Affective trajectories: Are hens influenced by positive and negative changes in their living conditions?

Most studies of the effects of housing and husbandry on animals' affective states and welfare investigate the impact of living conditions, comparing for example, animals living in enriched environments with those living in non-enriched ones. in living conditions, including from more to less enriched environments, have also been found to have effects on measures of affective state and welfare in some species. But these studies have not investigated whether it is the that has affected the animals (e.

Dairy vs beef production - expert views on welfare of cattle in common food production systems.

Consumers' views and concerns about the welfare of farm animals may play an important role in their decision to consume dairy, meat and/or plants as their primary protein source. As animals are killed prematurely in both dairy and beef industries, it is important to quantify and compare welfare compromises in these two sectors before the point of death. Seventy world-leading bovine welfare experts based in 23 countries were asked to evaluate the likelihood of a bovine to experience 12 states of potential welfare concern, inspired by the Welfare Quality® protocol.

The Effect of Hard Pecking Enrichment during Rear on Feather Cover, Feather Pecking Behaviour and Beak Length in Beak-Trimmed and Intact-Beak Laying Hen Pullets.

Injurious pecking, commonly controlled by beak trimming (BT), is a widespread issue in laying hens associated with thwarted foraging. This controlled study compared the effect in intact and beak-trimmed pullets of providing pecking pans to eight treatment flocks from six weeks of age. Flocks (mean size 6843) comprised eight British Blacktail, six Lohmann Brown and two Bovans Brown.

A Citizen Science Trial to Assess Perception of Wild Penguin Welfare.

Wild penguins are facing increased threats to their populations and their welfare as a consequence of human activities. Understanding the perception of animal welfare is essential to identify ethical concerns related to the negative impact of anthropogenic factors on wild species and to guide conservation efforts that reflect societal values. Since penguin conservation is of general interest, we examined the human dimension of welfare assessment across a range of interest groups concerned with penguins, seabird biology and wildlife conservation.

Rearing experience with ramps improves specific learning and behaviour and welfare on a commercial laying farm.

To access resources in commercial laying houses hens must move between levels with agility to avoid injury. This study considered whether providing ramps during rear improved the ability of birds to transition between levels. Twelve commercial flocks (2000 birds/flock) on a multi-age site were examined between 1 and 40 weeks of age.

Foraging efficiency, social status and body condition in group-living horses and ponies.

Individual animals experience different costs and benefits associated with group living, which may impact on their foraging efficiency in ways not yet well specified. This study investigated associations between social dominance, body condition and interruptions to foraging behaviour in a cross-sectional study of 116 domestic horses and ponies, kept in 20 discrete herds. Social dominance was measured for each individual alongside observations of winter foraging behaviour.

From Unpleasant to Unbearable-Why and How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain and Other Forms of Suffering in Research with Animals.

The focus of this paper is the requirement that the use of live animals in experiments and in vivo assays should never be allowed if those uses involve severe suffering. This requirement was first implemented in Danish legislation, was later adopted by the European Union, and has had limited uptake in North America. Animal suffering can arise from exposure to a wide range of different external and internal events that threaten biological or social functions, while the severity of suffering may be influenced by the animals' perceptions of their own situation and the degree of control they are able to exert.

The impact of early structural enrichment on spatial cognition in layer chicks.

The aim of the study was to determine whether early access to elevated structures affects spatial navigational abilities. Ninety six day-old chicks were reared in 16 pens. Eight pens were provided with A-frame perches with an attached platform and a ramp.

Socially-mediated arousal and contagion within domestic chick broods.

Emotional contagion - an underpinning valenced feature of empathy - is made up of simpler, potentially dissociable social processes which can include socially-mediated arousal and behavioural/physiological contagion. Previous studies of emotional contagion have often conflated these processes rather than examining their independent contribution to empathic response. We measured socially-mediated arousal and contagion in 9-week old domestic chicks (n = 19 broods), who were unrelated but raised together from hatching.

Retrospective harm benefit analysis of pre-clinical animal research for six treatment interventions.

Background: The harm benefit analysis (HBA) is the cornerstone of animal research regulation and is considered to be a key ethical safeguard for animals. The HBA involves weighing the anticipated benefits of animal research against its predicted harms to animals but there are doubts about how objective and accountable this process is.

Objectives: i.

The ability of laying pullets to negotiate two ramp designs as measured by bird preference and behaviour.

Background: Laying hens are often kept in barn or free-range systems where they must negotiate level changes in the house to access resources. However, collisions and resultant keel fractures are commonplace. Producers sometimes add ramps to make raised areas more accessible but designs vary and very little research has investigated bird preference or behaviour when using different ramp designs, or the effect of ramp design on falls and collisions

Methods: Two ramp designs were studied in an experimental setting-a ramp made of plastic poultry slats (grid ramp, GR) and a ramp made of wooden rungs (ladder ramp, LR).

Effect of reward downshift on the behaviour and physiology of chickens.

When a reward is downgraded in quantity or quality from that which is expected, one of two possible outcomes can result. Acquisition responses may decline gradually, owing to a strong stimulus-response reinforcement history, and thus follow the Thorndikian law of effect. Alternatively, there may be an exaggerated reaction to a downgraded reward when it is initially altered, compared to the behaviour of individuals that have always been trained to receive the lower magnitude reward; this is known as successive negative contrast (SNC).

Dominance rank is associated with body condition in outdoor-living domestic horses ().

The aim of our study was to explore the association between dominance rank and body condition in outdoor group-living domestic horses, . Social interactions were recorded using a video camera during a feeding test, applied to 203 horses in 42 herds. Dominance rank was assigned to 194 individuals.

Assessing the seasonal prevalence and risk factors for nuchal crest adiposity in domestic horses and ponies using the Cresty Neck Score.

Background: Nuchal crest adiposity in horses and ponies has been associated with an enhanced risk of metabolic health problems. However, there is no current information on the prevalence of, and risk factors specific to, nuchal crest adiposity in horses and ponies. In addition, the cresty neck score has not previously been utilised across different seasons within a UK leisure population, it is not know whether nuchal crest adiposity shows the same seasonal trends as general obesity.

Behavioural and physiological effects of finely balanced decision-making in chickens.

In humans, more difficult decisions result in behavioural and physiological changes suggestive of increased arousal, but little is known about the effect of decision difficulty in other species. A difficult decision can have a number of characteristics; we aimed to monitor how finely balanced decisions, compared to unbalanced ones, affected the behaviour and physiology of chickens. An unbalanced decision was one in which the two options were of unequal net value (1 (Q1) vs.

Thermal nociceptive threshold testing detects altered sensory processing in broiler chickens with spontaneous lameness.

Lameness is common in commercially reared broiler chickens but relationships between lameness and pain (and thus bird welfare) have proved complex, partly because lameness is often partially confounded with factors such as bodyweight, sex and pathology. Thermal nociceptive threshold (TNT) testing explores the neural processing of noxious stimuli, and so can contribute to our understanding of pain. Using an acute model of experimentally induced articular pain, we recently demonstrated that TNT was reduced in lame broiler chickens, and was subsequently attenuated by administration of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).

The effects of two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the mobility of laying hens with keel bone fractures.

Objective: Investigate the effects of administration of meloxicam and carprofen on the mobility of hens with and without keel fractures.

Study Design: Within each of two experiments a 'blinded' randomised cross over design whereby birds received either the test drug (carprofen or meloxicam) or saline.

Animals: Two groups of Lohman Brown hens with and without keel bone fractures.

Obesity prevalence and associated risk factors in outdoor living domestic horses and ponies.

Reasons for performing study. The prevalence of obesity in companion animals, including horses and ponies has risen drastically in recent years and risk factors have been little investigated. Horses are unique amongst companion animals in that many are outdoor-living and forage independently on pasture; they also have a dual utility and companionship role.

Do laying hens with keel bone fractures experience pain?

The European ban on battery cages has forced a change towards the use of non-cage or furnished cage systems, but unexpectedly this has been associated with an increased prevalence of keel bone fractures in laying hens. Bone fractures are acutely painful in mammals, but the effect of fractures on bird welfare is unclear. We recently reported that keel bone fractures have an effect on bird mobility.

Kinematic analysis quantifies gait abnormalities associated with lameness in broiler chickens and identifies evolutionary gait differences.

This is the first time that gait characteristics of broiler (meat) chickens have been compared with their progenitor, jungle fowl, and the first kinematic study to report a link between broiler gait parameters and defined lameness scores. A commercial motion-capturing system recorded three-dimensional temporospatial information during walking. The hypothesis was that the gait characteristics of non-lame broilers (n = 10) would be intermediate to those of lame broilers (n = 12) and jungle fowl (n = 10, tested at two ages: immature and adult).

No evidence for emotional empathy in chickens observing familiar adult conspecifics.

The capacity of animals to empathise is of high potential relevance to the welfare of group-housed domestic animals. Emotional empathy is a multifaceted and multilayered phenomenon which ranges from relatively simple processes such as emotional matching behaviour to more complex processes involving interaction between emotional and cognitive perspective taking systems. Our previous research has demonstrated that hens show clear behavioural and physiological responses to the mild distress of their chicks.

Post-conflict friendly reunion in a permanent group of horses (Equus caballus).

Gregarious animals living in permanent social groups experience intra-group competition. Conflicts over resources can escalate into costly aggression and, in some conditions, non-dispersive forms of conflict resolution may be favoured. Post-conflict friendly reunions, hence reconciliation, have been described in a variety of species.

The effects of enhancing cage complexity on the behaviour and welfare of laboratory rats.

This experiment was carried out to investigate the long-term effects of enhancing cage complexity on behavioural measures of welfare in laboratory rats. We housed 72 rats in groups of four in either 'enriched' or 'unenriched' cages for six weeks. Scan and focal animal sampling were conducted in both the light and dark phase of the second, fourth and sixth weeks.