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Exploring the Role of Farm Animals in Providing Care at Care Farms
Contributor(s):: Jan Hassink, Simone R De Bruin, Bente Berget, Marjolein Elings
We explore the role of farm animals in providing care to different types of participants at care farms (e.g., youngsters with behavioural problems, people with severe mental problems and people with dementia). Care farms provide alternative and promising settings where people can interact with...
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Exploration Feeding and Higher Space Allocation Improve Welfare of Growing-Finishing Pigs
Contributor(s):: Herman M Vermeer, Nienke CPMM Dirx-Kuijken, Marc BM Bracke
Lack of environmental enrichment and high stocking densities in growing-finishing pigs can lead to adverse social behaviors directed to pen mates, resulting in skin lesions, lameness, and tail biting. The objective of the study was to improve animal welfare and prevent biting behavior in an...
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A Decade of Progress toward Ending the Intensive Confinement of Farm Animals in the United States
Contributor(s):: Sara Shields, Paul Shapiro, Andrew Rowan
In this paper, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal protection work over the preceding decade is described from the perspective of the organization. Prior to 2002, there were few legal protections for animals on the farm, and in 2005, a new campaign at the HSUS began to...
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Green Care: A Review of the Benefits and Potential of Animal-Assisted Care Farming Globally and in Rural America
Contributor(s):: Brianna Artz, Doris Bitler Davis
The term Green Care includes therapeutic, social or educational interventions involving farming; farm animals; gardening or general contact with nature. Although Green Care can occur in any setting in which there is interaction with plants or animals, this review focuses on therapeutic practices...
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Heartland Farm Sanctuary
Heartland Farm Sanctuary, which opened in 2010, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping homeless farm animals in Wisconsin, and building connections between animals and vulnerable youth. We created Heartland to provide a safe, peaceful environment where youth and farm animals...
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Watching cows: associating farmer wellbeing and cows
Contributor(s):: L.M. Hunt
This presentation highlights the relationship between wellbeing achieved by farming and the care of cows with dairy farmers participating in the ARGOS programme. Its purpose is to indicate how environmental care might be part of farmers’ everyday life and become part of their sense of...
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A systematic review of zoonoses transmission and livestock/wildlife interactions: Preliminary findings
Contributor(s):: Delia Grace, R. Kock, J. Rushton, F. Mutua, J.J. McDermott, D.U. Pfeiffer, B. Jones
Around 60% of all human pathogens are zoonoses and domestic animals and wildlife are of equal importance as reservoir hosts. Moreover, most emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses and most emerge from wildlife. There have been several recent initiatives to categorize zoonoses and their...
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Potty Trained Cows? Transform Farming with Technology: Dr. Alison Vaughan, PhD at TEDxChilliwack
Contributor(s):: Dr. Alison Vaughan
My name is Dr Alison Vaughan. I’d like to share with you some of the exciting ways in which technology can be used to increase the welfare of farm animals and reduce the environmental impact of farms. More specifically, I’d like to share with you my experiences of potty training cows!...
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Farm animal-assisted interventions in clinical depression
Contributor(s):: Ingeborg Pedersen
Depression affects millions of people every year. Depressed individuals suffer from depressed mood, loss of interest and enjoyment, reduced energy, diminished activity, reduced attention and concentration and reduced self-esteem. The consequences are substantial both for each individual and for...
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Worker injuries involving the interaction of cattle, cattle handlers, and farm structures or equipment
Contributor(s):: Shannon L. Fox
Cattle and other livestock have been identified as leading sources of injuries to workers in agriculture. Cattle handling injuries can be serious and often appear to be under-reported [superscript]3,[superscript]4. Many of these injuries involve predictable patterns of interactions among victims,...
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The effects of wildlife-livestock-human interactions on habitat in the Meru Conservation Area, Kenya
Contributor(s):: J. Otuoma
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Risk behaviors for disease transmission among petting zoo attendees
Contributor(s):: M. McMillian, J.R. Dunn, J.E. Keen, K.L. Brady, T.F. Jones
To evaluate risk behaviors for transmission of zoonotic diseases at petting zoos during a period without a recognized disease outbreak. Observational survey with environmental microbiologic sampling. 6 petting zoos in Tennessee. Attendees were observed for animal and environmental contact, eating...
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Early exposure to dogs and farm animals and the risk of childhood asthma
Contributor(s):: Tove Fall, Cecilia Lundholm, Anne K. Ortqvist, Katja Fall, Fang Fang, Ake Hedhammar, Olle Kampe, Erik Ingelsson, Catarina Almqvist
IMPORTANCE: The association between early exposure to animals and childhood asthma is not clear, and previous studies have yielded contradictory results.OBJECTIVE: To determine whether exposure to dogs and farm animals confers a risk of asthma. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:...
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A Case Study of Behaviour and Performance of Confined or Pastured Cows During the Dry Period
Contributor(s):: Randi A. Black, Peter D. Krawczel
The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of the dry cow management system (pasture or confined) on: (1) lying behaviour and activity; (2) feeding and heat stress behaviours; (3) intramammary infections, postpartum. Non-lactating Holstein cows were assigned to either deep-bedded,...
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Cattle handling technique can induce fatigued cattle syndrome in cattle not fed a beta adrenergic agonist
Contributor(s):: D.A. Frese, Christopher D. Reinhardt, Steven J. Bartle, David Rethorst, J.P. Hutcheson, W.T. Nichols, B.E. Depenbusch, M.E. Corrigan, Daniel U. Thomson
Angus crossbred steers (n = 40; 563 +/- 44 kg) were used to examine the effects of handling method and fat thickness on the blood chemistry and physiology of market steers. Steers were blocked by backfat (BF) thickness and were randomly assigned to treatment groups: low-stress handling (LSH) and...
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Worker injuries involving the interaction of cattle, cattle handlers, and farm structures or equipment
Contributor(s):: S. Fox, Mitchell Ricketts, J. Ernest Minton
Cattle have been identified as leading sources of injuries to agricultural workers. The present study focused on worker injuries that involved the interaction of cattle, cattle handlers, and farm structures or equipment. The goal of the study was to identify opportunities for injury prevention....
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Observation of public health risk behaviors, risk communication and hand hygiene at Kansas and Missouri petting zoos – 2010-2011
Contributor(s):: Gonzalo Erdozain, Katherine KuKanich, Benjamin Chapman, Douglas A. Powell
Outbreaks of human illness have been linked to visiting settings with animal contact throughout developed countries. This paper details an observational study of hand hygiene tool availability and recommendations; frequency of risky behavior; and, handwashing attempts by visitors in Kansas (9)...
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Animals and Causal Impotence: A Deontological View
Contributor(s):: Blake Hereth
In animal ethics, some ethicists such as Peter Singer argue that we ought not to purchase animal products because doing so causally contributes to unnecessary suffering. Others, such as Russ Shafer-Landau, counter that where such unnecessary suffering is not causally dependent on one’s...
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Understanding Life Skills Gained from and Reasons for Youth Participation in the Tennessee 4-H Sheep Skillathon
Contributor(s):: Terra Kimes Davis, Christopher T. Stripling, Carrie A. Stephens, H. Dwight Loveday
The high number of U.S. youth exhibiting at-risk behavior points to a lack of life skills development. We determined the effects of participating in one state's 4-H sheep skillathon on youths' life skills development and the youths' reasons for participating. The target population was...
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Revealing the History of Sheep Domestication Using Retrovirus Integrations
Contributor(s):: Bernardo Chessa, Filipe Pereira, Frederick Arnaud, Antonio Amorim, Felix Goyache, Ingrid Mainland
The domestication of livestock represented a crucial step in human history. By using endogenous retroviruses as genetic markers, we found that sheep differentiated on the basis of their "retrotype" and morphological traits dispersed across Eurasia and Africa via separate migratory...
