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Predictive validity of a method for evaluating temperament in young guide and service dogs
Contributor(s): Duffy, Deborah L., Serpell, James A.
As part of a collaborative project involving five guide and service dog organizations in the USA (Canine Companions for Independence, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Guiding Eyes for the Blind, Leader Dogs for the Blind and The Seeing Eye), volunteer puppy raisers provided information about the...
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Predicting sleep and lying time of calves with a support vector machine classifier using accelerometer data
Contributor(s): Hokkanen, Ann-Helena, Hänninen, Laura, Tiusanen, Johannes, Pastell, Matti
Sleep is essential to calves, but to date the only possibilities for measuring sleep in cattle production systems use ambulatory EEG or validated sleeping behavior assessments. We developed a small, neck-based, wireless accelerometer system for measuring the sleep and lying time of calves. We...
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Prandial correlations and the structure of feeding behaviour
Contributor(s): Tolkamp, Bert J., Howie, Jennifer A., Bley, Tobias A. G., Kyriazakis, Ilias
Prandial correlations measure the strength of the effects of between-meal interval length on the size of subsequent meals (pre-prandial) and vice versa (post-prandial) and provide insight into the control of food intake. In this paper we develop hypotheses about prandial correlations by using...
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The potential of the human–animal relationship as an environmental enrichment for the welfare of zoo-housed animals
Contributor(s): Claxton, Anna M.
Environmental enrichment strategies are used to improve both the physiological and psychological welfare of captive animals, which can be achieved by increasing the expression of natural behaviour and decreasing abnormal behaviours. Examples of successful environmental enrichment include the...
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Playful handling by caretakers reduces fear of humans in the laboratory rat
Contributor(s): Cloutier, Sylvie, Panksepp, Jaak, Newberry, Ruth C.
Handling of laboratory rats can increase physiological and emotional stress, leading to a fearful relationship with humans. We hypothesized that the affective quality of handling techniques used during routine care influences the animals’ fear of humans. We assessed responses of male...
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Physiological and welfare consequences of transport, relocation, and acclimatization of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Contributor(s): Schapiro, Steven J., Lambeth, Susan P., Jacobsen, Kirsten Rosenmaj, Williams, Lawrence E., Nehete, Bharti N., Nehete, Pramod N.
Manipulations of the environments of captive nonhuman primates often have welfare consequences to the animals, including behavioral effects, and for certain manipulations, physiological effects as well. The processes of transporting, relocating, and acclimatizing nonhuman primates across...
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Personality traits and the effects of DHA supplementation in the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus)
Contributor(s): Callicrate, Taylor Eilers, Siewerdt, Frank, Koutsos, Elizabeth, Estévez, Inma
We investigated the hypotheses that a bold-shy personality axis exists in the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) and that dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation has a significant effect on budgerigar personality and immune responses. DHA is an integral component of the brain known...
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Peat as environmental enrichment for piglets: The effect on behaviour, skin lesions and production results
Contributor(s): Vanheukelom, Valerie, Driessen, Bert, Maenhout, Daniël, Geers, Rony
The aim of this study was to examine whether the provision of small amounts of peat to piglets would influence behaviour and production. At approximately 5 days of age, nine litters received a tray of peat as enrichment, while nine others did not. All piglets had access to solid feed, which was...
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Parturition progress and behaviours in dairy cows with calving difficulty
Contributor(s): Barrier, Alice C., Haskell, Marie J., Macrae, Alastair I., Dwyer, Cathy M.
The welfare of dairy cows and their calves is compromised following a difficult calving. A better understanding of what happens during a difficult calving is needed to help prevent and alleviate adverse consequences through early diagnosis and/or pain mitigation. The objectives of this study were...
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Pain issues in poultry
Contributor(s): Gentle, Michael J.
This review highlights the possible pain experienced by layer and broiler poultry in modern husbandry conditions. Receptors which respond to noxous stimulation (nociceptors) have been identified and physiologically characterised in many different part of the body of the chicken including the...
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Pain and discomfort caused by parturition in cows and sows
Contributor(s): Mainau, Eva, Manteca, Xavier
This review focuses on parturition as a painful process in cows and sows. Firstly, the different stages of parturition associated to the origin and transmission of pain stimuli are described. Hypoalgesia during the late pregnancy and parturition has been shown, perhaps as an endogenous defence...
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Opioid control of behaviour in sheep: Effects of morphine and naloxone on food intake, activity and the affective state
Contributor(s): Verbeek, Else, Ferguson, Drewe, Quinquet de Monjour, Patrick, Lee, Caroline
The affective states of animals are important determinants of welfare, yet they are poorly understood. Here we investigate opioid involvement in the regulation of behaviours that may be indicative of the arousal and valence components of affective states in sheep. Ewes treated with sterile water...
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Object recognition and generalisation during habituation in horses
Contributor(s): Christensen, Janne Winther, Zharkikh, Tatjana, Chovaux, Elodie
The ability of horses to habituate to frightening stimuli greatly increases safety in the horse–human relationship. A recent experiment suggested, however, that habituation to frightening visual stimuli is relatively stimulus-specific in horses and that shape and colour are important factors for...
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Obedience training effects on search dog performance
Contributor(s): Alexander, Michael Ben, Friend, Ted, Haug, Lore
Competent search dogs should be accurate, reliable, and work independently, yet be responsive to handler commands. The aim of this study was to identify training factors that contribute to producing competent search dogs. Demographics, obedience training methods, the age training was initiated,...
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Nursing females are more prone to heat stress: Demography matters when managing flying-foxes for climate change
Contributor(s): Snoyman, Stephanie, Muhic, Jasmina, Brown, Culum
Determining the underlying mechanisms responsible for species-specific responses to climate change is important from a species management perspective. The grey-headed flying-fox, Pteropus poliocephalus, is listed as vulnerable but it also a significant pest species for orchardists and thereby...
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A novel scale of behavioural indicators of stress for use with domestic horses
Contributor(s): Young, Tamsin, Creighton, Emma, Smith, Tessa, Hosie, Charlotte
Behaviour scores (BS) offer non-invasive, objective and easy to use ways of assessing welfare in animals. Their development has, however, largely focused on behavioural reactions to stressful events (often induced), and little use of physiological measures has been made to underpin and validate...
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Nest sharing under semi-natural conditions in laying hens
Contributor(s): Riber, Anja Brinch
Under natural conditions, the feral hen (Gallus gallus domesticus) will choose a nest location away from the flock, whereas under commercial conditions, the domestic hen will often choose the same nest as other hens have used or are still using. Simultaneous nest sharing causes several welfare...
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Neighbourhood analysis as an indicator of spatial requirements of broiler chickens
Contributor(s): Buijs, Stephanie, Keeling, Linda J., Vangestel, Carl, Baert, Jeroen, Tuyttens, Frank A. M.
The appropriate stocking density for broiler chickens is a much discussed topic in animal welfare. To determine at which stocking density the level of crowding becomes aversive to 4–6-week-old broiler chickens, spatial distribution and behaviour of groups stocked at 8, 19, 29, 40, 45, 51, 61 or...
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Movement in a confined space: Estimating path tortuosity
Contributor(s): Miller, Curtis, Christman, Mary C., Estevez, Inma
Tortuosity of an animal's path may be defined in the most general sense as departure of the path from straightness and is closely related to the animal‘s behavior. For example, movement toward a destination is straighter and hence less tortuous than foraging behavior where the animal is searching...
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Motivation for social contact in horses measured by operant conditioning
Contributor(s): Søndergaard, Eva, Jensen, Margit Bak, Nicol, Christine J.
Although horses are social animals they are often housed individually with limited social contact to other horses and this may compromise their welfare. The present study included eight young female horses and investigated the strength of motivation for access to full social contact, head contact...
