Concern For Animal Welfare Research Articles

Of mice and men: the evolution of animal welfare guidelines for cancer research

Of mice and men: the evolution of animal welfare guidelines for cancer research

Animal Liberation or Human Redemption: Racism and Speciesism in Toni Morrison's Beloved

In an editorial written shortly after the death of Richard Pryor in 2005, Lisa Lange of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) remarks on the comedian's concern for animal welfare. This concern was founded on a “keen sense of justice” that “hated oppression, whether the victims had two legs or four.” As an indication of this moral sense, Lange quotes Pryor criticizing a black-owned circus: They were brought out of Africa and into chains in America. Or they were born into slavery here. Yes, I am talking about the first African-Americans to reach these shores, but I am also describing the animals now enslaved in circuses. The species and continents are different, but the stories are tragically similar (Lange G4).

Physiology and behavior of pigs before and after castration: effects of two topical anesthetics

Surgical castration of male piglets is a common management practice conducted on commercial swine farms to prevent the occurrence of boar taint and aggressive behavior. However, the procedure of surgical castration causes acute pain-induced distress, which is an animal welfare concern. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of two topical anesthetics to alleviate the pain caused by castration in piglets as measured by physiological and behavior indices of stress. At 3 days of age, 40 weight-matched piglets were allocated to one of four treatment groups. Treatments included: (i) sham castration (CON), (ii) surgical castration (CAS), (iii) castration and short-acting local anesthetic applied topically to the castration wound (SHORT) and (iv) castration and long-acting local anesthetic applied topically to the castration wound (LONG). Blood samples were collected from piglets before and 30, 60, 120 and 180 min after castration to measure leukocyte and differential counts and cortisol concentrations. The above experiment was repeated without blood collection and behavior was recorded for 30 min before and 180 min after castration or handling. Stress vocalizations were recorded during castration and handling. All piglets were weighed before and 24 h after castration and wound healing was recorded daily for the first 14 days after castration. Leukocyte counts and differentials did not differ (P > 0.05) among any of the treatments. Cortisol concentrations were elevated (P < 0.06) in CAS, SHORT and LONG piglets compared with controls 30 and 60 min after castration. The percentage of stress vocalizations was greater (P < 0.05) among castrated piglets compared with CON piglets, regardless of anesthetic treatment. Piglets that were castrated and not given a topical anesthetic spent more time (P < 0.05) lying without contact compared with piglets castrated and given a topical anesthetic, regardless of the topical anesthetic administered. Body weight change did not differ (P > 0.05) among treatments 24 h after castration or control handling and wound healing scores were greater (P < 0.05) in SHORT compared with CAS and LONG piglets 9 to 14 days after castration. In this study, the use of a short- or long-acting topical anesthetic was not effective in reducing the pain-induced distress caused by castration in piglets. Further research is needed to evaluate alternative practical methods to reduce the pain caused by the on-farm castration of piglets.

Using Live Animals for Teaching in Animal Sciences: Students' Attitudes To Their Learning Process and Animal Welfare Concern

Using Live Animals for Teaching in Animal Sciences: Students' Attitudes To Their Learning Process and Animal Welfare Concern

Animals as Friends

Whether animals, especially companion animals, count as friends depends on the conception of friendship as well as on the conception of animals. Some accounts of friendship can include (other than human) animals more easily than others. I present an argument in favour of characterising some animal-human connections as friendships, and address some of the standard objections to this characterisation. It might seem that under any conception of friendship, characterising animals as (potential) friends would likely lead to better treatment of animals, as various kinds of ill-treatment or use would not be consistent with treating someone as a friend. However, concern for animal welfare typically extends well beyond the direct concern for our own household companions, and is a concern for animals (or certain animals) in general, whereas friendship, by its nature, is particularist. There are limits to applying the concept of friendship to animal treatment beyond particular relationships.

A ‘feather‐trap’ for collecting DNA samples from birds

Genetic analyses of birds are usually based on DNA extracted from a blood sample. For some species, however, obtaining blood samples is difficult because they are sensitive to handling, pose a conservation or animal welfare concern, or evade capture. In such cases, feathers obtained from live birds in the wild can provide an alternative source of DNA. Here, we provide the first description and evaluation of a 'feather-trap', consisting of small strips of double-sided adhesive tape placed close to a nest with chicks, as a simple, inexpensive and minimally invasive method to collect feathers. The feather-trap was tested in tropical conditions on the Australian pheasant coucal (Centropus phasianinus). None of the 12 pairs of coucals on which the feather-trap was used abandoned the nest, and feeding rates did not differ from those of birds not exposed to a feather-trap. On average, 4.2 feathers were collected per trap over 2-5 days and, despite exposure to monsoonal rain, DNA was extracted from 71.4% of samples, albeit at low concentrations. The amount of genomic DNA extracted from each feather was sufficient to reliably genotype individuals at up to five microsatellite loci for parentage analysis. We show that a feather-trap can provide a reliable alternative for obtaining DNA in species where taking blood is difficult. It may also prove useful for collecting feather samples for other purposes, e.g. stable-isotope analysis.

The cAMP assay: A functional in vitro alternative to the in vivo Histamine Sensitization test

Safety requirements stipulate the performance of the in vivo Histamine Sensitization (HS) test for quality control of acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines. For reasons of reproducibility and animal welfare concern, an in vitro assay was developed. The assay reflects the mechanism of histamine sensitization and is based on cAMP production in A10 cells to residual pertussis toxin (PT). We showed that PT induces cAMP levels in a dose-dependent manner while the sensitivity of the assay equals the sensitivity of the HS test. Neither the individual components nor the combination vaccine DTaP-IP did affect the assay. The cAMP assay meets the criteria for specificity and sensitivity and therefore might be a promising candidate to replace the HS test.

Feeding-associated gene expression in sheep scab mites (Psoroptes ovis)

The mite Psoroptes ovis is the causative agent of sheep scab. Although not usually fatal, the disease can spread rapidly and is a serious animal welfare concern. Vaccine development against ectoparasites has primarily focussed on two sources of candidate vaccine antigens – “exposed” antigens that are secreted in saliva during feeding on a host and “concealed” antigens that are usually expressed in the parasite gut and may be involved in digestion. Here, we sought to identify genes encoding proteins important for mite feeding and digestion by a subtractive suppressive hybridisation approach comparing mRNA transcript abundance in “fed” and “starved” mites. The study identified a variety of genes which are up-regulated by feeding mites. These included group 1, 5, 7 and 13 allergens including the previously described cysteine protease Pso o 1. In addition, numerous novel genes were identified here including some encoding potential salivary gland proteins and others encoding proteins which may facilitate feeding such as a serum opacity factor. An olfactory receptor-like protein was identified in the starved mite population which may help the mite to identify a host.

Willingness to Pay: Australian Consumers and “On the Farm” Welfare

The success of welfare legislation for nonhuman animals rests upon primary producer compliance that, in turn, is affected by public willingness to pay (WTP) for such initiatives. Although the topic of the welfare of animals on farms (and relevant legislation) is becoming increasingly important to the Australian public, there remain relatively few recent assessments of the variables that may affect WTP and, therefore, support initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of animals living on farms. This study surveyed 1,224 community members in Queensland, Australia. The study assessed respondents' self-rated knowledge of, and concern regarding, farm animal welfare. In addition, the survey asked respondents how much more they would be prepared to pay for animal-based products to ensure that they came from a source where the Five Freedoms were met. Although self-rated knowledge and level of concern were found to affect WTP, the study found only concern for farm animal welfare actually predicted consumer behavior. Further analyses showed a potential confound between knowledge levels and locality. This article discusses the implications of this for future initiatives to increase WTP.

Environmental and animal welfare issues in food choice

PurposeThe primary purpose of this study is to investigate whether welfare issues are important to consumers also relating to fish. Second, it aims to identify segments based on animal and fish welfare issues, environmental concerns and ambivalence about farmed fish.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was designed to investigate consumers' concern for environmental and animal and fish welfare issues together with variables used in profiling segments in the study. The measurement scales used here are adapted from validated scales in previous studies. The survey was conducted in Valencia, Spain, among 450 randomly‐chosen respondents.FindingsAnimal welfare issues related to farmed fish do not seem to be important for the consumers in Valencia. There are, however, differences among the consumers relating to general environmental and animal welfare concern, and ambivalence. Three segments were identified: the unconcerned (27 per cent), the wild fish concerned (34.5 per cent) and the ambivalent (38.5 per cent). Attitudes toward farmed fish, the importance of natural food and social class were most important in profiling differences between clusters.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that the animal welfare issue has not yet become a barrier for farmed fish in Valencia. The results may help fish‐farming companies to find their target group among the consumers, based on environmental and animal welfare issues. The results also indicate that there are consumers who are somewhat ambivalent about farmed fish. For this group, more information and knowledge can change their attitudes so they become more positive toward farmed fish in the future.Originality/valueThe paper provides useful information for fish‐farming companies or the authorities planning healthy‐eating campaigns targeting fish.

Embedded sensor technology for real time determination of animal lying time

Lameness in dairy animals poses an immediate and significant animal welfare and economic concern. A new sensor has been developed to monitor and record the lying patterns of dairy cows in order to benefit the study of lameness. The sensor utilizes an embedded accelerometer to measure the orientation of the hind leg of an animal based on the relative direction of the gravitational field. A microcontroller with nano-watt power technology facilitates sensor sampling, data recording and time stamping, and interfacing with external hardware systems. The interrupt triggered firmware protocol enabled low power consumption and made efficient use of microcontroller's resources. A single measurement axis, oriented with the vertical position of the animal's hind leg, was found to be sufficient in determining lying activity. In repetitive testing on three unique Holstein dairy cows, the layometer sensor recorded 100% of the lying events and had a total difference in lying time of 2.2% when compared to a human observer. It was also shown that unique sensors provided a statistically similar response when applied to the same test animal. The technology presented within this publication is protected under international patent application PCT/US2008/059234.

Hunting as a Moral Good

I argue that hunting is not a sport, but a neo-traditional cultural trophic practice consistent with ecological ethics, including a meliorist concern for animal rights or welfare. Death by hunter is on average less painful than death in wild nature. Hunting achieves goods, including trophic responsibility, ecological expertise and a unique experience of animal inter-dependence. Hunting must then be not only permissible but morally good wherever: a) preservation of ecosystems or species requires hunting as a wildlife management tool; and/or b) its animal deaths per unit of nutrition is lower than that caused by farming practices. Both conditions obtain at least some of the time.

Tissue distribution of haemolytic Gallibacterium anatis isolates in laying birds with reproductive disorders

Gallibacterium anatis biovar haemolytica has been suggested to have a causal role in peritonitis and salpingitis in chickens. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of G. anatis biovar haemolytica in chickens with reproductive disorders. One hundred and forty one birds from 31 layer flocks were submitted for necropsy and the following organs were examined for bacteria: choana, trachea, lung, heart, liver, spleen, ovary, oviduct, duodenum and cloaca. Examination for Escherichia coli was included as it can induce reproductive disorders. G. anatis was isolated in pure culture from the reproductive tract of affected birds in six of the 31 flocks while E. coli was obtained in pure culture from 10 of them. Both G. anatis and E. coli were isolated from the reproductive tract of 14 of the 31 flocks. The genetic diversity of the Gallibacterium isolates was assessed by amplified fragment length polymorphism on a subset of 83 isolates. Generally, each flock was infected with a single clone, which could be isolated from various sites in the birds. However, in two flocks, the majority of birds yielded positive samples from the internal organs, indicating that these particular clones may be more invasive. The findings support previous suggestions that G. anatis biovar haemolytica is associated with infection of the reproductive tract of chickens, making it a likely cause of lowered productivity and an animal welfare concern.

FAWC Opinion on Enriched Cages and on Beak Trimming of Laying Hens

The UK's Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) has issued two Opinions; one covering beak trimming of laying hens and the other, enriched cages for laying hens. Such ‘Opinions’ are a recent edition to the FAWC's methods for advising the Government about areas of animal welfare concern and their aim is to address specific issues in a shorter format and timeframe than traditional FAWC reports. Each Opinion provides a ‘background’ to the chosen focus followed by an ‘evidence’ and then ‘critical issue’ section. A cost/benefit ethical analysis is also included and finally an opinion, detailing the FAWC's advice and recommendations to the Government.

The Ethics of Semantics: Do We Clarify or Obfuscate Reality to Influence Perceptions of Farm Animal Production?

According to linguists, the discourse of animal production uses metaphors, pronouns, and definitions that consistently represent animals as objects, machines, and resources instead of as distinct, unique individuals. Thus, it is argued that genuine concern for animal welfare is either obscured by financial concerns or circumvented entirely, which permits animals to be kept and treated in ways many people would otherwise find objectionable. Substituting euphemisms like crops, units, and harvest for herds, animals, and slaughter, respectively, which are more likely to evoke images of grape plucking than of killing animals for food, might indeed seem disingenuous, especially given the common industry refrain that the public needs to be better educated about food production. However, the implication that the animal industries deliberately use such techniques is debatable. What is clear is that the semantic obfuscations rampant in the language of modern farm animal production reflect underlying ambivalence about transparency relative to many standard industry practices. First, consumers are unlikely to want full disclosure of all aspects of animal production. Second, there is real risk that certain realities of animal production would be aversive to consumers, who might consequently refuse (as is their right) to purchase particular products, thus potentially causing significant short-term industry losses. Yet, the reluctance of animal industries to come clean in public education efforts raises another problem-that adopting innocuous terminology and withholding information deemed likely to be unpalatable to the public may be morally questionable in itself. Moreover, this provides an avenue for opponents of animal agriculture to exploit, because it may appear that the industry is hiding something. In truth, animal extremists are currently in a position to reveal facts about livestock production that might not only disturb consumers but also cause speculation about the failure of the industries to be forthcoming. As a matter of professional ethics and viability, animal industry members should objectively and aggressively evaluate the discourse of farm animal production to ensure that what is conveyed is accurate and intended.

&lt;b&gt;The Nature of Animal Welfare Science&lt;/b&gt;

The societal concern for animal welfare stems from the acknowledgement that they are sentient beings, whether their sentience makes morally unacceptable any act that would increase their suffering (utilitarian point of view) or animals deserve rights because of their sentience (animal rights point of view). Several definitions of animal welfare have been proposed, based on common sense, mechanisms, or operational indicators. These definitions should not be interpreted as uncertainties about the existence of the concept but rather as different aspects of the same concept. Whatever the definition used, research on animal welfare attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent are the animals used by humans capable of emotions? How does an animal perceive its environment? How can we assess the level of animal welfare in a given situation? What are the impacts of the ways we treat animals on their welfare? To answer these questions, animal welfare scientists borrow methodologies and theoretical frameworks from various disciplines, mainly behavioural sciences, including not only ethology but also experimental psychology, animal cognition, or stress physiology. The focus is not on the description of animal behaviour or stress responses but rather on the understanding of how animals experience their world. Hence the recent developments issued from psychology, studying cognitive bias or relations between cognition and emotions. Animal welfare science can be considered as a new behavioural science, applied to societal concerns about our relations to animals, with specific research questions and methodologies inspired by other disciplines.

Anger Elicitation Using Affective Pictures:

In emotion research, affective pictures are limited in their ability to elicit discrete emotions. The current study attempted to elicit anger using pictures and a person by image-content interactional strategy. In two studies, undergraduates who varied with respect to concern for animal welfare (person factor) were shown pictures that included several of actual or impending animal harm (image content). Results from Study 1 showed that (1) the link between animal concern and combined emotion outcomes was strongest for animal harm pictures compared to other picture categories and (2) individual differences in animal concern were more strongly linked to anger than other negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, disgust, sadness) while viewing pictures of animal harm. Results from Study 2 showed that animal concern predicted variance in self-reported anger above and beyond that explained by broader constructs (empathy and nurturance) to which it relates. Overall, data suggest that the person by image-content interactional strategy is a promising new tool for researchers seeking to elicit discrete emotions in the laboratory.

Pilot Study to Evaluate Plasma Substance P and Cortisol Concentrations Following Castration in Beef Calves

Pain inflicted by castration is a major animal welfare concern in beef production. Plasma cortisol is commonly assessed in animal welfare research; however a more robust measurement of pain is needed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate plasma substance P (SP) and cortisol response following castration.

Attenuation of Acute Plasma Cortisol Response in Calves Following Intravenous Sodium Salicylate Administration Prior to Castration

Based on steer slaughter data from the National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) [1], more than 16 million bovine castrations are performed in the United States annually. The short term pain and distress inflicted by castration remain a major animal welfare concern for the beef cattle industry. However, the long term benefits of castration in the form of decreased aggression, improved carcass traits, and exclusion of genetically inferior animals make this a widespread animal husbandry practice. Research to investigate practical, effective methods for minimizing the pain and distress associated with castration is crucial to enhance the wellbeing of animals in production systems. Cortisol is widely used to measure stress since its response magnitude, duration and/or integrated response is reported to correspond with the predicted noxiousness of different procedures [2,3]. It has been shown that ketoprofen reduced plasma cortisol response to Burdizzo castration more effectively than local anesthetic or an epidural [2]. Intravenous ketoprofen, alone or in combination with local anesthesia, before surgery-cut castration was found to decrease the post-castration integrated cortisol response [3]Although not a specific indicator of pain, these studies support the use of plasma cortisol as a pharmacodynamic indicator of stress associated with castration. However, plasma analgesic drug concentrations and cortisol levels have never been concurrently evaluated in cattle post-castration.

Attenuation of acute plasma cortisol response in calves following intravenous sodium salicylate administration prior to castration

Pain associated with castration in cattle is an animal welfare concern in beef production. This study examined the effect of oral aspirin and intravenous (i.v.) sodium salicylate on acute plasma cortisol response following surgical castration. Twenty bulls, randomly assigned to the following groups, (i) uncastrated, untreated controls, (ii) castrated, untreated controls, (iii) 50 mg/kg sodium salicylate i.v. precastration and (iv) 50 mg/kg aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) per os precastration, were blood sampled at 3, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 min and 1, 1.5, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 h postcastration. Samples were analyzed by competitive chemiluminescent immunoassay and fluorescence polarization immunoassay for cortisol and salicylate, respectively. Data were analyzed using noncompartmental analysis, a simple cosine model, anova and t-tests. Intravenous salicylate V(d(ss)) was 0.18 L/kg, Cl(B) was 3.36 mL/min/kg and t(1/2 lambda) was 0.63 h. Plasma salicylate concentrations above 25 microg/mL coincided with significant attenuation in peak cortisol concentrations (P = 0.029). Peak salicylate concentrations following oral aspirin administration was <10 microg/mL and failed to attenuate cortisol response. Once salicylate concentrations decreased below 5 microg/mL, cortisol response in the castrated groups was significantly higher than uncastrated controls (P = 0.018). These findings have implications for designing drug regimens to provide analgesia during routine animal husbandry procedures.