Farm Animal Welfare Research Articles

Farm animal welfare: Beyond “natural” behavior

An animal-centered view guided by what animals value could improve welfare on farms.

Techno-economic modeling and assessment of cultivated meat: Impact of production bioreactor scale.

Increases in global meat demands cannot be sustainably met with current methods of livestock farming, which has a substantial impact on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water consumption, and farm animal welfare. Cultivated meat is a rapidly advancing technology that produces meat products by proliferating and differentiating animal stem cells in large bioreactors, avoiding conventional live-animal farming. While many companies are working in this area, there is a lack of existing infrastructure and experience at commercial scale, resulting in many technical bottlenecks such as scale-up of cell culture and media availability and costs. In this study, we evaluate theoretical cultivated beef production facilities with the goal of envisioning an industry with multiple facilities to produce in total 100,000,000 kg of cultured beef per year or ~0.14% of the annual global beef production. Using the computer-aided process design software, SuperPro Designer®, facilities are modeled to create a comprehensiveanalysis to highlight improvements that can lower the cost of such a production system and allow cultivated meat products to be competitive. Three facility scenarios are presented with different sized production reactors; ~42,000 L stirred tank bioreactor (STR) with a base case cost of goods sold (COGS) of $35/kg, ~211,000 L STR with a COGS of $25/kg, and ~262,000 L airlift reactor (ALR) with a COGS of $17/kg. This study outlines how advances in scaled up bioreactors, alternative bioreactor designs, and decreased media costs are necessary for commercialization of cultured meat products.

Farm Animal Welfare and Food Information for European Union Consumers: Harmonising the Regulatory Framework for More Policy Coherence

AbstractToday, there are a dozen labelling schemes pertaining to farm animal welfare in at least seven Member States. Despite the proliferation of animal welfare labels, European Union rules on food information to consumers concerning the treatment of farmed animals used in animal-source food production remain fragmented and incomplete. On the one hand, the rules contained in agricultural regulations primarily aim to harmonise marketing standards, but only for some products. On the other hand, consumer protection rules aim to protect consumers from misleading commercial claims but not misleading claims about animal treatment specifically. After examining the situation that has led to the proliferation of animal welfare food labels in the European Union, this article analyses the animal welfare food labelling landscape and presents different regulatory pathways to best harmonise consumer information on farm animal welfare.

Recognition of aggressive behavior of group-housed pigs based on CNN-GRU hybrid model with spatio-temporal attention mechanism

Aggressive behavior of group-housed pigs seriously affects farm economy and animal welfare. Automatic and accurate recognition of aggressive behavior of group-housed pigs is thus important for farm production management. This study proposes a hybrid model that combines convolutional neural network (CNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) to differentiate aggressive and other behaviors from surveillance videos. The CNN network served as a spatial feature extractor to learn appearance representations of behavior in each individual frame, while the GRU network served as a temporal feature extractor to learn motion representations of behavior in a behavior episode. More importantly, to focus on the saliency features in both the spatial domain and the temporal domain of behavior, a specific spatio-temporal attention mechanism was designed and integrated in the CNN-GRU hybrid model to improve the effect of aggressive behavior recognition. To evaluate the proposed model, a behavior video dataset consisting of 5530 behavior episodes about 10 piglets. The accuracy of the proposed hybrid model conducted on the test set were 94.8 %. The results showed that the proposed hybrid model integrated with spatio-temporal attention performed better than the model with an independent spatial or temporal attention and the model without attention mechanism, and achieved a competitive performance of aggressive behavior recognition over the state-of-the-art approaches. We shared our behavior video dataset at https://github.com/IPCLab-NEAU/Aggressive-Behavior-Recognition for precision livestock farming research community.

Gestational and health outcomes of dairy cows conceived by assisted reproductive technologies compared to artificial insemination

Herd gestation and health management are key aspects of effective dairy farm operations and animal welfare improvement. Unfortunately, very little is known about the developmental divergences induced by assisted reproduction technologies (ART) and their consequences once the animal is mature. Indeed, the gestational and health outcomes of this subset of the Holstein population is yet to be characterized. In this study, the intergenerational impacts of ART conception were assessed by looking at the gestation and health outcomes of a large cohort of cows (n = 284,813) for which the conception methods were known. Our results showed that cows conceived by multiple ovulation embryo transfer (MOET) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) displayed longer gestations: +0.37 ± 0.079 and +0.65 ± 0.21 day compared to cows conceived by artificial insemination (AI). Surprisingly, animals conceived by all methods experienced a similar 1-day decline in average gestation length from 2012 to 2019. Cows conceived by IVF were not more likely to experience stillbirths but were affected by common diseases such as ovarian cysts, mastitis, and uterine diseases in different proportions compared to cows conceived by other methods. This study provides new and unique information on ART animals regarding perinatal mortality and general health outcomes.

The importance of the human–animal relationship for commercial farms

The human–animal relationship is a key aspect of managing livestock. Poor stockmanship may lead to negative implications for the health, welfare and productivity of farm animals and could lead to poor job satisfaction for the stockperson. It can also make it potentially difficult for veterinarians and farmers to treat livestock because an animal may associate humans with negative experiences. This review summarises research based on human–animal interactions, discusses its implications for the health and welfare of livestock, and provides suggestions for improving relationships between humans and farm animals.

Can dogs help chickens? Pet owners' willingness to pay for animal welfare-friendly pet food in the United States.

Consumer concern about farmed animal welfare is growing but does not always translate into real-world purchasing behaviour of welfare-friendly animal products for human consumption. Possible reasons for this include unfamiliarity with farming practices and economic sensitivity. In contrast, the number and role of pets in the United States have grown measurably, and spending on pets is strong. The pet food market has many opportunity niches as pet owners navigate strong marketing trends and nutrition philosophies. We hypothesised that pet owners in the US would be willing to pay a premium for pet food containing welfare-friendly animal ingredients. Eight hundred and thirty-eight pet owners completed an online survey asking questions that measured their knowledge of and interest in farm animal welfare, and their willingness-to-pay for pet food labelled as farm animal welfare-friendly. Respondents overall displayed relatively low knowledge about farm animal welfare, but poor self-assessment of their own knowledge. They displayed interest in farm animal welfare and an overall positive mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) for welfare-friendly pet food. Younger respondents, women and cat owners displayed a higher WTP than older respondents, men and dog owners. Income level was not correlated to WTP. Creating pet food products that contain animal ingredients produced using welfare-friendly practices may enhance farm animal welfare via two primary avenues: by providing a sustainable and value-added outlet for the by-products of welfare-friendly human food products, and by providing an educational opportunity about farm animal production via pet food packaging and other advertising.

Indicators of functional integrity in production animals

An ability to describe the quality of lived experience across the course of an animal’s life is of increasing interest in studies on wellbeing in farm animals. Integrity of physical functions is an important aspect of the tripartite model of wellbeing: feeling, functioning and interacting well. This review examines measures of functional integrity as potential indicators of functional (eudaimonic) wellbeing. Copious literature shows that coping with day-to-day fluctuations in the environment influences (1) periodicity of biorhythms, (2) allocation of resources to growth, defence and repair, and (3) rate of biological aging. Here we review opportunities for assessing functional integrity through analysis of (1) the dynamic status of physiological and behavioural variables, (2) the accretion of resources in production tissues (milk, eggs, body mass, offspring) and physical structures (fibre, hoof, bone, tooth, placoid scale, otolith, beak), and (3) biological age. A reduction in periodicity of biorhythms, complexity of behaviours, or uniformity of trajectories of growth and production is often associated with poorer current and future health outcomes and shorter functional longevity. These analytical approaches are grounded in statistical measures of stability in complex dynamic systems. Additionally, the cumulative effect of wear and tear on biological age can be assessed via telomere length, DNA methylation, biomarkers of allostatic load, hair cortisol, and physiological functional capacity. Timeseries of behaviour, physiology and accretion provide a richer record of functional integrity than do cumulative indicators of biological age. Indicators of integrity are needed for each phase of the animal’s life course including attainment of developmental competencies, stability of mature performance, and rate of decline with advancing age, to provide a comprehensive record across the whole of the animal’s life. The utility of measures may differ between real-time and retrospective assessments and between application to every individual versus sentinels. Further validation is required for interpretating measures of functional integrity as indicators of the functional aspect of wellbeing, together with determining their practicality and reliability before translation to commercial settings is feasible. A single type of indicator of functional wellbeing (e.g. DNA methylation) is unlikely to have utility for all life stages, species, production systems, and environments.

Digital Livestock Technologies as boundary objects: Investigating impacts on farm management and animal welfare.

Digital Livestock Technologies (DLTs) can assist farmer decision-making and promise benefits to animal health and welfare. However, the extent to which they can help improve animal welfare is unclear. This study explores how DLTs may impact farm management and animal welfare by promoting learning, using the concept of boundary objects. Boundary objects may be interpreted differently by different social worlds but are robust enough to share a common identity across them. They facilitate communication around a common issue, allowing stakeholders to collaborate and co-learn. The type of learning generated may impact management and welfare differently. For example, it may help improve existing strategies (single-loop learning), or initiate reflection on how these strategies were framed initially (double-loop learning). This study focuses on two case studies, during which two DLTs were developed and tested on farms. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders involved in the case studies (n = 31), and the results of a separate survey were used to complement our findings. Findings support the important potential of DLTs to help enhance animal welfare, although the impacts vary between technologies. In both case studies, DLTs facilitated discussions between stakeholders, and whilst both promoted improved management strategies, one also promoted deeper reflection on the importance of animal emotional well-being and on providing opportunities for positive animal welfare. If DLTs are to make significant improvements to animal welfare, greater priority should be given to DLTs that promote a greater understanding of the dimensions of animal welfare and a reframing of values and beliefs with respect to the importance of animals' well-being.

How might the public contribute to the discussion on cattle welfare? Perspectives of veterinarians and animal scientists.

Veterinarians and animal scientists can provide leadership on issues relevant to farm animal welfare, but perceptions of these stakeholders regarding societal expectations for welfare are underexplored. This study involved five focus groups of veterinarians and animal scientists (n=50 in total), recruited at a European meeting focused on cattle welfare. Participants were invited to discuss topics related to cattle welfare and were prompted with questions to elicit their perspectives of public concerns and how the participants felt public input should be included when developing solutions. Discussions were moderated by trained facilitators, audio-recorded and transcribed, and transcripts analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Ultimately, four primary themes were developed: (1) The public as concerned; (2) The public as ignorant; (3) The public as needing education; and (4) The public as helper or hindrance. Groups identified specific farming practices viewed as concerning to the public, including lack of pasture access, behavioural restriction, and painful procedures. Discussions about these concerns and the role of the public were often framed around the assumption that the public was ignorant about farming, and that this ignorance needed to be rectified through education. Participants were generally ambivalent in their beliefs regarding public contributions to solutions for farm animal welfare but suggested that consumers should pay more for products to help shoulder any costs of welfare improvements.

Improving accuracy and stability of genetic predictions for dairy cow survival

Context Cow survival is an important trait for dairy farm profitability and animal welfare, yet it is difficult to improve because of its complexity arising, in part, from varied reasons for culling and delay in getting actual culling data, which leads to low accuracy and instability of genetic predictions. Aims To explore the benefits of partitioning the cow survival trait into ‘early survival’ (survival coded as a binary trait from the first to the second lactation) and ‘late survival’ (survival from the second to later lactations) on genetic predictions in addition to predictors of culling decisions. Methods The raw phenotypic survival records for 1 619 542 Holstein and 331 996 Jersey cows were used in our study. All cows within each herd were allocated to either a reference or validation set. The accuracy and stability of genetic predictions were compared across lactations in the validation set. Further, we estimated the phenotypic and genetic correlation between overall, early or late cow survival and production, type, workability, and fertility traits using bivariate sire models. Key results The heritability of overall survival in Jerseys (0.069 ± 0.003) was higher than in Holsteins (0.044 ± 0.001). The heritability of early survival was higher than that of late survival in Holstein (0.039 ± 0.002 vs 0.036 ± 0.001) and Jersey (0.080 ± 0.006 vs 0.053 ± 0.003). The genetic correlation between early and late survival was high in both breeds (0.770 ± 0.017 in Holstein and 0.772 ± 0.028 in Jersey). Adding survival information up to the sixth lactation had a large effect on genetic predictions of overall and late survival, whereas the predictions of early survival remained the same across lactations. Milk and protein yields, somatic cell score, fertility and temperament were highly correlated with early survival in Holstein and Jersey. However, the genetic correlations between production, type or workability traits and late survival were generally weaker than those and early survival. Conclusions Early and late survival should be considered as different traits in genetic evaluations, because they are associated with different culling decisions. Implications Partitioning cow survival into early and late survival and analysing them as two correlated traits could improve the accuracy and the stability of estimated breeding values compared with analysing overall survival as a single trait.

In the shoes of a farmer: (re)connecting the public with animal health and welfare in livestock production

The UK public is becoming increasingly disconnected from farming, yet shows an interest in how food is produced and how farm animals are raised. This article reflects upon a novel engagement activity aimed at facilitating conversations about farm animal health and welfare in the UK. We focus upon how: (1) the interactive design encouraged participation, and made the activity enjoyable; (2) the content and presentation facilitated non-judgemental conversations; (3) the activity was an opportunity to discuss an important topic; (4) the location and timing allowed the researchers to reach different publics; and (5) the activity enhanced the subsequent research and engagement programme. We conclude by highlighting the value of creative engagement methods for engaging members of the public with food and farming issues.

Canadian dairy farmer views about animal welfare.

Concerns regarding the welfare of farm animals continue to grow. Traditionally, research efforts have largely focused on refining existing management practices to improve welfare. However, the incorporation of views from those directly involved in animal care is equally, if not more, important. This study investigated the perspectives of Canadian dairy farmers on animal welfare. We conducted 16 interviews with a total of 22 participants from four provinces across Canada. Recorded audio files and field notes were transcribed, anonymised, and coded using deductive and inductive thematic analysis. The interview data revealed two major themes: (1) animal dimension of animal welfare, including views related to biological functioning, naturalness and affective states; and (2) dairy farmer identity, including, the voice of the 'city', what it means to be a good 'cow-man', and the nature of human-animal relationships. Dairy farmers emphasised biological functioning, but they made numerous references to the emotional and natural living aspects of their animals' lives. Our work also provides evidence that farmers believed it was their duty to care for their animals beyond simply milking cows and making a profit. In terms of the larger debate, this study identified potential shared values with members of the public: opportunities for natural living and agency, attentiveness to individual animals, and the value of life over death. Finally, the emotional relationship that farmers developed with their animals highlights the values dairy farmers have for their animals beyond simply utilitarian function. Overall, these shared values could contribute to constructive dialogue.

Analysis of the state of the food industry

The object of research: The paper examines the management of the strategic development of enterprises, it is worth noting the planning of the implementation of certain strategies, forming them in parallel and choosing the most important and cost-effective for enterprises.
 Investigated problem: А methodology for selecting effective strategies of dairy industry enterprises has been developed, which includes a number of stages: expert assessment of consumer products properties of the studied enterprise and its main competitors; assessment of the volume of gross profit and cost of production at the studied enterprise; expert assessment of the level of innovation of the products of the studied enterprise and competitor enterprises; assessment of the prestige of the products of the studied enterprise and competitor enterprises; selection of competitive strategies based on a comparative analysis of the proposed strategies.
 The main scientific results: In the course of the study, the author calculated 4 variants of the medium-term economic strategy for KokshetauGormolzavod LLP, determined the level of consumer properties of dairy products of the enterprise, cost estimates for the production of dairy products in the base year, the level of product innovation.
 The area of practical use of the research results: The competitiveness of a country is crucially interconnected with the competitiveness of national companies, both in domestic and foreign markets. Accordingly, the categories of competitiveness of a product, company, industry, region and country are interconnected. The fundamental basis of industry competitiveness is the competitiveness of products, which is influenced by factors such as consumer price and cost. The author introduces the third factor of product competitiveness – innovativeness, understood as the introduction of novelty into products, due to which additional competitive advantages can be created.
 Innovative technological product: Innovative products are products that meet international quality standards, forming additional competitive advantages over similar products. The authors adapted the method of assessing the competitiveness of consumer goods to dairy products by introducing the factor "Level of innovativeness" instead of the factor "Level of sales organization" and introduced as indicators of the factor "Level of innovativeness": the range of dairy products, packaging (packaging), safety, social suitability, manufacturability, image, service, informativeness. Just such indicators affect competitiveness.
 Scope of the innovative technological product: The fundamental basis of industry competitiveness is the competitiveness of products, which is influenced by factors such as consumer price and cost. The author introduces the third factor of product competitiveness – innovativeness, understood as the introduction of novelty into products, due to which additional competitive advantages can be created .
 The article presents an analysis of the food industry market according to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Statistics, the main share of meat and meat product producers as of 01.02.2021. Meat products are now regarded as high-risk products that carry both biological and chemical dangers. The International Epizootic Bureau (OIE) and Codex Alimentarius papers include guidelines for the use of a risk-based approach to animal products. The OIE documents, on the other hand, primarily concern the veterinary welfare of farm animals, but in the Codex Alimentarius they relate to the completed product and are seen as relevant to human health. The technology aspect is not particularly addressed in these texts, but it is crucial in managing both individual hazards and their aggregate, allowing to produce products with guaranteed shelf-life safety as well as safety for human health and epizootic well-being. The success of the nation's socioeconomic development program will be greatly influenced by the quality, variety, and availability of food, which should be prioritized as a national effort

Consumers perceptions about the welfare of farm animals in Colombia

Introduction. Research focused on listening and understanding public attitudes towards farm animal welfare is proliferating globally. Objective. To determine how consumers in Colombia perceive the welfare of farm animals and socio-demographic factors associated with such perceptions. Materials and methods. A descriptive and analytical epidemiological study was done through the implementation of a cross-sectional national online survey, conducted from September to October-2021, to obtain information on the knowledge and attitudes of consumers (≥18 years) in Colombia regarding farm animal welfare, as well as socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, education, occupation, location, growing-up environment, level of contact with livestock farms, and diet). Logistic and multinomial logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations of demographic factors with the level of importance given to animal welfare (AW), perceptions about needs, behavior, and sentience in farm animals, and perceptions about the state and promotion of AW in Colombia. Results. Responses from 798 participants were included in the analysis, 85.57 % saw AW as a concept that refers to how to treat animals and improve their quality of life. The level of importance given to AW was 9.78±0.85 (scale from 0 to 10) and was associated with words such as health, food, caring, respect, and comfort. Sex, age, education, level of contact with a farm, and growing-up in rural areas significantly influenced the opinions regarding the concept of AW and the promotion of farm animal welfare in Colombia. Conclusion. The participants showed concern about farm animal welfare. The differences found associated with the different socio-demographic factors can be used as a basis for formulating education and empowerment strategies that help modulate changes in the way animals are seen, and what welfare means and what it implies.

Changing interventions in farm animal health and welfare: A governmentality approach to the case of lameness

Lameness is a significant health and welfare issue in farmed animals. This paper uses a governmentality approach, which focuses on how a problem is made governable, to examine an emerging ‘ecology of devices’ introduced to intervene in, and attempt to reduce, on-farm incidence of lameness. These devices are associated with advisers who work with farmers on-farm; they enact lameness as a governable entity, are tools to assess the existence of lameness against established norms, and prescribe actions to be taken in response to evidence of lameness. In doing this they subjectify farmers and advisers into seeing and responding to lameness in particular ways. Using concepts of governmentality alongside other perspectives on the power relations and the simplifications and complexities involved in interventions in animal health and farm practice, the paper draws on in-depth research with advisers including vets and other paraprofessionals who work with farmers, and their cows and sheep. It explores how this set of devices introduces particular techniques and practices in lameness management, and produces farmer and adviser subjectivities. It then explores some of the problematics of this mode of governing lameness, including analysis of the limitations and unintended consequences of attempts to simplify lameness management. The paper concludes by arguing that its approach is valuable in analysing ongoing intensification of interventions in farming practices and in understanding the limits of such interventions and the unanticipated divergences from expected conduct.

FACTORS DETERMINATING THE PERCEPTION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

The research aimed to identify the factors most strongly determine consumers’ perception of agricultural products. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire made available on the most popular social networking site in Poland (Facebook) in groups of residents of the 16 voivodships of Poland. The survey verified the importance of the respondents’ beliefs about the modernity of agriculture, organic farming, and farmers’ presence in social media perception of agricultural products. Research has shown that in the perception of the quality of agricultural products, their ecological character, nutritional value, and availability of information on the course of the production process are of particular importance. The respondents’ interests in the system of production processes focused mainly on the welfare of farm animals and the impact of agricultural activity on the natural environment. Socially responsible, ecological agriculture, which is present in social media, was combined with modernity. The research also revealed the potential of social media as a direct sales channel for agricultural products. Respondents also found social media an effective marketing tool for agricultural products.

Plant-Derived Polyphenols as Nrf2 Activators to Counteract Oxidative Stress and Intestinal Toxicity Induced by Deoxynivalenol in Swine: An Emerging Research Direction.

The contamination of deoxynivalenol (DON) in feed is a global problem, which seriously threatens the productivity efficiency and welfare of farm animals and the food security of humans. Pig is the most sensitive species to DON, and is readily exposed to DON through its grain-enriched diet. The intestine serves as the first biological barrier to ingested mycotoxin, and is, therefore, the first target of DON. In the past decade, a growing amount of attention has been paid to plant-derived polyphenols as functional compounds against DON-induced oxidative stress and intestinal toxicity in pigs. In this review, we systematically updated the latest research progress in plant polyphenols detoxifying DON-induced intestinal toxicity in swine. We also discussed the potential underlying mechanism of action of polyphenols as Nrf2 activators in protecting against DON-induced enterotoxicity of swine. The output of this update points out an emerging research direction, as polyphenols have great potential to be developed as feed additives for swine to counteract DON-induced oxidative stress and intestinal toxicity.

The Importance of Dietary Antioxidants on Oxidative Stress, Meat and Milk Production, and Their Preservative Aspects in Farm Animals: Antioxidant Action, Animal Health, and Product Quality-Invited Review.

The biological effects of oxidative stress and associated free radicals on farm animal performance, productivity, and product quality may be managed via dietary interventions-specifically, the provision of feeds, supplements, and forages rich in antioxidants. To optimize this approach, it is important first to understand the development of free radicals and their contributions to oxidative stress in tissue systems of farm animals or the human body. The interactions between prooxidants and antioxidants will impact redox homeostasis and, therefore, the well-being of farm animals. The impact of free radical formation on the oxidation of lipids, proteins, DNA, and biologically important macromolecules will likewise impact animal performance, meat and milk quality, nutritional value, and longevity. Dietary antioxidants, endogenous antioxidants, and metal-binding proteins contribute to the 'antioxidant defenses' that control free radical formation within the biological systems. Different bioactive compounds of varying antioxidant potential and bio-accessibility may be sourced from tailored feeding systems. Informed and successful provision of dietary antioxidants can help alleviate oxidative stress. However, knowledge pertaining to farm animals, their unique biological systems, and the applications of novel feeds, specialized forages, bioactive compounds, etc., must be established. This review summarized current research to direct future studies towards more effective controls for free radical formation/oxidative stress in farm animals so that productivity and quality of meat and milk can be optimized.

Happy animals at small scales: farmers’ portrayal of local food systems in New Jersey as an organic answer for farm animal welfare ethical concerns

Happy animals at small scales: farmers’ portrayal of local food systems in New Jersey as an organic answer for farm animal welfare ethical concerns