Foundations for Meaningful Consent in Canada's Digital Health Ecosystem: Retrospective Study.

Background: Canadians are increasingly gaining web-based access to digital health services, and they expect to access their data from these services through a central patient access channel. Implementing data sharing between these services will require patient trust that is fostered through meaningful consent and consent management. Understanding user consent requirements and information needs is necessary for developing a trustworthy and transparent consent management system.

Meaningful Digital Consent in Canada: Recommendations from Pan-Canadian Consent Management Workshops.

The digital health landscape is rapidly evolving with regard to how society accesses and interacts with digital information and technologies. With a largely commercial marketplace, there are growing concerns that users are not fully informed about how their data are used. Canadian privacy legislation is currently undergoing modernization to improve the transparency of commercial information handling practices through the introduction of meaningful consent.

Varying Opinions about Animal Welfare in the Australian Live Export Industry: A Survey.

There is significant public interest in the Australian live animal export industry and a need to develop a program that can measure and monitor animal welfare throughout the supply chain. An online survey of stakeholder opinions of this industry and animal welfare measures was carried out in 2015 with 921 respondents: 30% from the public who identified as animal welfare advocates (AWAs); 44% from the public who did not identify as AWAs (general public; GP); 26% live export industry (LEI) workers. AWA and GP respondents expressed greater concern than LEI respondents for animal welfare throughout the supply chain but had less concern for animals at Australian feedlots than in other parts of the supply chain.

Review of Livestock Welfare Indicators Relevant for the Australian Live Export Industry.

Animal welfare is an important issue for the live export industry (LEI), in terms of economic returns, community attitudes and international socio-political relations. Mortality has traditionally been the main welfare measure recorded within the LEI; however, high mortality incidents are usually acted upon after adverse events occur, reducing the scope for proactive welfare enhancement. We reviewed 71 potential animal welfare measures, identifying those measures that would be appropriate for use throughout the LEI for feeder and slaughter livestock species, and categorised these as animal-, environment- and resource-based.

Preliminary Findings on a Novel Behavioural Approach for the Assessment of Pain and Analgesia in Lambs Subject to Routine Husbandry Procedures.

The identification and assessment of pain in sheep under field conditions are important, but, due to their stoic nature, are fraught with many challenges. In Australia, various husbandry procedures that are documented to cause pain are routinely performed at lamb marking, including ear tagging, castration, mulesing, and tail docking. This study evaluated the validity of a novel methodology to assess pain in lambs: qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) was used to compare the behavioural expression of control lambs (CONTROL) with that of lambs subject to these procedures that received either a saline placebo 15 min before procedures (PLACEBO), or were administered meloxicam 15 min before procedures in addition to the standard analgesic Tri-Solfen at the time of procedures, as per the manufacturer's recommendations (ANALGESIC TREATMENT; AT).

Remote Identification of Sheep with Flystrike Using Behavioural Observations.

Flystrike is a major problem affecting sheep in Australia. Identification of 'flystruck' individuals is crucial for treatment; but requires labour-intensive physical examination. As the industry moves toward more low-input systems; there is a need for remote methods to identify flystruck individuals.

Kinetic Gait Analysis of Agility Dogs Entering the A-Frame.

Objective:  The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a decrease in the A-frame angle of incline on the vertical and cranio-caudal ground reaction forces observed in a homogeneous cohort of agility dogs during entrance and contact with the A-frame.

Materials And Methods:  A crossover study design was applied to eight large breed dogs to compare the vertical and cranio-caudal ground reaction forces entering the A-frame at three angles of incline: 40° (standard), 35° and 30°. The peak vertical force, passive impact peak, peak propulsive force, peak braking force, the time point (percentile) in the stance phase at which these events occurred and the proportion of time for limb contact spent in braking (% braking) and propulsion (% propulsion) were examined.

Qualitative Behavioural Assessment as a Method to Identify Potential Stressors during Commercial Sheep Transport.

Land transport is an unavoidable experience for most livestock, yet there is limited research comparing animal welfare under different conditions. We video recorded sheep responses during short (2 h) commercial road transport journeys. Using Qualitative Behavioural Assessment, observers (blinded to the treatments) scored the behavioural expression of sheep and reached significant consensus in their scoring patterns ( < 0.

Reduction of the A-Frame Angle of Incline does not Change the Maximum Carpal Joint Extension Angle in Agility Dogs Entering the A-Frame.

Objective:  This article aims to investigate the effect of a decrease in the A-frame angle of incline on the highest carpal extension angle in agility dogs.

Methods:  Kinematic gait analysis (two-dimensional) measuring carpal extension was performed on 40 dogs entering the A-frame at 3 angles of incline: 40° (standard), 35° and 30°. The highest carpal extension angle from three trials at each incline was examined for a significant effect of A-frame angle with height, body weight and velocity included as covariates.

Validating the use of qualitative behavioral assessment as a measure of the welfare of sheep during transport.

We tested the application of qualitative behavioral assessment (QBA) as a welfare assessment tool. Sheep were exposed to road transport treatments, and behavioral expressions were compared between experimental treatments and validated by correlation with physiological measures. We compared journeys differing in ventilation (closed vs.