Chapter 14 - Avian nociception and pain

Abstract

Pain is an aversive experience with sensory and emotional components which functions to protect animals from current and future tissue damage. Understanding pain is important because it can negatively affect animal welfare, productive function, and behavior. Here, we present a brief summary of the evidence that birds are capable of both the sensory and emotional components of pain. We consider the presence and activation of structures and pathways necessary to process nociceptive inputs (i.e., those with the potential to damage tissues) as well as the animal's observable responses that reflect different levels of processing, e.g., withdrawal reflexes, physiological and behavioral responses and their mitigation, learning. The available evidence indicates that birds are likely to experience all aspects of pain. However, few avian species have been studied and little is known about processing of nociceptive inputs in the avian forebrain. More research is needed to improve our understanding of pain in birds.