Near and Dear? If animal welfare concepts do not apply to species at a great phylogenetic distance from humans, what concepts might serve as alternatives?

A wide range of animal taxa, including vertebrates and invertebrates, are controlled or kept by humans. They may be used as pets, for recreation, sport and hobbies, as working animals, as producers of animal-derived (food) products or as biomedical models in research. There is a need for clear guidance on the treatment of animals, regardless of their phylogenetic distance from humans.

Glucocorticoids in relation to behavior, morphology, and physiology as proxy indicators for the assessment of animal welfare. A systematic mapping review.

Translating theoretical concepts of animal welfare into quantitative assessment protocols is an ongoing challenge. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are frequently used as physiological measure in welfare assessment. The interpretation of levels of GCs and especially their relation to welfare, however, is not as straightforward, questioning the informative power of GCs.

Beneficial effects of a plant-fish oil, slow carbohydrate diet on cardio-metabolic health exceed the correcting effects of metformin-pioglitazone in diabetic pigs fed a fast-food diet.

Background: Lifestyle influences endocrine, metabolic and cardiovascular homeostasis. This study investigated the impact of diet and oral anti-diabetic medication on cardio-metabolic health in human-sized diabetic pigs.

Methods: After a growing pre-phase from ~30 to ~69 kg during which domestic pigs were fed either a low fat, low sucrose diet (group A) or a fast food-type diet elevated in lard (15%) and sucrose (40%) (group B), the pigs were subdivided in 5 groups (n = 7-8 pigs per group).

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms.

Many protocols have been developed to assess farm animal welfare. However, the validity of these protocols is still subject to debate. The present study aimed to compare nine welfare assessment protocols, namely: (1) Welfare Quality (WQ), (2) a modified version of Welfare Quality (WQ Mod), which has a better discriminative power, (3) WelzijnsWijzer (Welfare Indicator; WW), (4) a new Welfare Monitor (WM), (5) Continue Welzijns Monitor (Continuous Welfare Monitor; CWM), (6) KoeKompas (Cow Compass; KK), (7) Cow Comfort Scoring System (CCSS), (8) Stall Standing Index (SSI) and (9) a Welfare Index (WI Tuyttens).

Subclinical in utero Zika virus infection is associated with interferon alpha sequelae and sex-specific molecular brain pathology in asymptomatic porcine offspring.

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during human pregnancy may lead to severe fetal pathology and debilitating impairments in offspring. However, the majority of infections are subclinical and not associated with evident birth defects. Potentially detrimental life-long health outcomes in asymptomatic offspring evoke high concerns.

Discrimination learning and judgment bias in low birth weight pigs.

Low birth weight (LBW) is a risk factor for cognitive and emotional impairments in humans. In pigs, LBW is a common occurrence, but its effects on cognition and emotion have received only limited scientific attention. To assess whether LBW pigs suffer from impaired cognitive and emotional development, we trained and tested 21 LBW and 21 normal birth weight (NBW) pigs in a judgment bias task.

Behavioral models in psychopathology: epistemic and semantic considerations.

The use of animals in neurosciences has a long history. It is considered indispensable in areas in which "translational" research is deemed invaluable, such as behavioral pharmacology and comparative psychology. Animal models are being used in pharmacology and genetics to screen for treatment targets, and in the field of experimental psychopathology to understand the neurobehavioral underpinnings of a disorder and of its putative treatment.

Stocking Density Affects Stress and Anxious Behavior in the Laying Hen Chick During Rearing.

The recent increases in stocking density, in extreme cases resulting in 'crowding', have a major impact on poultry welfare. In contrast to available research on adult laying hens, there is a gap in the literature studying the rearing phase. The present study investigated the effects of stocking density during the rearing period on the welfare of the laying hen chick.

Effects of parity and litter size on cortisol measures in commercially housed sows and their offspring.

Breeding sows are regularly exposed to on-farm stressors throughout the duration of their production period. The impact of such stressors may differ for primi- and multiparous sows, as sows could learn to cope with stressors as they gain experience with them. If parity affects stress in sows, it may also impact their prenatal offspring through differential maternal stress.

Low Birth Weight Impairs Acquisition of Spatial Memory Task in Pigs.

In commercial pig farming, an increasing number of low birth weight (LBW) piglets are born, due to selection for large litter sizes. While LBW piglets have a higher risk of pre-weaning mortality, a considerable number of these piglets survive to slaughter age. In humans, LBW is a risk factor for long-term cognitive impairments.

Effects of long-term use of the preferential COX-2 inhibitor meloxicam on growing pigs.

Meloxicam, a preferential COX-2 inhibitor, is a commonly used NSAID in pigs. Besides having potential side effects on the gastrointestinal tract, this type of drug might potentially affect osteogenesis and chondrogenesis, processes relevant to growing pigs. Therefore, the effects of long-term meloxicam treatment on growing pigs were studied.

Judgement bias in pigs is independent of performance in a spatial holeboard task and conditional discrimination learning.

Biases in judgement of ambiguous stimuli, as measured in a judgement bias task, have been proposed as a measure of the valence of affective states in animals. We recently suggested a list of criteria for behavioural tests of emotion, one of them stating that responses on the task used to assess emotionality should not be confounded by, among others, differences in learning capacity, i.e.

Mutilating Procedures, Management Practices, and Housing Conditions That May Affect the Welfare of Farm Animals: Implications for Welfare Research.

A number of mutilating procedures, such as dehorning in cattle and goats and beak trimming in laying hens, are common in farm animal husbandry systems in an attempt to prevent or solve problems, such as injuries from horns or feather pecking. These procedures and other practices, such as early maternal separation, overcrowding, and barren housing conditions, raise concerns about animal welfare. Efforts to ensure or improve animal welfare involve adapting the animal to its environment, i.

Non-anemic Iron Deficiency from Birth to Weaning Does Not Impair Growth or Memory in Piglets.

Early iron deficiency is associated with impaired (cognitive) development, the severity of which depends on the timing and duration of the under-supply of iron. To design effective treatment and prevention strategies for iron deficiency in humans, suited animal models are needed. In an earlier study (Antonides et al.

Making Decisions under Ambiguity: Judgment Bias Tasks for Assessing Emotional State in Animals.

Judgment bias tasks (JBTs) are considered as a family of promising tools in the assessment of emotional states of animals. JBTs provide a cognitive measure of optimism and/or pessimism by recording behavioral responses to ambiguous stimuli. For instance, a negative emotional state is expected to produce a negative or pessimistic judgment of an ambiguous stimulus, whereas a positive emotional state produces a positive or optimistic judgment of the same ambiguous stimulus.

Overnight Social Isolation in Pigs Decreases Salivary Cortisol but Does Not Impair Spatial Learning and Memory or Performance in a Decision-Making Task.

Pigs in modern farming practice may be exposed to a number of stressors, including social stressors such as mixing or isolation. This may potentially affect both cognitive abilities and stress physiology of the animals. We tested the hypothesis that overnight social isolation in pigs impairs performance in a cognitive holeboard (HB) task (Experiment 1) and the Pig Gambling Task (PGT) (Experiment 2), a decision-making task inspired by the Iowa Gambling Task.

Pre-weaning dietary iron deficiency impairs spatial learning and memory in the cognitive holeboard task in piglets.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in humans, affecting more than two billion people worldwide. Early-life iron deficiency can lead to irreversible deficits in learning and memory. The pig represents a promising model animal for studying such deficits, because of its similarities to humans during early development.

Clinical effects of buprenorphine on open field behaviour and gait symmetry in healthy and lame weaned piglets.

Lameness in pigs decreases animal welfare and economic profit for the farmer. An important reason for impaired welfare in lame animals is pain due to lameness. No direct measurement of pain is possible in animals, and methods to indirectly detect and quantify the amount of pain an animal is experiencing are urgently needed.

Effects of environmental enrichment on cognitive performance of pigs in a spatial holeboard discrimination task.

This study investigated the effects of environmental enrichment on the cognitive performance of female conventional farm (growing) pigs in a spatial holeboard task. Ten pairs of littermates matched for weight were used. From each litter, one piglet was randomly assigned to a barren environment; the other was assigned to an enriched environment from 4 weeks of age.

Very low birth weight piglets show improved cognitive performance in the spatial cognitive holeboard task.

Low birth weight (LBW) is common in humans and has been found to cause lasting cognitive and developmental deficits later in life. It is thought that the primary cause is intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) due to a shortage of oxygen and supply of nutrients to the fetus. Pigs appear to be a good model animal to investigate long-term cognitive effects of LBW, as LBW is common in commercially farmed breeds of pigs.