Animal Welfare Outcomes Research Articles

Changing human behaviour to improve animal welfare outcomes

Context Producers’ behaviour, attitudes, and ethics towards animal welfare emerge from a complex interplay of factors. Applying insights from behavioural science can therefore enrich our understanding of the myriad factors influencing animal welfare and can provide recommendations for creating a positive shift in producers’ behaviour. Aims The current paper documents a partnership between an organic beef exporter, OBE Organic, and a behavioural science company, Evidn. The partnership aimed to improve beef producers’ behaviours towards animal welfare by embedding behavioural science principles into producer feedback sheets that are completed post-slaughter by meat processors and beef exporters. Methods A five-stage approach was applied. Stage one involved a behavioural science ‘hackathon’ between OBE Organic and Evidn to refine project scope. Stage two reviewed producer communications at OBE Organic through five semi-structured interviews. Stage three analysed the behavioural science literature and other interventions relevant to animal welfare. Stage four pilot-tested recommendations with 10 stakeholders, followed by the re-design of producer feedback sheets throughout Stage five. Key results Qualitative results were collected from OBE Organic staff and producers to delineate the potential impacts of the re-designed feedback sheets on animal welfare. Results indicated that re-designed sheets reduced complexity, increased saliency of relevant information, and further motivated behaviour change by providing peer comparisons. Industry partners of OBE Organic responded positively to the company’s commitment to improving animal welfare, further enhancing their social licence to operate. Conclusions Behavioural science is a potentially useful tool for improving animal welfare by further enriching our understanding of the myriad factors influencing producers’ behaviour and providing evidence-based recommendations to enhance producers’ engagement with animal welfare information contained in producer feedback sheets. Implications Future work should focus on directly linking the re-designed feedback sheets to improvements in animal welfare (i.e. bruising, meat colour). This could involve a large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the impact of re-designed communications on animal welfare outcomes. A large qualitative engagement project could also help understand the system of factors influencing producer behaviour and develop a behaviour change program to further improve animal welfare. Ongoing work is also needed to ensure that engagement with feedback sheets is maintained in the long term.

Set free: an evaluation of two break-away mechanisms for tracking collars

Context One of the welfare and ethical challenges with tracking animals is ensuring that the tracking device is removed from the animal at the conclusion of the study. However, for animals that are not readily re-trapped, the impact of devices and alternatives for their retrieval are rarely examined. Aims We compared the retention time of two types of break-away mechanisms for tracking collars deployed on mainland quokkas (Setonix brachyurus). Methods We tested a cotton thread (CT) weak-link, where the collar was cut and then a looping stitch was made to link the cut ends of the collar. We compared collar retention time of this simple mechanism with a lightweight automatic micro timed-release device (mTRD, Sirtrack). Key results Of the 17 radio collars with CT, the fates of 15 collars contributed to retention time data. Seven collars released: six fell off and were recovered 148 ± 64 (s.d.) days after deployment and another collar fell off 136 days after deployment but could not be recovered. Eight quokkas were recaptured (161 ± 109 days after deployment) and collars removed. Two quokkas were each tracked for over a year but then disappeared. Of the 11 GPS collars fitted with a mTRD, the fates of nine collars contributed to retention time data. Two released early at 16 and 29 days and were recovered. Seven fell off around the scheduled release date. There were two unknown fates. Re-trapped collared quokkas did not show evidence of injuries from wearing collars or any significant change in body mass (P = 0.442). Conclusions The timing of release for the CT weak-link was unpredictable, with a third of the collars releasing within 1 year and 7/15 lasting only about 6 months. Over two-thirds (7/9) of the GPS collars fitted with timed-release device released on schedule while 2/9 released early. Implications Tracking devices equipped with break-away mechanisms are essential for safeguarding animal welfare outcomes for species where the chance of recapture is not certain. For both break-away types examined in this study, the release timing was unpredictable and poor collar recovery rates show the importance of adding camera traps to monitor the outcomes for collared animals.

Animal welfare outcomes of professional vehicle-based shooting of peri-urban rusa deer in Australia

Context Vehicle-based shooting has been widely used to kill deer, but the animal-welfare outcomes of this technique have not been evaluated in Australasia. Aim To assess the animal-welfare outcomes of peri-urban deer culling by quantifying the fates of deer seen and shot at, the duration of procedures, and the number and location of bullet wounds in deer. Methods We assessed vehicle-based night shooting of peri-urban rusa deer (Cervus timorensis) by professional contractors in eastern Australia. Shooters targeted the heads of deer using .223 Remington® rifles and 55 grain bullets. Independent veterinarians conducted ante-mortem (i.e. from the shooting vehicle) and post-mortem (i.e. inspecting the carcass) observations. The ante-mortem data were used to estimate the proportion of deer seen that were shot at, killed, wounded, and escaped. The influence of variables predicted to affect shooting outcomes was assessed. The numbers and locations of bullet wounds were recorded post-mortem. Key results Of the 269 deer seen in 21 nights, 48% were shot at and 85% of those shot at were killed by either one (87%), two (10%) or three (3%) shots. The frequency of non-fatal wounding (i.e. escaping wounded) was 3.5% for those shot at and hit, and the median time to insensibility for the deer that were shot multiple times was 289 s. There was variation among shooters in their ability to hit a deer, and also to do so with a killing shot. The number of bullet wounds per deer ranged from 1 to 3 (mean = 1.1), with 83% of shots striking the brain and 17% striking the anterior skull, neck and jaw. Conclusions The animal welfare outcomes we observed were comparable to those reported from other professional ground-based shooting programs for ungulates, but were poorer than those reported for professional ground-based shooting of peri-urban kangaroos. Implications Our results suggest that one way to improve the animal welfare outcomes of vehicle-based shooting of peri-urban deer is by improving shooter training. Assessment of shooter performance should be a routine part of ground-based shooting programs.

Embedding animal welfare in sustainability assessment: an indicator approach

In line with growing consumer interest in sustainable food production, a number of farm-level sustainability indicator studies have been published in recent years. Despite the importance of animal welfare, many such frameworks fail to adequately take account of it, mostly due to difficulties in accessing suitable data. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to develop indicators of animal welfare that can be embedded within a wider sustainability framework using a representative farm-level dataset such as the European Union (EU) Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for Ireland, the Teagasc National Farm Survey. The paper presents a set of sustainability indicators for dairy farms in Ireland for the 2014–2017 period and examines the impact of policy reform on sustainability performance. Headline results show that welfare standards on dairy farms in Ireland have remained stable over the period despite the considerable intensification of the dairy sector following EU milk quota removal. Furthermore, dairy farms that have expanded herd size significantly have improved welfare standards more than farms that have not increased production. An analysis of synergies and trade-offs between the various aspects of sustainability reveals that positive correlations exist between welfare standards and economic and environmental performance. The analysis facilitates the identification of win-win farm-level strategies that can be adopted to improve economic, environmental and animal welfare outcomes. The framework developed here presents opportunities for evaluating policy impacts at the farm level on various aspects of sustainability. The use of the FADN demonstrates the capacity to extend such an approach across the EU.

Animal Welfare and Farmers' Satisfaction in Small-Scale Dairy Farms in the Eastern Alps: A "One Welfare" Approach.

The multidimensional concept of animal welfare includes physical health, good emotional state, and appropriate behavior of the animals. The most recent methods for its assessment are inspired by the Welfare Quality, a project compiling animal-, resource-, and management-based measures. Recently, animal welfare assessment has also considered the human factor in a so-called “One Welfare” approach. The One Welfare framework highlights the interconnections between animal welfare, human well-being, and the environment. The concept seems to fit particularly well to mountain areas where the relationship between human, animals, and the environment is stronger. In such disadvantaged areas, farmers' well-being plays a key role in maintaining livestock farming profitably and sustainably. This study aims to investigate the relationship between farmers' satisfaction, animal welfare outcomes, and overall farm performance in 69 small-scale dairy farms in the Eastern Alps. Animal welfare assessment consisted of animal-based measures and was performed using the methodology proposed by the European Food Safety Authority for this type of farm. Moreover, the farmers were interviewed to retrieve data on farm characteristics and on their level of satisfaction toward workload, land organization, relationship with the agricultural/non-agricultural community, and the future of local agriculture. The results show that good animal welfare can be obtained in a mountain farming system. Clinical indicators show a low prevalence of diseases and of very lean cows as opposed to integument alterations. The workload is not perceived as a problem in traditional farms (i.e., tie-stall and with no participation in quality-certification schemes). Animal welfare is higher in those farms where farmers have a positive engagement with both the agricultural and non-agricultural community and where farmers are satisfied with their land organization. A One Welfare approach could be applied on a larger scale to fully understand the links between animal and human well-being in mountain areas.

Kangaroo management and animal welfare

SummaryThis paper focuses on and summarizes the animal welfare impacts of kangaroo (Macropus and Osphranter spp.) management and the need for a multidisciplinary approach to a complex problem for the best animal welfare outcomes. A concern for the welfare of kangaroos was the main motivator for preparation of the National Statement which underpins this special edition. Importantly, given that the primary concern of veterinarians is the health and welfare of all animals, the Australian Veterinary Association welfare and ethics special interest group (AVAWE) and the conservation biology special interest group (AVCB) have endorsed the National Statement.

Options and rationale for regional property‐based kangaroo production

SummaryThe larger kangaroos (Macropus giganteus, M. fuliginosus and Osphranter rufus) are widely distributed and have a national population which fluctuates in response to changes in grass growth and trends to 40 million. Most are outside parks and reserves and, on pastoral properties, particularly on the rangelands of southern Australia. High numbers compromise regenerative agriculture, pasture conservation, revegetation and stewardship programmes, and can have significant financial impacts on landholders by lowering livestock production and damaging sustainability. Some smaller macropods, wallabies and pademelons, also have a similar effect, especially in Tasmania and on other smaller Australian Islands where foxes are absent. Paradoxically, kangaroos have a wide range of potentially valuable production attributes and are unique, which should be a global comparative advantage. The kangaroo industry is established with a small domestic and international market, although demand has been falling in recent years. Non‐commercial culling is rising, which results in millions of carcasses being wasted and left to decompose in the field. Indigenous communities abhor such waste and its cultural implications. A stronger kangaroo industry would be a better solution to managing overabundant kangaroos than pest culling and exclusion fences. Because kangaroos move from property to property, populations need to be managed on a regional basis through ‘regional property‐based kangaroo production’. A form of proprietorship over this mobile resource would encourage landholders to play a role in creating greater demand for kangaroo products. They would have an incentive to raise the value of kangaroos. Through innovative harvesting, they could deliver high‐quality, environmentally branded, accurately described, gourmet, differentiated products integrated with other livestock industries. They could establish cooperatives and embark on promoting regional kangaroo products. Policy improvements are needed to achieve these production systems. Doing so would diversify their enterprises, convert a liability already on their properties into an asset, create employment, enhance rural economic resilience, and improve animal welfare and conservation outcomes while earning them carbon credits. These opportunities become even more profound as climate change progresses.

Kangaroos, drought and a frustrated landowner

Kangaroos, drought and a frustrated landowner

76 Cattle Production’s Response to Packing Capacity Disruption

In August 2019, a fire at Tyson’s Finney County, Kansas, beef plant removed approximately 5% of U.S. beef packing capacity for 3 months. Subsequent COVID-19 pandemic-related precautions and workforce illness caused multiple packing plants across the country to decrease or stop production in the spring of 2020. Both events resulted in feedlots being unable to ship cattle at optimal finish points or according to projection. Estimates of the number of cattle backlogged during 2020 approach 1 million. Producers were faced with decisions on how to manage finished animals that could not be shipped while considering economic, animal welfare, and animal health outcomes. Many factors further complicated the situation including highly volatile markets, the possibility employee quarantine due to personal or family illness would cause operations to be under-staffed, and shortage of available pens for new cattle. Feeders had the option to slow the rate of growth of finished cattle due to the ability of ruminant animals to utilize low-energy feedstuffs or by calculating programmed rates of gain using the net energy system. Instead, many producers chose to attempt maximal rates of gain hoping persistent growth and feeding margins would offset discounts due to heavy carcass weights and excess fatness when the supply chain began moving again. Regarding new placements, the structure of the beef industry is uniquely developed to absorb cattle in stocker and backgrounding operations. This presentation will review the factors impacting cattle production and provide case-studies related to feeding at maintenance and growth rates, efficiencies, and carcass outcomes of held cattle from an operation and industry level.

Professional Quality of Life in Research Involving Laboratory Animals.

Simple SummaryMedical research involving human subjects requires previous results obtained from animal experimentation. A team of animal caretakers, technicians, welfare officers and veterinarians (animal-facility personnel) provide the husbandry and care of animals at many institutions. Researchers, on the other hand, interact with animals only when a specific procedure is being conducted. Working with laboratory animals can bring satisfaction but it can also result in workplace stress. In this study we aimed to investigate the work-related quality of life of biomedical research professionals working with laboratory animals in Spain. Animal-facility personnel showed higher professional-quality-of-life and compassion-satisfaction scores than researchers. Perceived animal stress/pain, human–animal interaction and social support are other factors that influence professional quality of life. By job category, welfare officers/veterinarians and principal investigators reported the highest scores, whereas Ph.D. students reported the lowest, indicating that job category is a contributing factor in professional quality of life. Our study may help in designing future studies or interventions to improve workplace wellbeing of the Spanish population working with laboratory animals.Many workers contribute to the success of animal welfare and study outcomes in biomedical research. However, the professional quality of life (ProQoL) of those who work with laboratory animals has not been explored in Spain. To this end, we adapted the ProQoL scale to the Spanish population working with laboratory animals. Participants were contacted by email and asked to complete an anonymous on-line questionnaire. The study comprised a total of 498 participants, 12.4% welfare officers/veterinarians, 19.5% caretaker/technicians, 13.9% principal investigators, 20.7% investigators, 13.6% research technicians, and 19.9% PhD students. The adapted scale revealed very good reliability and internal validity, providing information about two different subscales, compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Animal-facility personnel showed higher total ProQoL and compassion-satisfaction scores than researchers; PhD students showed the lowest scores. Thus, our results indicate that job category is a contributing factor in perceived professional quality of life. We observed that compassion satisfaction is negatively associated with the perceived animal stress/pain. Participants reporting poorer compassion satisfaction also reported lower social-support scores. Overall, our ProQoL scale is a useful tool for analyzing the professional quality of life in the Spanish population, and may help to design future interventions to improve workplace wellbeing in Spain and other Spanish-speaking populations.

Animal welfare outcomes and associated risk indicators on Austrian dairy farms: A cross-sectional study

In 2017, an Austrian dairy company implemented a third-party animal-based assessment of health and welfare to stimulate welfare improvements on farms. Using this cross-sectional data set, we aimed at identifying prevailing welfare problems and associations thereof with main farm and management characteristics. Welfare outcome measures regarding body condition, cleanliness, diarrhea, integument alterations, claw condition, lameness, rising behavior, and avoidance distance toward humans were assessed by 13 trained observers. Data from health recordings and farm characteristics, such as housing system, feeding regimen, and pasture access, were collected via a questionnaire. Analyses included outcome measures from 23,749 individual cows on 1,221 farms [median (M) herd size = 19, interquartile range (IQR) = 16]. Herd-level prevalence of the outcome measures showed a high between-farm variability with highest median values for dirty lower hind leg (M = 46%, IQR = 47), signs of diarrhea (M = 28%, IQR = 39), and hairless patches on the tarsal joint (M = 21%, IQR = 36). Median prevalence of severe welfare problems, such as very lean cows, lesions, lameness, or mastitis treatments, were low compared with previously reported findings (very lean: 0%, IQR = 0; lesion tarsus: 0%, IQR = 4; moderately lame loose-housed: 7%, IQR = 16; mastitis treatments: 10%, IQR = 16). On half of the farms, at least 83% (IQR = 25) of the assessed cows could be touched in a standardized approach test, indicating a good human-animal relationship. Using generalized linear models, we found frequent associations with welfare outcome measures for the amount of milk delivered per cow (e.g., lower risk of very lean cows or dirty hind legs but higher risk of mastitis treatments or antibiotic dry-off with increasing milk delivery), housing system (e.g., loose-housed animals were at lower risk of lesions on the tarsal joint than animals kept in tiestalls, but at higher risk of being classified as very fat), and assessment period (winter vs. summer period). Beneficial associations were consistently found for an increasing number of days with access to pasture (e.g., body condition, integument alterations, lameness) as well as organic compared with conventional farming (e.g., integument alterations, claw health, lameness). Although the latter associations may be especially important for advisory services, in policy making, or when engaging with the public, other farm or management characteristics require careful attention, as they may have both beneficial as well as adverse impacts on welfare, calling for good management skills to avoid undesired effects.

Examining national planning principles for animals in Australian disaster response

Australia’s summer bushfires of 2019–20 were a reminder that animals are increasingly exposed to risks from changing climate conditions. In Australia, differing organisational approaches to managing owned animals in disasters can lead to different welfare and safety outcomes for animals and the people responsible for them. The need for consistency was reinforced by recent Australian royal commission findings. In 2014, the Australia-New Zealand Emergency Management Committee endorsed the National Planning Principles for Animals in Disasters, a tool supporting best practice in emergency planning and policy for animal welfare. This study examines current planning for animals in disasters in relation to the principles and describes their implementation in the Australian context. A national survey of organisation representatives with a stake in animal management in disasters (n=137) and addressing the national principles implementation was conducted from July to October 2020. Findings show moderate awareness of the principles by respondents and low to moderate implementation of these in planning processes and arrangements for animal welfare. Implementation of specific principles is described from the perspectives of stakeholders. Greater awareness of the national principles and attention to specific principles promotes consistency in animal welfare planning arrangements.

Review: Feeding fodder beet to grazing dairy cows: Is it a paradigm for reduced animal welfare and increased economic and environmental risk?

ABSTRACT Purpose This review addresses the potential animal welfare, farm profit, and environmental outcomes when fodder beet is fed to grazing dairy cows. Sources The information and data included in the review are from peer-reviewed literature. Synthesis Although large yields (>20 t of DM/ha) and high utilization (90%) of fodder beet (FB) are attractive to farmers, a combination of high establishment costs and low milk yield response may reduce profit margin from growing and feeding FB to dairy cows. The limited milk yield response may be a consequence of subacute acidosis, which reduces ruminal fermentation, feed intake, and milk production. Although FB is a low CP ( Conclusions and Applications Winter FB feeding programs may reduce animal welfare by causing a chemical imbalance leading to hypophosphatemia, hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, ketosis, and hepatic lipidosis, in addition to ruminal acidosis. The information available indicates that a trade-off exists between feeding levels of FB to dairy cows that reduce urinary N excretion but impair animal welfare. The high cost of establishment, variable crop yield, and low milk yield response to FB may limit positive financial outcomes when FB is grown to support lactation. Although the high yield capacity of FB will reduce wintering area and costs, animal welfare costs may be greater than currently realized, and we advise producers to proceed with caution.

A guide to reducing adverse outcomes in rabbit models of sciatic nerve injury

BackgroundPeripheral nerve damage can have debilitating consequences. Rabbit sciatic nerve transection models allow the effective evaluation of surgical repair strategies for large nerve gaps. Despite advantages in size, ease of handling, and functional utility, rabbits can suffer from a number of side effects that affect animal welfare and the quality of scientific inquiry. Such side-effects, which include pressure ulcers and traumatic damage to the foot, are primarily a consequence of insensitivity of the distal hindlimb following sciatic nerve injury. In this study, we present a number of methodologies for identifying, treating, and preventing unintended adverse effects in rabbit sciatic nerve injury models.ResultsFirst, we categorize pressure ulcers according to their severity and describe the deployment of a padded bandaging technique to enable ulcer healing. We also introduce a proactive bandaging approach to reduce the likelihood of pressure ulcer formation. Second, we define phenotypes that distinguish between foot injuries resulting from self-mutilation (autotomy) from those caused by incidental traumatic injury secondary to sensori-motor damage. Finally, we detail an effective strategy to reduce the usage of Elizabethan collars; through a gradual weaning protocol, their usefulness in preventing autotomy is retained, while their propensity to impede rabbit grooming and cause abrasion-injury to the neck region is minimized.ConclusionsWe suggest that application of these methods offer a practical and systematic approach to avoid adverse side effects associated with rabbit sciatic nerve damage, enabling improved animal welfare and scientific outcomes in a powerful nerve injury model.

DIY radio-collar attachment for small macropods

There is currently a paucity of publications reporting different ways of minimising stress in collared mammals. We describe the construction of a DIY (do-it-yourself; i.e. self-made) radio-collar attachment that can improve the animal welfare outcomes of radio-tracking surveys for small macropods. The flexible collar is light, designed for long-term wear, and can stretch to allow a snagged animal to free itself without choking. We present our findings using capture and radio-collaring data from a population of an endangered macropod. Of 39 DIY radio-collars, 25 remained attached for over four months, 4 fell off naturally after 9–15 weeks, and 10 were unattached by other mechanisms (e.g. a predation event). Adverse reactions were uncommon, and we present recommendations for future radio-collaring studies.

Assessing Animal Welfare with Behavior: Onward with Caution

An emphasis on ensuring animal welfare is growing in zoo and aquarium associations around the globe. This has led to a focus on measures of welfare outcomes for individual animals. Observations and interpretations of behavior are the most widely used outcome-based measures of animal welfare. They commonly serve as a diagnostic tool from which practitioners make animal welfare decisions and suggest treatments, yet errors in data collection and interpretation can lead to the potential for misdiagnosis. We describe the perils of incorrect welfare diagnoses and common mistakes in applying behavior-based tools. The missteps that can be made in behavioral assessment include mismatches between definitions of animal welfare and collected data, lack of alternative explanations, faulty logic, behavior interpreted out of context, murky assumptions, lack of behavior definitions, and poor justification for assigning a welfare value to a specific behavior. Misdiagnosing the welfare state of an animal has negative consequences. These include continued poor welfare states, inappropriate use of resources, lack of understanding of welfare mechanisms and the perpetuation of the previously mentioned faulty logic throughout the wider scientific community. We provide recommendations for assessing behavior-based welfare tools, and guidance for those developing tools and interpreting data.

Animal welfare outcomes of helicopter-based shooting of deer in Australia

Abstract Context Helicopter-based shooting has been widely used to kill deer in Australasia, but the animal welfare outcomes of this technique have not been evaluated. Aim To assess the animal welfare outcomes of helicopter-based shooting of deer in Australia by quantifying the fates of deer seen and shot at, the duration of procedures and the number and location of bullet wounds in deer. Methods Three deer control operations were assessed. These operations targeted: (1) chital deer (Axis axis) in Queensland, (2) fallow deer (Dama dama) in Australian Capital Territory and (3) fallow deer in New South Wales. For each operation, an independent veterinarian conducted ante-mortem (i.e. from the helicopter as shooting occurred) and post-mortem (i.e. from the ground after shooting had ceased) observations. The ante-mortem data were used to estimate the proportion of deer seen that were shot, chase time (CT), time to insensibility (TTI) and total time (TT; CT + TTI). The numbers and locations of bullet wounds were recorded post-mortem. Key results Ante-mortem and post-mortem observations were performed for 114–318 and 60–105 deer, respectively, in the three operations. Shots were fired at 69–76% of deer that were observed. Median CT ranged from 73 to 145 s. Median TTI ranged from 17 to 37 s and median TT ranged from 109 to 162 s. The mean number of bullet wounds per deer ranged from 1.43 to 2.57. Animal welfare outcomes were better in the two fallow deer operations than in the chital deer operation. In both fallow deer operations, most deer were shot multiple times and at least once in the head or thorax. In contrast, chital deer were shot fewer times and less often in the head or thorax, and non-fatal wounding was observed. Conclusions The best animal welfare outcomes were achieved when helicopter-based shooting operations followed a fly-back procedure and mandated that multiple shots were fired into each animal. Implications Animal welfare outcomes for helicopter-based deer shooting in Australia could be improved with a national-level standard operating procedure requiring helicopters to fly back over shot animals and repeatedly shoot animals in the head or thorax.

BiGRU-Attention Based Cow Behavior Classification Using Video Data for Precision Livestock Farming

HighlightsBiGRU-attention based cow behavior classification was proposed.Key spatial-temporal features were captured for behavior representation.BiGRU-attention achieved >82% classification accuracy on calf and adult cow datasets.The proposed method could be used for similar animal behavior classification.Abstract. Animal behavior consists of time series activities, which can reflect animals’ health and welfare status. Monitoring and classifying animal behavior facilitates management decisions to optimize animal performance, welfare, and environmental outcomes. In recent years, deep learning methods have been applied to monitor animal behavior worldwide. To achieve high behavior classification accuracy, a BiGRU-attention based method is proposed in this article to classify some common behaviors, such as exploring, feeding, grooming, standing, and walking. In our work, (1) Inception-V3 was first applied to extract convolutional neural network (CNN) features for each image frame in videos, (2) bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) was used to further extract spatial-temporal features, (3) an attention mechanism was deployed to allocate weights to each of the extracted spatial-temporal features according to feature similarity, and (4) the weighted spatial-temporal features were fed to a Softmax layer for behavior classification. Experiments were conducted on two datasets (i.e., calf and adult cow), and the proposed method achieved 82.35% and 82.26% classification accuracy on the calf and adult cow datasets, respectively. In addition, in comparison with other methods, the proposed BiGRU-attention method outperformed long short-term memory (LSTM), bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM), and BiGRU. Overall, the proposed BiGRU-attention method can capture key spatial-temporal features to significantly improve animal behavior classification, which is favorable for automatic behavior classification in precision livestock farming. Keywords: BiGRU, Cow behavior, Deep learning, LSTM, Precision livestock farming.

Human food waste to animal feed: opportunities and challenges

By 2050, the demand for animal protein is estimated to increase by 70%. Concurrently, United Nations (UN) member countries have committed to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. Moreover, even if the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dietary-change recommendations are followed, measures to produce food and animal feed more efficiently will become increasingly important in creating a more sustainable food future. Currently, livestock animals consume over a third of global grain production. However, livestock animals, including insects, could function as efficient bioprocessors for converting unavoidable food waste into valuable animal protein. Establishing such a circular food system would simultaneously reduce both the negative environmental impacts of food waste going to landfill and intensive livestock production, as well as meet the need for increased livestock feed. To be successful in establishing a food waste to livestock feed industry, it will be critical to ensure that feed safety is appropriately regulated to prevent adverse animal health, welfare, biosecurity, food safety, economic, market access and food insecurity outcomes. Currently, regulatory frameworks in most industrialised countries either prohibit feeding of food waste to livestock or limit the wastes permissible. However, there is a growing body of knowledge showing that if the correct processing and safety measures are implemented, that food waste from retail and food service can be effectively and safety utilised in commercial production systems. The Japanese have developed a successful food waste to pig feed industry, based on both liquid and dry feeding systems, which is regulated and encouraged under national policy. They have developed licenced ‘Ecofeed’-branded products, and the pork industry has not been negatively affected by emergency animal diseases through this feeding practice. If other countries are to establish similar food waste to livestock feed industries, then strategies to mitigate food safety and biosecurity concerns will need to be developed and implemented. Regional techno-economic analysis will also be required to assess industry profitability and determine the potential investment required for new collection, storage and feed production infrastructure. Furthermore, legislation, based on scientifically robust research, will be required to incentivise food-waste producers and the livestock industry to actively engage and drive change.

Animal welfare testing for shooting and darting free-ranging wildlife: a review and recommendations

Several important techniques for managing wildlife rely on ballistics (the behaviour of projectiles), including killing techniques (shooting) as well as capture and marking methods (darting). Because all ballistic techniques have the capacity to harm animals, animal welfare is an important consideration. Standardised testing approaches that have allowed refinement for other physical killing and capture methods (e.g. traps for mammals) have not been applied broadly to ballistic methods. At the same time, new technology is becoming available for shooting (e.g. subsonic and lead-free ammunition) and darting (e.g. dye-marker darts). We present several case studies demonstrating (a) how basic ballistic testing can be performed for novel firearms and/or projectiles, (b) the benefits of identifying methods producing undesirable results before operational use, and (c) the welfare risks associated with bypassing testing of a technique before broad-scale application. Following the approach that has been used internationally to test kill-traps, we suggest the following four-step testing process: (1) range and field testing to confirm accuracy and precision, the delivery of appropriate kinetic energy levels and projectile behaviour, (2) post-mortem assessment of ballistic injury in cadavers, (3) small-scale live animal pilot studies with predetermined threshold pass/fail levels, and (4) broad-scale use with reporting of the frequency of adverse animal welfare outcomes. We present this as a practical approach for maintaining and improving animal welfare standards when considering the use of ballistic technology for wildlife management.