tailed black cockatoos did not interact with the novel objects suggesting either a low level of curiosity or that the objects were not motivating for these animals. Variation in curiosity was seen between and within species in terms of which objects they interacted with and how long they spent with the objects. This was determined by the speed in which they interacted, and the duration of interest. By using the measure of curiosity towards novel objects with varying characteristics across a range of zoo species, we can see evidence of evolutionary, husbandry and individual influences on their response. Further work to obtain data on multiple captive populations of a single species using a standardised method could uncover factors that nurture the development of curiosity. In doing so, it would be possible to isolate and modify sub-optimal husbandry practices to improve welfare in the zoo environment.

The aim of this study was to identify parameters that may be used as objective measures of wellbeing in weaner pigs on farm. Eighty-six weaner pigs were categorized into 3 groups based on their BCS: very compromised (VC, BCS = 1), moderately compromised (MC, BCS = 2), or healthy (HY, BCS ≥ 3). Nonphysiological and physiological measures were then collected from the pigs. Nonphysiological measures included 3 subjective binary scores that assessed the activity, hairiness, and responsiveness of each pig. Physiological measures included rectal temperature, skin temperature, and 11 blood-based parameters. Each physiological measure was assessed in a ternary manner, with pigs being classed as being above, below, or within the normal physiological range. Fisher’s exact tests (FET) were used to identify differences between the numbers of pigs in each BCS category for each variable, and ANOVA of physiological measures was also conducted. Correlations between all variables were also conducted. The FET results identified significant differences for 8 of the measures, with activity, hairiness, responsiveness, rectal temperature, and blood concentrations of glucose, creatinine kinase (CK), albumin, and globulin all differing significantly (all P 0.30 and P < 0.05). Based on these results, rectal temperature, glucose, and hairiness all warrant further investigation as simple to apply, on-farm measures that can be used in conjunction with body condition and subjective assessment to aid management decisions on pig welfare.

Simple Summary This survey was designed as the first step in the development of a welfare assessment framework with the aim of identifying potential causes of welfare compromise and useful indicators for sheep in extensive Australian production systems. We asked the general public, sheep producers, service providers and sheep industry related scientists to provide their thoughts on the importance of a range of sheep welfare issues and possible key indicators. All respondents thought sheep welfare was adequate but that improvement was desired. Issues perceived to cause the most risk to sheep related to factors influenced by the environment (i.e., nutrition and food supply), heat stress and lameness while key indicators useful to assess welfare were nutrition and food availability, mortality/management issues, pain and fear related indicators, and numbers of illness/injuries. Women and the general public perceived all issues and indicators to be more important than other groups of respondents. These results highlight the need to consult a wide range of stakeholders in order to develop a broadly acceptable assessment system. Abstract An online survey was designed to form the basis of a framework for the welfare assessment of extensively managed sheep in Australia. The survey focused on welfare compromise and useful welfare indicators. A total of 952 people completed the survey in its entirety, representing four stakeholder groups: Public (53.6%), Producer (27.4%), Scientist (9.9%), and Service provider (9.1%). Animal welfare was considered to be important by all participating groups in this survey (average score of 3.78/4). Respondents felt the welfare of grazing sheep was generally adequate but improvement was desired (2.98/5), with female members of the public rating sheep welfare significantly worse than other respondents (p < 0.05). Environmental issues were considered to pose the greatest risk to welfare (3.87/5), followed by heat stress (3.79), lameness (3.57) and husbandry practices (3.37). Key indicators recognised by all respondents were those associated with pain and fear (3.98/5), nutrition (4.23), mortality/management (4.27), food on offer (4.41) and number of illness/injures in a flock (4.33). There were gender and stakeholder differences in the perceived importance of both welfare issues and indicators with women and the public consistently rating issues (all p < 0.01) and indicators (all p < 0.05) to be of greater significance than other respondents. These results highlight the importance of including all stakeholders and an even balance of genders when developing a welfare framework that can address both practical and societal concerns.

Cognition refers to a mental action of acquiring and processing of information. The cognitive capacity of an individual organism is tightly tied to its evolution. Humans and animals have evolved certain skills that help us to acquire the resources needed to survive, thrive and reproduce. Cognitive processing is energetically demanding; thus, unless there is an evolutionary benefit, complex cognition is hypothesised to be detrimental to survival. With this in mind, we can view animal cognition in a different light. Both the existence and absence of a cognitive skill are a reflection of the evolution of a species. Sheep receive a lot of poor press for being stupid or dim. They may well be the ultimate prey species: their primary defence strategy is to group together or take flight. As a result, they are very alert, and can be easily fearful and distressed, all of which influences their cognition and behavioural reactions. They are also stoic by nature and so it is not easy to see if they are experiencing negative or positive affective states. They are, however, exceptionally flexible and adaptable. They can be found in the wild in Asia, Europe and North America, and domestically across all continents. Sheep are used in medical research, and are farmed in large numbers, intensively and extensively, and used for milk, wool and meat. Succeed in such diverse situations, they require a significant degree of cognitive flexibility. This chapter details what we currently know about the cognitive abilities of sheep, and how we can use that information to improve the way they are managed.

Several studies suggest that veterinary students' empathy for animals declines during the years spent at university, yet the factors responsible for this change are not well understood. This study focused on the influence of workplace learning (WPL) on veterinary students' empathy for animals. WPL comprises off-campus placements and is common to all veterinary degree programs. A survey of 150 veterinary students at Charles Sturt University was conducted using an established animal-empathy scale. In general, our findings supported previous studies that empathy for animals declines between the first and fifth year and is lower in male students than in female students. Our findings indicated that specific factors relating to WPL such as pre-clinical extramural studies and clinical placements significantly influenced the students' beliefs on animal welfare. The findings presented here suggest that closer examination of the impact of WPL within the veterinary curricula is important to understanding students' changes in empathy for animals and the development of ethical principles in veterinary education.

OBJECTIVES: To gather information on producers' perceptions and management strategies towards the detection, alleviation of pain and management of sick, injured and heat-stressed pigs. METHODS: A total of 16 Victorian pig farmers completed a face-to-face questionnaire consisting of 9 open and 26 closed questions regarding their detection and management of sick, injured and heat-stressed pigs and their perceptions of pigs' tolerance to pain. RESULTS: We identified 15 behavioural and physiological indicators of pain and heat stress. Treatment records were kept more often for weaned progeny and lactating sows than for piglets and mated sows. Most producers felt that pigs suffered little pain from routine husbandry procedures and that pain relief was not warranted in those situations. Castration at 10 days of age was the only procedure considered by producers to be very painful. There were inconsistencies in approaches to treating pigs in three case studies of animals with sickness or injury of varying severity. Meloxicam was stated as the most common anti-inflammatory drug used on-farm. A small proportion of farmers incorrectly identified antibiotics as anti-inflammatory drugs. All producers had at least one cooling system in place for preventing heat stress in pigs. CONCLUSIONS: The farmers in this survey group generally relied on behavioural changes in pigs to signal pain and heat stress. Although producers kept treatment records and used hospital pens for compromised pigs, our results suggest that the monitoring of pigs' recovery could be improved. Producers generally have a good understanding of the use of anti-inflammatory drugs to aid recovery of pigs.

Exposure to negative stimuli or stress can manifest in general changes in cognitive processing. This study aimed to investigate if a spatial maze task could be used to identify stress-induced differences in the cognitive performance of sheep. Two negative stimuli were used to test the hypothesis. For a negative pre-treatment (‘dog’ pre-treatment), sheep were moved individually to a holding yard at the beginning of the maze where they were exposed to a dog for 3 min, for 5 consecutive days. Alternative to the dog pre-treatment, sheep were moved in small groups to the same holding yard, for the same amount of time, where they received a feed reward (‘food’ pre-treatment). For a during-test stimulus, white noise was played as sheep moved through the maze (‘noise’ treatment). Sixty-four male castrated lambs were allocated to one of four groups: dog and noise, food and noise, dog and no noise, or food and no noise. Sheep traversed the maze on 3 consecutive days and the total time to complete the maze, the number and the duration of errors made were used to assess cognitive performance. Maze results were analysed using GLMM, LMM and linear contrasts. The noise increased both total time (140 s vs. 105 s, P = 0.043) and error time (67 s vs. 56 s, P = 0.044) on day 1. The dog pre-treatment increased error time compared to the food pre-treatment (81 s vs. 41 s, P = 0.041) and tended to increase the number of errors made on day 1 (1.5 errors vs. 1.2 errors, P = 0.057). Neither noise nor dog pre-treatment influenced cognitive performance on days 2 or 3. Results suggest that both stimuli affected cognitive performance in the maze by impeding initial problem solving. The maze used demonstrates the ability to identify differences in cognition.

This study investigated the effects of providing lucerne hay on the behaviour and the performance of sows housed in farrowing crates during farrowing and lactation. Seventy-two mixed parity sows received either 1 kg lucerne hay daily from entry into the farrowing crate (&minus, 2 d from expected farrowing date) until weaning at 17 d (lucerne group, n = 36), or received no additional enrichment (control group, n = 36). In the 18 h prior to farrowing, the sows in the lucerne treatment spent more time performing nest-building behaviour (14.8% lucerne vs 11.1% control, p = 0.0009) and less time sham-chewing (1.0% lucerne vs 1.9% control, p = 0.01) than control sows, and gave birth to fewer stillborn piglets/litter (0.1 lucerne vs 0.4 control, p = 0.027). After farrowing (Day 3), the control sows spent less time lying than the lucerne sows (26% control vs 43% lucerne, p &lt, 0.05). The control sows also spent less time interacting with their piglets during early lactation compared to late lactation (25.5% Day 5 vs 47.3% Day 12, p &lt, 0.05), suggesting reduced maternal behaviour in this group. The lucerne sows continued to interact with the lucerne throughout lactation, indicating that they still found the enrichment rewarding after the nesting period had ceased. Based on these results, lucerne enrichment was considered to improve sow welfare during farrowing and lactation and reduce the number of stillborn piglets.

Humans and animals show increased attention towards threatening stimuli when they are in increased states of anxiety. The few animal studies that have examined this phenomenon, known as attention bias, have applied environmental manipulations to induce anxiety but the effects of drug-induced anxiety levels on attention bias have not been demonstrated. Here, we present an attention bias test to identify high and low anxiety states in sheep using pharmacological manipulation. Increased anxiety was induced using 1-methyl-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) and decreased anxiety with diazepam, and then we examined the behaviour of sheep in response to the presence of a dog as a threat. Increased attention towards the threat and increased vigilance were shown in sheep that received the m-CPP and reduced in sheep receiving the diazepam. The modulated attention towards a threat displayed by the m-CPP and diazepam animals suggests that attention bias can assess different levels of anxiety in sheep. Measuring attention bias has the potential to improve animal welfare assessment protocols.

New tests of animal affect and welfare require validation in subjects experiencing putatively different states. Pharmacological manipulations of affective state are advantageous because they can be administered in a standardised fashion, and the duration of their action can be established and tailored to suit the length of a particular test. To this end, the current study aimed to evaluate a pharmacological model of high and low anxiety in an important agricultural and laboratory species, the sheep. Thirty-five 8-month-old female sheep received either an intramuscular injection of the putatively anxiogenic drug 1-(m-chlorophenyl)piperazine (mCPP; 1 mg/kg;n= 12), an intravenous injection of the putatively anxiolytic drug diazepam (0.1 mg/kg;n= 12), or acted as a control (saline intramuscular injectionn= 11). Thirty minutes after the treatments, sheep were individually exposed to a variety of tests assessing their general movement, performance in a ‘runway task’ (moving down a raceway for a food reward), response to startle, and behaviour in isolation. A test to assess feeding motivation was performed 2 days later following administration of the drugs to the same animals in the same manner. The mCPP sheep had poorer performance in the two runway tasks (6.8 and 7.7 × slower respectively than control group;p< 0.001), a greater startle response (1.4 vs. 0.6;p= 0.02), a higher level of movement during isolation (9.1 steps vs. 5.4;p< 0.001), and a lower feeding motivation (1.8 × slower;p< 0.001) than the control group, all of which act as indicators of anxiety. These results show that mCPP is an effective pharmacological model of high anxiety in sheep. Comparatively, the sheep treated with diazepam did not display any differences compared to the control sheep. Thus we suggest that mCPP is an effective treatment to validate future tests aimed at assessing anxiety in sheep, and that future studies should include other subtle indicators of positive affective states, as well as dosage studies, so conclusions on the efficacy of diazepam as a model of low anxiety can be drawn.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the social relationships between individual sheep, and factors that influence this, through the novel application of the statistical multiple membership multiple classification (MMMC) model. In study one 49 ewes (ranging between 1 and 8 years old) were fitted with data loggers, which recorded when pairs of sheep were within 4 m or less of each other, within a social group, for a total of 6 days. In study two proximity data were collected from 45 ewes over 17 days, as were measures of ewe temperament, weight and weather. In study 1 age difference significantly influenced daily contact time, with sheep of the same age spending an average of 20 min 43 s together per day, whereas pairs with the greatest difference in age spent 16 min 33 s together. Maximum daily temperature also significantly affected contact time, being longer on hotter days (34 min 40 s hottest day vs. 18 min 17 s coolest day), as did precipitation (29 min 33 s wettest day vs. 10 min 32 s no rain). Vocalisation in isolation, as a measure of temperament, also affected contacts, with sheep with the same frequency of vocalisations spending more time together (27 min 16 s) than those with the greatest difference in vocalisations (19 min 36 s). Sheep behaviour in the isolation box test (IBT) was also correlated over time, but vocalisations and movement were not correlated. Influences of age, temperature and rain on social contact are all well-established and so indicate that MMMC modelling is a useful way to analyse social structures of the flock. While it has been demonstrated that personality factors affect social relationships in non-human animals, the finding that vocalisation in isolation influences pair social contact in sheep is a novel one.

The detection of judgement biases may improve welfare evaluations by measuring the cognitive component, particularly the valence, of affective states. Judgement biases have been successfully demonstrated in various laboratory animals but only recently in sheep. Chronic stressors have been found to induce a negative judgement bias and a short-term stressor (restraint and isolation stress) a positive judgement bias. Here we examine the impact of the short-term stress of shearing on judgement bias, haematology, plasma cortisol and stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH) in sheep. Twenty-four Merino ewes were trained to spatially differentiate between positive and negative reinforced bucket locations with a go/no-go approach response. Judgement bias was tested by offering sheep three ambiguous, unreinforced bucket locations and the learnt locations. The response of the shorn sheep (n = 12) was compared to that of the control sheep (n = 12) with two cohorts of sheep tested on consecutive days. Following the analysis of the core temperature (SIH) responses, a subsequent study was performed to determine SIH to shearing without judgement bias testing. The cohort × treatment × bucket location interaction approached significance (P = 0.056). In cohort 1, shorn sheep displayed a more positive judgement bias, approaching the ambiguous bucket locations more than the control sheep (P = 0.033). However there was no difference in judgement bias in cohort 2 (P = 0.908). Decreased eosinophil count (P ≤ 0.001), increased plasma cortisol concentration (P ≤ 0.001) and stress-induced hyperthermia (P ≤ 0.001) in the shorn sheep all confirm that shearing was an acute stressor. This study suggests that sheep display a more positive judgement bias following release from shearing. This could reflect a more optimistic affective state induced by release from an acute stressor, or an altered risk perception. These findings support previous studies which suggest that testing judgement bias is a possible method for determining the cognitive component of affective state in sheep.

There are scientific opinions that a nonhuman animal cannot feel emotions, and, hence, positive experiences, without being cognitive. Therefore, determining an animal's cognitive capacity can be useful in supporting the existence of emotions. Research shows that sheep can perform tasks based on olfactory and visual stimuli; however, little research exists on determining the ability of sheep to perform such tasks based on auditory cues. This study demonstrates that sheep can perform a discriminant, operant task based on a visual cue (p < .001); however, sheep could not exhibit the desired response to a directional audio cue in 2 subsequent studies (p = .346; p = .031). Nonetheless, the study provides further evidence on the complex cognitive abilities of sheep and indicates the potential for sheep to use audio cues in their learning.

Tests for attention bias potentially offer more rapid assessment of affective state in animals than existing cognitive methods. An attention bias test has previously been developed for sheep and validated as a measure of anxious states. The 3 minute test assessed behavioural responses of sheep in an enclosed arena after brief exposure to the threat of a dog. Experiment 1 of the current study aimed to refine the previously developed method, removing the need for a habituation period and shortening the test duration. Sheep were given either an anxiolytic drug, an anxiogenic drug or a control treatment prior to testing to induce contrasting affective states. Differences in behaviour were found between the treatment groups within the first 45s of the test, indicating the original test duration could be shortened from 180 s. During testing, 36 of 40 animals in the control and anxiolytic groups ate the novel feed offered in the test, indicating it is not necessary to habituate animals to a feed container. Experiment 2 aimed to confirm the responses measured in the test were primarily towards the dog rather than other aspects of the test environment. Sheep exposed to an empty window at the beginning of the test behaved differently to those which were exposed to a dog, indicating sheep behaviour in the test is at least partially a response to the dog. A third group of sheep were also tested with the dog immediately after having small data loggers attached to their necks. Behaviour of these sheep did not differ from the sheep tested without loggers, indicating data logger attachment did not impact their behaviour in the test. In both experiments, treatments did not appear to modify activity (zones crossed), which we propose indicates the test was primarily detecting valence of the affective state rather than arousal.

International audience; The study of judgement biases in animals has attracted interest as a way of potentially measuring emotional states by being able to detect pessimistic-like or optimistic-like evaluations of their environment. While judgement biases have been successfully identified in laboratory species, no such research has been reported in livestock species. Twenty ewes were trained to learn a spatial location task that required a go/no-go response according to the location of a bucket in a pen. One bucket location was associated with a feed reward, and the other associated with a negative reinforcer (no food and the presentation of a dog). Ten sheep were then subjected to a 6 h restraint and isolation stress (RIS), for three consecutive days. Following RIS on each day, all sheep were tested for biases in judgement by measuring their response to three previously unseen bucket locations and the learnt locations. Serum cortisol, haematological parameters, and behaviour of the sheep in an open field test were also recorded. Restrained and isolated sheep were more likely to approach the ambiguous bucket locations compared to control sheep (P = 0.008), suggesting RIS-treated animals had a more optimistic-like judgement bias. This was despite serum cortisol concentrations showing that sheep were highly stressed by the RIS treatment (P = 0.019). This finding provides evidence that it is possible tomeasure judgement biases in a livestock species. When released from RIS the sheepmay have had a more positive emotional state, or a lesser perception of risk, than that exhibited by control sheep.

Simple Summary The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and practicality of 10 animal-based welfare measures for extensively managed ewes, which were derived from the scientific literature, previous welfare protocols and through consultation with veterinarians and animal welfare scientists. Measures were examined on 100 Merino ewes, which were individually identified and repeatedly examined at mid-pregnancy, mid-lactation and weaning. Body condition score, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score and lameness are proposed for on-farm use in welfare assessments of extensive sheep production systems. These six welfare measures, which address the main welfare concerns for extensively managed ewes, can be reliably and feasibly measured in the field. Abstract The reliability and feasibility of 10 animal-based measures of ewe welfare were examined for use in extensive sheep production systems. Measures were: Body condition score (BCS), rumen fill, fleece cleanliness, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score, foot-wall integrity, hoof overgrowth and lameness, and all were examined on 100 Merino ewes (aged 2–4 years) during mid-pregnancy, mid-lactation and weaning by a pool of nine trained observers. The measures of BCS, fleece condition, skin lesions, tail length, dag score and lameness were deemed to be reliable and feasible. All had good observer agreement, as determined by the percentage of agreement, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) and Kappa (k) values. When combined, these nutritional and health measures provide a snapshot of the current welfare status of ewes, as well as evidencing previous or potential welfare issues.

The wild population of the African lion Panthera leo continues to decline, requiring alternate conservation programs to be considered. One such program is ex situ reintroduction. Prior to release, long-term monitoring and assessment of behavior is required to determine whether prides and coalitions behave naturally and are sufficiently adapted to a wild environment. Social network analysis (SNA) can be used to provide insight into how the pride as a whole and individuals within it, function. Our study was conducted upon 2 captive-origin prides who are part of an ex situ reintroduction program, and 1 wild pride of African lion. Social interactions were collected at all occurrence for each pride and categorized into greet, social grooming, play, and aggression. Betweenness centrality showed that offspring in each pride were central to the play network, whereas degree indicated that adults received (indegree) the greatest number of overall social interactions, and the adult males of each pride were least likely to initiate (outdegree) any interactions. Through the assessment of individual centrality and degree values, a social keystone adult female was identified for each pride. Social network results indicated that the 2 captive-origin prides had formed cohesive social units and possessed relationships and behaviors comparable with the wild pride for the studied behaviors. This study provided the first SNA comparison between captive-bred origin and a wild pride of lions, providing valuable information on individual and pride sociality, critical for determining the success of prides within an ex situ reintroduction program.

The aim of this study was to identify parameters that may be used as objective measures of wellbeing in weaner pigs on farm. Eighty-six weaner pigs were categorized into 3 groups based on their BCS: very compromised (VC, BCS = 1), moderately compromised (MC, BCS = 2), or healthy (HY, BCS ≥ 3). Nonphysiological and physiological measures were then collected from the pigs. Nonphysiological measures included 3 subjective binary scores that assessed the activity, hairiness, and responsiveness of each pig. Physiological measures included rectal temperature, skin temperature, and 11 blood-based parameters. Each physiological measure was assessed in a ternary manner, with pigs being classed as being above, below, or within the normal physiological range. Fisher’s exact tests (FET) were used to identify differences between the numbers of pigs in each BCS category for each variable, and ANOVA of physiological measures was also conducted. Correlations between all variables were also conducted. The FET results identified significant differences for 8 of the measures, with activity, hairiness, responsiveness, rectal temperature, and blood concentrations of glucose, creatinine kinase (CK), albumin, and globulin all differing significantly (all P0.05) according to category. Rectal temperature, glucose, and globulin concentrations were significantly different in ANOVA analyses. Of these measures, there were significant correlations between hairiness, rectal temperature, and glucose (all R0.30 and P0.05). Based on these results, rectal temperature, glucose, and hairiness all warrant further investigation as simple to apply, on-farm measures that can be used in conjunction with body condition and subjective assessment to aid management decisions on pig welfare.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate risk factors and potential infectious aetiologies of an increased mummification rate (>2%) identified over time on a 1200-sow farrow-to-finish farm in Australia. METHODS: Association of potential non-infectious risk factors and the mummification rate was investigated using 15 years of breeding herd data (40,940 litters) and logistic regression analysis. Samples from a limited number of mummified fetuses were taken to identify potential infectious aetiologies (porcine parvovirus, Leptospira pomona, porcine circovirus type 2, Bungowannah virus and enterovirus). RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis suggested that the mummification rate was significantly associated with sow breed and parity, year and total born and stillborn piglets per litter. The mummification rate was lower (P < 0.001) in Landrace (3.4%) and Large White (2.6%) sows than in Duroc sows (4.9%). Gilts (2.9%) had a lower (P < 0.001) mummification rate than older sows. The mummification rate increased with total born litter size and decreased with the number of stillborn piglets (P < 0.001). A clustering effect within individual sows was identified, indicating that some sows with mummified fetuses in a litter were more likely to have repeated mummifications in subsequent litters. No infectious agents were identified in the samples taken. CONCLUSION: Results from this study suggest that the increased mummification rate identified over time on this farm is likely to be a non-infectious multifactorial problem predisposing the occurrence of mummification. Further research is required to better understand the pathophysiology of mummification and the role that different non-infectious factors play in the occurrence of mummified fetuses.

The wild population of the African lion Panthera leo continues to decline, requiring alternate conservation programs to be considered. One such program is ex situ reintroduction. Prior to release, long-term monitoring and assessment of behavior is required to determine whether prides and coalitions behave naturally and are sufficiently adapted to a wild environment. Social network analysis (SNA) can be used to provide insight into how the pride as a whole and individuals within it, function. Our study was conducted upon 2 captive-origin prides who are part of an ex situ reintroduction program, and 1 wild pride of African lion. Social interactions were collected at all occurrence for each pride and categorized into greet, social grooming, play, and aggression. Betweenness centrality showed that offspring in each pride were central to the play network, whereas degree indicated that adults received (indegree) the greatest number of overall social interactions, and the adult males of each pride were least likely to initiate (outdegree) any interactions. Through the assessment of individual centrality and degree values, a social keystone adult female was identified for each pride. Social network results indicated that the 2 captive-origin prides had formed cohesive social units and possessed relationships and behaviors comparable with the wild pride for the studied behaviors. This study provided the first SNA comparison between captive-bred origin and a wild pride of lions, providing valuable information on individual and pride sociality, critical for determining the success of prides within an ex situ reintroduction program.

International audience; Judgement bias has potential as a measure of affective state in animals. The serotonergic system may be one mechanism involved with the formation of negative judgement biases. It was hypothesised that depletion of brain serotonin would induce negative judgement biases in sheep. A dose response trial established that 40 mg/kg of p-Chlorophenylalanine (pCPA) administered to sheep for 3 days did not affect feeding motivation or locomotion required for testing judgement biases. Thirty Merino ewes (10 months old) were trained to an operant task for 3 weeks. Sheep learnt to approach a bucket when it was placed in one corner of the testing facility to receive a feed reward (go response), and not approach it when in the alternate corner (no-go response) to avoid a negative reinforcer (exposure to a dog). Following training, 15 sheep were treated with pCPA (40 mg/kg daily) for an extended duration (5 days). Treated and control sheep were tested for judgement bias following 3 and 5 days of treatment, and again 5 days after cessation of treatment. Testing involved the bucket being presented in ambiguous locations between the two learnt locations, and the response of the sheep (go/no-go) measured their judgement of the bucket locations. Following 5 days of treatment, pCPA-treated sheep approached the most positive ambiguous location significantly less than control sheep, suggesting a pessimistic-like bias (treatment x bucket location interaction F(1,124.6) = 49.97, p = 0.011). A trend towards a significant interaction was still evident 5 days after the cessation of pCPA treatment (p = 0.068), however no significant interaction was seen on day 3 of testing (p = 0.867). These results support the suggestion that judgement bias is a cognitive measure of affective state, and that the serotonergic pathway may be involved. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International audience; Testing judgement biases of animals may provide insight into their affective states; however important questions about methodologies need to be answered. This experiment investigated the effect of repeated testing using unreinforced, ambiguous cues on the response of sheep to a go/no-go judgement bias test. Fifteen sheep were trained to differentiate between two locations, reinforced respectively with feed (positive) or with the presentation of a dog (negative). The responses to nine ambiguous locations, positioned between the positively and negatively reinforced locations, were tested repeatedly over 3 weeks. Sheep exhibited a symmetrical gradation in response to ambiguous locations between the positive and negative reinforcers. There was a significant decline (P = 0.001) in the total number of approaches to the ambiguous positions over time (weeks). This effect of time suggests that sheep learnt that the ambiguous locations were unrewarded. This result supplies evidence of a limitation identified in current judgement bias methodology, due to repeated testing, which has the potential to provide misleading results.