Field Of Animal Welfare Research Articles

Connecting Parties for Change: A Qualitative Study into Communicative Drivers for Animal Welfare in the Food Industry

Communication by companies plays an important role in Corporate (Social) Responsibility (CSR). One of the optional CSR topics is animal welfare. This exploratory qualitative study reveals which factors of communication stimulate an attitude of responsibility towards animals in companies in the animal-based food industry (producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers). It shows that a manager who is made responsible for animal welfare in a company can strengthen the company’s ethical position in two ways. The first one is to connect with stakeholders within and outside the company. The second way is to facilitate, as a moderator, connections between these stakeholders in which the manager is not involved per se. In both cases, if these connections take the form of personal meetings, this is extra helpful for enhancing a responsible attitude towards animals, because that is how insight, trust and collaboration are gained and sustained. We present a model outlining all supportive communicative connections, and a summary of communication channels that are used to effectuate them. Finally, we offer practical advice for those managers who want to reinforce a positive change in the field of animal welfare in the food industry.

Duane Rumbaugh’s Influence on the Science and Practice of Animal Welfare

Duane Rumbaugh’s influence on the field of comparative psychology will be long lasting and far reaching. He is best known for his continuing influence on the field of primate cognition, but his work and that of his mentees has branched out into other domains as well. Here we will focus specifically on his influence on the field of animal welfare and how place or location has shaped those influences. In our narrative, we will describe how different people with different perspectives interfaced over the decades by virtue of sharing space. We will reflect on a range of physical spaces: field versus wild, different cities or geographical locations, laboratory versus zoo, and actual versus virtual. Geographic location, indirectly and/or directly, will shape the interactions among scientists and their perspectives and values. In particular we will focus on how developments in the 20th Century in San Diego and Atlanta shaped the primate research community in both laboratories and zoos. We will provide the historical context and development of perspectives that have forever altered how we think of and co-exist with great apes. These interactions have yielded positive and strong connections between people that ultimately influence our understanding of and treatment of animal welfare.

Laboratory animal facility management

The successful management of a laboratory animal facility is based on the design and implementation of a management program, which in most cases covers the minimum legislative requirements and goes further, in order to achieve more in the field of animal welfare. A complete management program should consist of the following main points: a) Monitoring of animal housing, the macro- and microenvironment of the animals, b) veterinary medical care, c) monitoring of electromechanical equipment and the overall construction of the animal facility, and designing of emergency and disaster plans, d) monitoring of the overall program by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee responsible to oversee and evaluate the management program of the facility, e) education and training of personnel and f) the implementation of an occupational health and safety program.

Farm Animal Welfare Policy in Comparative Perspective: Determinants of Cross‐national Differences in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland

Societal concerns for the welfare of animals are increasing: a majority of Europeans believe that farm animals should be better protected. Even so, there is no systematic policy analytic assessment of the development and the determinants of animal welfare policy. This paper addresses these research gaps and contributes to the inclusion of the field of animal welfare in policy analysis. Austria, Germany, and Switzerland share comprehensive legislation in the field of farm animal welfare. However, concrete policies vary considerably between the three countries. Through an international comparison, the paper characterizes diverging policy instruments and identifies possible determinants of farm animal welfare policy derived from established theories of policy analysis. While perspectives focusing on party political difference add to the understanding of farm animal welfare policy in Germany and in Austria, this does not apply to the case of Switzerland. Here, theories focusing on the degree of international economic integration have a greater potential in understanding cross‐national differences. The paper thereby presents a first systematic assessment of farm animal welfare from a policy analysis perspective.

What we can measure, we can manage: The importance of using robust welfare indicators in Equitation Science

Ever since the phrase, ‘the happy athlete’ was introduced into the FEI rules for dressage (Article 401.1) there have been discussions about what this actually means and whether it is possible to recognize and reward positive emotions in working horses. For those interested in the study of equine behaviour, the use of such subjective terms for assessing horse emotion during training and performance, is interesting in that this suggests that horse trainers, riders and judges feel that there are meaningful behavioural expressions of emotional state that can be accurately assessed whilst the horse is at work and during competition. Although there has been much more research into the recognition of negative emotions such as pain, fear and stress in horses, recently there have been a number of studies attempting to look at what horses choose and how they may express pleasure or even happiness. ‘Putting the welfare of the horse as a happy athlete at the heart of everything we do’, is one of the main values quoted by equestrian bodies, however if we are to manage equine welfare we need to measure it and how successfully this can be done relies upon the development and validation of robust yet practical welfare indicators. Until recently, welfare assessment has traditionally focused on the absence of experiences that induce negative emotions. However, the notions of quality of life, a life worth living and the concept of the happy animal are starting to become more accepted within the animal welfare field with the assumption that if an animal is experiencing positive emotions, then its welfare needs can be said to be met, and if negative, then they are not and welfare is of concern. So the pertinent question is, what is welfare in the context of the horse used for equitation purposes? And what are the most useful welfare indicators for judging the emotional state of an individual horse within the context of the training and performance situation? In this review paper we will examine the results of recent work in this area, and the challenges such research poses both in relation to the science, but also to the use of horses for recreation and sport.

Slaughter of pregnant cattle in German abattoirs--current situation and prevalence: a cross-sectional study.

BackgroundThe slaughter of pregnant cattle and the fate of the foetuses are relatively new subjects in the field of animal welfare. The Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures relating to Public Health (SCVPH), however, does not believe this topic to be a critical issue because of the hitherto supposed rare occurrence of this practice. Some previous studies though, contradict this assessment, emphasising its relevance to animal welfare. With regard to the heterogeneous study design of previous investigations, the objective of this study is to evaluate the current situation concerning the slaughter of pregnant cattle in different German abattoirs. Additionally, the prevalence was assessed semi-quantitatively on the basis of a cross-sectional, voluntary and anonymous survey that was conducted amongst senior veterinary students of the University of Leipzig from 2010 until 2013.ResultsOf 255 evaluable questionnaires, 157 (63.6 %) mention the slaughter of pregnant cattle, corresponding to 76.9 % of all visited abattoirs. Slaughter of pregnant cattle is reported often (>10 % of females) in 6 (3.8 %), frequently (1–10 % of females) in 56 (35.7 %), and rarely (<1 % of females) in 95 (60.5 %) of all cases (n = 157) respectively. About 50 % of these animals were reported to be in the second or third stage of gestation. 15 (10.6 %) of 142 questionnaires providing information about the foetus, state that the foetus showed visible vital signs after the death of the mother, but in one case the foetus was euthanized subsequently.ConclusionsThe results show that the slaughter of pregnant cattle is a common and widespread practice in German abattoirs. The SCVPH’s assumption that pregnant cattle are only slaughtered in rare exceptional cases can no longer be maintained. The high proportion of foetuses in the second and third gestational stage must also be considered. In this context the implementation of suitable studies and detailed analysis of the current situation is indispensable to ensure the high standards in animal welfare in Germany and Europe.

Availability of online educational content concerning topics of animal welfare.

Animal welfare is an important area of study for professionals in fields of animal care and use, and many turn to self-learning resources to gain a better understanding of topics in this area. We assessed the state of these self-learning resources by evaluating open access, freely available resources on the internet with respect to their content and the reliability of their information. We categorized content using a modified list of the topics described in the American College of Animal Welfare's Role Delineation Document, and we identified subject areas that are underrepresented among freely available resources. We identified that the field needs more content describing practical information on subtopics of animal transportation, humane education and economic issues in animal welfare. We also suggest a targeted approach to improve and increase particular aspects of content that concerns the impacts of human, animal and environment interactions on animal welfare. We recommend that veterinary societies place more emphasis on welfare policies in their websites. Additionally, the field of animal welfare would benefit from more available and authoritative information on certain species and uses of animals that are presently underrepresented.

Liberté, Égalité, Animalité: Human–Animal Comparisons in Law

AbstractThis article problematizes the discrepancy between the wealth of international law serving human needs and rights and the international regulatory deficit concerning animal welfare and animal rights. It suggests that, in the face of scientific evidence, the legal human–animal boundary (as manifest notably in the denial of rights to animals) needs to be properly justified. Unmasking the (to some extent) ‘imagined’ nature of the human–animal boundary, and shedding light on the persistence of human–animal comparisons for pernicious and beneficial purposes of the law, can offer inspirations for legal reform in the field of animal welfare and even animal rights.

Economic impact of cross compliance in the field of animal welfare (Acts C18 and C16)

The paper reports the results of assessment of animal welfare at farm level on two dairy cattle farms, identification of structural and management actions to improve the animal welfare and estimate of the costs of such actions; furthermore the economic impact of the potential support under measure 215 of the Rural Development Plan was also simulated. At the time of assessment, no severe break of compliance was detected at the two farms; however some weaknesses were identified and improvement were proposed in order to maintain the current animal welfare status and avoid future failures. The two use cases showed that investments to improve animal welfare were partly self funded in the mid and long term due to the higher milk yield and the better animal health that were expected as consequence; however, in the short term, a large part of expenses was fully borne by farmers if not supported by a public grant or higher market prices. The support provided by the measure 215 is effective in rewarding farmers who undertake to adopt standards of animal husbandry which go beyond the relevant mandatory standards.

Role of Veterinarian in Animal Welfare Issue: A Global Concept

Animal welfare is the well-being of animals. The standards of "good" animal welfare vary considerably between different contexts. These standards are under constant review and are debated, created and revised by animal welfare groups, legislators and academics worldwide (Hewson, 2003). It is strongly linked to animal health, which similarly depends on good animal husbandry. Animal welfare is a core mandate of the veterinary community generally and veterinarians individually. This concept is articulated by many veterinary organizations in their Code of Practice, Veterinary Oath or other statements of commitment. Such statements centre on the common theme “a veterinarian should be dedicated to the benefit of society, the conservation of animal resources and the relief of suffering of animals and to promote animal wellbeing”. As scientific knowledge in the field of animal welfare expands and the expectations of society change in regard to animal care, so the commonly accepted definitions of animal welfare have evolved. Knowledge of animal welfare, particularly those in production is becoming essential to veterinary professionals across the globe.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v13i1.23702Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2015). 13 (1): 1-3

Trotter welfare's protection: A legislative perspective.

The Council of Europe’s activities in the field of animal welfare are particularly noteworthy and comprise the elaboration of several norms for the protection of animals. Concerning the specific European Directive, Regulations or Convention for the protection of animals, the Authors underline the missing of specifics recommendations concerning the welfare of sport horses and especially of trotters. Guidelines are reported by regulation of equestrian sports. The paper’s purpose is to give practical elements to individuate the welfare state and to promote a clear regulation on welfare, care and protection of trotters.

A new questionnaire examining general attitudes toward animals in Cyprus and the United Kingdom

Abstract A review of the animal welfare literature indicates that all the current measures used to evaluate it have limitations in how they assess attitudes toward animals and their care. Few studies have examined animal welfare outside non-Western nations, although attitudes toward animals and their welfare is an important issue in these countries also. The present study examines attitudes toward animal welfare in Cyprus as compared with the United Kingdom, and describes the development of a new measure to integrate the ostensibly disparate dimensions underlying attitudes toward animals and their abuse. Pilot items sampling a variety of attitudes toward animal welfare were administered to 523 people in the United Kingdom and Cyprus. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that many of the subdimensions proposed could not be empirically identified, and a general animal welfare dimension was sufficient to capture most of the variance. This scale—the Animal Welfare Scale—had a good reliability. The Animal Welfare Scale is brief and simple to score, extending the potential for research in the field of animal welfare alongside other psychological constructs and does not need any specialist administration to deliver; hence, it is potentially applicable to any animal welfare issues.

Behaviour epigenetics – The connection between environment, stress and welfare

Epigenetics refers to chemical modifications of DNA, which do not change the base-pair sequence. This involves, for example, methylation of cytosine and different alterations in histone chemistry. Such modifications affect how genes are expressed and can occur as a response to stress, mediated by steroid hormones. Hence, the coordination of how genes are expressed, the orchestration of the genome so to say, responds dynamically to environmental challenges. In this selective review, the evidence in support of such mechanisms is discussed. Data show that epigenetic mechanisms can be affected by stress in different life phases, even prenatally, and this can cause long-term modifications of behaviour and stress susceptibility. Several studies show that such effects can even persist into coming generations. Research on chickens demonstrates that chronic, as well as brief events of stress cause transgenerationally stable changes of brain gene expression, behaviour and HPA-axis sensitivity. Evidence is also reviewed, suggesting that epigenetic variation may have been a substrate for selection during domestication. It is concluded that the main research challenge for the future is to understand the gene×epigenetics×environment interaction, and incorporate this into the field of animal welfare.

Risk assessment principles in evaluation of animal welfare

AbstractScience forms a vital part of animal welfare assessment. However, many animal welfare issues are more influenced by public perception and political pressure than they are by science. The discipline of epidemiology has had an important role to play in examining the effects that management, environment and infrastructure have on animal-based measures of welfare. Standard multifactorial analyses have been used to investigate the effects of these various inputs on outcomes such as lameness. Such research has thereby established estimates of the probability of occurrence of these adverse welfare outcomes (AWOs) and given exposure to particular management inputs (welfare challenges). Welfare science has established various measures of the consequences of challenges to welfare. In this paper, a method is proposed for comparing the likely impact of different welfare challenges, incorporating both the probability of AWOs resulting from that welfare challenge, and their impacts or consequences if they do, using risk assessment principles. The rationale of this framework is explained. Its scope lies within a science-based risk assessment framework. This method does not provide objective measures or score of welfare without some context of comparison and does not provide new welfare measures but only provides a framework enabling objective comparison. Possible applications of this method include comparing the effects of specific management inputs, assigning priority to welfare challenges in order to inform allocation of resources for addressing those challenges, and comparisons of the lifetime welfare effects of management inputs or systems. The use of risk assessment methods in the animal welfare field can facilitate objective comparisons of situations that are currently assessed with some level of subjectivity. This methodology will require significant validation to determine its most productive use. The risk assessment approach could have a productive role in advancing quantitative assessment in animal welfare science.

One welfare: a call to develop a broader framework of thought and action

Views: Commentary 309 H welfare, social welfare, and animal welfare have traditionally been seen as distinct disciplines. Human welfare deals with the mental state of individuals, social welfare deals with the balance of welfare across societies and generations, and animal welfare deals with the physical and mental well-being of the animal species we use for pleasure, labor, or food. We pose that the separation between human, social, and animal welfare is an artificial compartmentalization. These disciplines rely on the same set of scientific measures and heavily depend on each other in an ecological context. Their study, therefore, requires a broader, interdisciplinary approach. We believe this would allow development of a new, evolving discipline that can address mounting welfare challenges and opportunities through an unparalleled framework for action and also create an exciting path for veterinary medicine, specifically in advancing human society. The one health movement acknowledges the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health and the necessity for an interdisciplinary approach in these fields. Other scientific fields, such as environmental science and conservation ecology, have also embraced a broad interdisciplinary approach to define and solve the problems confronting their fields, and we believe that the field of animal welfare could benefit from a similar approach inspired by these movements. We propose, therefore, embracing the concept of connecting human welfare and social welfare to the diverse body of what is now considered animal welfare. In short, we propose embracing the concept of one welfare. Welfare is a nascent, exciting field that asks us to confront the most contentious and important questions of ethics, science, production, health, economics, and politics. We should no longer seek to make welfare decisions in isolated disciplines or to work on unconnected pieces of the puzzle. Rather, we should make decisions in an interdisciplinary frame with a focus on action and a mission of balancing and promoting human and animal welfare in connected ecosystems and societies. Animal and human welfare are intrinsically interconnected, and animal welfare specialists have long noted situations in which animal welfare is clearly tied to human welfare. In addition, known and supposed tradeoffs in human and animal welfare create contentious problems. For exOne welfare: a call to develop a broader framework of thought and action

The use of different anaesthetics as welfare promoters during short-term human manipulation of European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) juveniles

Anaesthetics are frequently used to prevent injuries, stress and to promote welfare while handling animals. The efficiency of five anaesthetics for short-term handling of the European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) was tested in order to determine the best agent and its concentration. Ethanol (10.0, 20.0 and 30.0mL.L−1), clove oil (0.05, 0.15mL.L−1), hypothermia (8°C), magnesium chloride (hexahydrated; 20.0, 27.0g.L−1) and AQUI-S® (10.9μl.L−1) were the selected anaesthetics. This choice was preceded by a preliminary trial, with additional agents, where 2-phenoxyethanol (10, 15, 20, 30mL.L−1) and MS-222® (30, 40mg.L−1) were used. Due to the lack of reliable results from these two agents, they were discarded. Anaesthetic procedure was performed in 85 cuttlefish juveniles with a mean wet weight of 45.69±12.01g, on a 5L container, under hyper-oxygenated seawater (~200%), plus the dose of a given anaesthetic agent. After achieving induction, cuttlefish were handled for 180s, which consisted in a weighing procedure according to a developed CCMAR protocol. Recovery from anaesthesia was performed in a tank with flow-through hyper-oxygenated water. All these procedures were video recorded and used to, a posteriori, obtain the time frames of induction, handling and recovery, as well as for the behaviour analysis during each stage.For the analysis of results and taking into account the best welfare practice, we established the following time period criteria to determine the optimum anaesthetic dose: induction<600s; and recovery <900s. Data gathered was used to build a descriptive table of behaviour related stages based on all the anaesthetic agents, which was then also used to analyse the individual data.Despite the multitude of new anaesthetics developed for marine vertebrates, with this work we verified that MgCl2, at 27g.L−1, is still the anaesthetic agent to be used in short-term handling of cuttlefish. Relative to other agents used, MgCl2 proved superior in ease of application, price, availability, and its minimal distressing effect on individuals. However, it's of utmost importance to increase the knowledge regarding this species physiology related to the field of animal welfare. The development of tools for the identification of possible biomolecular indicators of stress in cuttlefish and the confirmation of similar physiology to vertebrates will allow a correct verification of stress induction and reduction, when using an anaesthetic agent and during the handling process.

Fish Welfare: Challenge for Science and Ethics—Why Fish Makes the Difference

The combination between ethics and science in the field of animal welfare is not novel. Nonetheless, when we think of this combination in the area of fish welfare, novel considerations arise (cf. Huntingford et al. 2006). This was the reason to organize an expert meeting aiming to bring together a variety of academic disciplines that are involved in welfare studies to discuss fish welfare. This expert meeting about fish welfare and its moral implications, organized on November 29 and 30, 2010, by the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University, has been the occasion of this Special Issue. The meeting involved international experts from diverse academic backgrounds, including marine biology, physiology, the philosophy of mind, and ethics. For this special issue we have approached a number of the speakers at the expert meeting, but we have also invited other researchers to make a contribution. During the meeting, it appeared that the focus on fish makes a relevant difference and raises challenges both to the individual disciplines and to the interplay between ethics and science. Fish are special. Special in a biological and physiological sense, as well as from an ethical perspective. In our view, moral decision making consists of a reflection process in which facts, intuitions, and moral principles play a role (cf. Van der Burg 2008; Van der Burg and van Willigenburg 1998). Each of these three tiers has its own input. For example, in order to reach a decision about the implementation of certain welfare measures in aquaculture, we need factual input about the consequences of different welfare measures, about levels of fish consciousness and suffering, etc. However, what particular facts one emphasizes or deems relevant, or how one interprets facts, is not objective or value-neutral. Research methodologies and the interpretation of research results are influenced by normative assumptions. In moral judgments, in turn, intuitions play a role; for example, intuitions can be a signal that something

Welfare risk assessment: the benefits and common pitfalls

AbstractRisk is defined as a situation involving exposure to danger. Risk assessment by nature characterises the probability of a negative event occurring and quantifies the consequences of such an event. Risk assessment is increasingly being used in the field of animal welfare as a means of drawing comparisons between multiple welfare problems within and between species and identifying those that should be prioritised by policy-makers, either because they affect a large proportion of the population or because they have particularly severe consequences for those affected. The assessment of risk is typically based on three fundamental factors: intensity of consequences, duration affected by consequences and prevalence. However, it has been recognised that these factors alone do not give a complete picture of a hazard and its associated consequences. Rather, to get a complete picture, it is important to also consider information about the hazard itself: probability of exposure to the hazard and duration of exposure to the hazard. The method has been applied to a variety of farmed species (eg poultry, dairy cows, farmed fish), investigating housing, husbandry and slaughter procedures, as well as companion animals, where it has been used to compare inherited defects in pedigree dogs and horses. To what extent can we trust current risk assessment methods to get the priorities straight? How should we interpret the results produced by such assessments? Here, the potential difficulties and pitfalls of the welfare risk assessment method will be discussed: (i) the assumption that welfare hazards are independent; (ii) the problem of quantifying the model parameters; and (iii) assessing and incorporating variability and uncertainty into welfare risk assessments.

La nueva estrategia de bienestar animal de la UE 2012-2015

On 19 January 2012 John Dalli, the European Commissioner responsible for Animal Welfare in the EU, presented the EU’s new Animal Welfare Strategy at a press conference in Brussels. The strategy is a pragmatic document characterised by the indispensable balance of interests in the political field of Animal Welfare. There are some positive aspects, but in general, the animal welfare topics touching on EU issues of public concern are neglected, for example animal welfare and the Common Agricultural Policy and cloning of animals. The status quo of specific rules for animals – still lacking some urgent regulations for dairy cows, beef cattle, rabbits, geese and ducks – now seems to be cemented. This is a severe disadvantage for the animals, as there are no specific future regulations in sight. Below you will find an analysis of the strategy, followed by a summary of the position of VIER PFOTEN indicating positive and negative aspects

Ranking experts’ preferences regarding measures and methods of assessment of welfare in dairy herds using Adaptive Conjoint Analysis

Welfare in dairy herds can be addressed using different concepts. The difficulty is to extract which measures are the most important to practically address welfare at the herd level and the methods to assess traits considered most important. Therefore, the preferences of 24 acknowledged European welfare experts were ranked regarding 70 measures suitable to assess dairy cattle welfare at herd level using the Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA; Sawtooth Software, Inc., Sequim, WA) technique. The experts were selected on the basis of 3 criteria: at least 5 yr experience in animal welfare research; recent scientific publications in the field of animal welfare; and, at the most, 3 animal species including dairy cattle as their field of expertise. The 70 traits were ranked by using the median ACA questionnaire utility scores and the range between the answers of the 24 experts. A high utility score with a low range between the answers of the experts was considered as suitable to assess welfare at farm level. Measures meeting these criteria were prevalence of lameness cases (107.3±11.7), competition for feed and water (96.4±13.9), and number of freestalls per 10 cows (84.8±13.3). Based on the utility score alone, these former measures were replaced by stereotypic behavior (111.7±17.1), prevalence of lameness cases (107.3±11.7), body condition score (108.0±18.9), and hock lesions (104.7±16.1). Subsequently, to demonstrate that the ACA technique can be used to rank either well-known or inconclusive methods of assessment, the methods for the traits lameness cases and the hygiene of the calving pen were ranked using another 2 ACA questionnaires. The results are based on the opinions of selected, internationally acknowledged dairy cattle welfare experts within the European Union. In the future, other parties like dairy farmers and farmers’ organization should be included to achieve consensus about the most suitable traits applicable in practice. The currently investigated traits do not always apply to all dairy husbandry systems across the world, but are based on a system that includes indoor housing during winter. It is concluded that ACA is a useful technique to rank the different scientific opinions of experts regarding suitable traits and methods of assessment of dairy cattle at the herd level.