Published in 2019
Document Types: Opinions
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Monogastrics, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry
Keywords: Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Restraint equipment, Carcass quality, Human-animal relationships
Published in 2016
The issue of the emotions of farm animals is part of a wider drive to improve farming conditions by taking animal welfare into account. The genesis of emotions derives from the cognitive capacity of individuals to perceive, evaluate and react to their environment. …. The parts of the brain involved in the neural network for emotions are linked to the perception and processing of information from the environment, and/or in the expression of emotional responses. ... . In light of this, it is now necessary to study the effects of early experiences on the development of the neural network for emotions and to better understand the role of cognitive evaluation in the genesis of emotions.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Poultry
Keywords: Anxiety, Consciousness, Brain integration, Metacognition, Neurogenesis, Stress
Published in 2007
Special issue on Animal Welfare, containing 14 original articles on aims, methodology and purpose, ethical foundations, variants for different species, how it is perceived by the animal industries.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Welfare indicators, Living environment,Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Published in 2012
The legal recognition of animals as a "sentient beings" means that any consideration of the working relationship between humans and animals in livestock farming must take into account the points of view of both the producer and the animal. In a wider societal context, this has implications for efficient working practices and quality of life in the agricultural professions as much as it does for animal welfare. This review article focuses on multidisciplinary approaches, in particular those that combine the social sciences and ethology, to the understanding and improvement of the farming practices that determine the Human-animal relationshipsshipsship. The article points to the value of describing and evaluating differences in producers' relational practices to achieve a Human-animal relationshipsshipsship that is beneficial to both humans and animals.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry
Keywords: Fear, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Published in 2015
In a context where livestock farming and its practices are frequently called into question, an analysis of the points of disagreement in different sectors (pigs, poultry, cattle, sheep and goats) was carried out within the framework of the Elevages Demain Scientific Interest Group (GIS). A literature review was conducted to understand the basis for social concerns about livestock farming and assess their robustness. At the same time, some thirty interviews were conducted with various stakeholders involved in the debates - professionals in the sector, employees of voluntary associations, journalists and distributors - in order to identify and describe the main areas of contention over livestock farming in France. The work highlights strongly-held and long-standing concerns on the part of the public with regard to livestock farming, which cannot be dismissed as the consequences of 'fads'.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Societal issues, Environment, Breeding and rearing systems
Published in 2015
The European AWIN project has developed welfare assessment protocols that provide a range of reliable, feasible and practical animal-based indicators for evaluating animal welfare in order to promote the improvement of animal production systems across Europe. The protocols have been developed for species kept under very different husbandry systems, ranging from highly intensive to pasture-based systems, and that involve different production parameters, from intensive dairy production to extensive meat or draught animal production.
This welfare assessment protocol is intended for dairy goats kept in intensive or semi-intensive production systems. Many of the indicators developed here are applicable to other categories of goats (non-producing goats, kids...), but have not been validated for these categories.
Document Types: Guides to Good Practice
Animal categories: Caprines
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Livestock buildings, Pain, Enrichment, Environment, Welfare indicators, Housing, Restraint equipment, Living environment, Modelling, Mutilation, Fear, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Published in 2015
This article aims to bring together in a single document the knowledge acquired over recent years on the mechanisms of the appearance and modulation of pain in animals. The review is divided into three parts. The first describes the different stages of development, transmission and integration of the nociceptive messages involved in the onset of pain (sensory and emotional components). The second describes the different types of modulation that can activate or inhibit the transmission of nociceptive messages. The third describes the different neurophysiological processes that accompany pain and can modulate it (inflammation, activation of the autonomic nervous system and the neuroendocrine system).
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Mammals, Monogastrics, Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Rodents, Ruminants, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Pain, Experimentation, Welfare indicators, Brain integration, Mutilation, Cognitive processes, Stress
Published in 2015
The establishment of efficient and simple tools to detect pain and assess its intensity would make it possible to meet the needs of professionals (farmers and producers, veterinarians, researchers, etc.), to answer questions raised by public opinion and debate on animal pain and to meet the requirements of the regulations on the use of animals for scientific purposes (cf. Coetzee 2013, bibliographical review). Recent studies have already enabled the identification of behavioural, zootechnical and physiological indicators for the presence and even the intensity of pain (cf. review of the literature by Prunier et al 2013). However, no integrated approach involving the simultaneous use of all these indicators has been developed to date. Moreover, some indicators cannot be used in current practice, and the sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of the various potential indicators are not always optimal. One route is to combine the indicators in order to increase their informational value. Through this overview, we wish to show i) that evaluation of type and level of pain is essential for optimal pain management and ii) that an evaluation based on a multiparametric approach is best suited to such an objective.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines, Ruminants
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Pain, Experimentation, Welfare indicators, Brain integration, Mutilation, Cognitive processes, Stress
Published in 2016
In order to achieve the objective evaluation of emotions in farm animals, the Agri-Bien-Être Animal network (an interdisciplinary group created by INRA in 1998, www6.inra.fr/agri_bien_etre_animal) has proposed experimental strategies based on cognitive evaluation theory in human psychology (Boissy et al 2007, Box 1). According to this conceptual framework, emotions are generated by the cognitive evaluation of a situation confronting the animal. Although the characterisation of these situations is complex (Forkman et al 2007), it is suggested that the animal would evaluate them using basic criteria for relevance (suddenness, novelty, etc) and involvement (predictability, etc), the degree to which they correspond to expectations, and according to its own adaptive capacities (controllability of the situation). At the end of this evaluation phase, the emotion felt by the animal is translated into emotional expression. It is the latter that can be assessed by the objective measurement of behavioural and physiological emotional responses (Box 2). By applying this conceptual framework to research in the neurobiology of emotions, the representation of the neural circuit of emotions can be built around those structures involved in the perception of the environment, information processing and the expression of emotional responses (Figure 1). From an experimental point of view, this theoretical framework requires the characterisation and standardisation of situations likely to serve as a trigger and the characterisation of the emotional responses expressed by individual animals in relation to the neurobiological actors studied.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Monogastrics, Ovines, Porcines, Ruminants, Poultry
Keywords: Anxiety, Experimentation, Brain integration, Memory, Neurogenesis, Fear, Stress
Published in 2007
Fear is probably the most-studied emotion in pets. In this overview, we attempt to establish the levels of repeatability and validity for fear tests carried out on cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, poultry and horses. We focus our review on the three most common types of fear tests: the arena test (open field), the novel object test and the stress test. For some tests, e.g. tonic immobility in poultry, there is a good body of literature on the factors affecting test results, test validity and age dependency. However, there are relatively few such well-defined and validated tests, and the element that is particularly lacking for most tests is information on robustness, i.e. what aspects can be modified without affecting the validity of the tests. The relative lack of standardised tests is an obstacle to the development of applied ethology as a science.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Monogastrics, Ovines, Porcines, Ruminants, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Experimentation, Welfare indicators, Memory, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress, Vocalisation
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