Discipline: Ethology

Review: Animal husbandry and sustainable agriculture: is animal welfare (only) an issue of sustainability of agricultural production or a separate issue on its own?

Daniel Wawrzyniak

Published in 2024

Scientific article explaining the risks of conflating the concept of animal welfare with that of sustainable farming.Linking them can blur their differences and may result in misguided agricultural political decision-making.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep, Fish, Pigs, Ruminants, Poultry

Keywords: Environment, One Welfare, Pollution,Societal issues, livestock farming system

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Feeding predictability as a cognitive enrichment protects brain function and physiological status in rainbow trout: a multidisciplinary approach to assess fish welfare

A. Kleiber, J. Roy, V. Brunet, E. Baranek, J.M. Le-Calvez, T. Kerneis, A. Batard, S. Calvez, L. Pineau, S. Milla, V. Guesdon, L. Calandreau, V. Colson

Published in 2024

Scientific article showing that the feeding predictability contributes to cognitive enrichment, offering a way to improve the welfare and immune status of rainbow trout.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Aggression, Aggressiveness, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Stress

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Noxious stimulation induces self-protective behaviour in bumblebees

Matilda Gibbons, Elisa Pasquini, Amelia Kowalewska, Eva Read, Sam Gibson, Andrew Crump, Cwyn Solvi, Elisabetta Versace, Lars Chittka

Published in 2024

Scientific article on behavioral responses in bumblebees to noxious stimulation (application of heat), reporting that bumblebees directed their grooming more frequently towards a noxiously stimulated site, thus demonstrating that they feel pain.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Insects

Keywords:Pain

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Pet and owner personality and mental wellbeing associate with attachment to cats and dogs

Aada Ståhl, Milla Salonen, Emma Hakanen, Salla Mikkola, Sini Sulkama, Jari Lahti, Hannes Lohi

Published in 2023

Scientific article showing the relationship between the personality of cats and dogs and that of their owners, as well as that  between the owner's mental well-being and the animal's undesirable behavior.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Canines, Felines

Keywords:Anxiety, Personality, Human-animal relationships

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Why do dogs wag their tails?

Silvia Leonetti, Giulia Cimarelli, Taylor A. Hersh, Andrea Ravignani

Published in 2024

Scientific review of the mechanism, ontogeny, function and evolution of tail-wagging behavior in dogs.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Evolutionary processes, Human-animal relationships

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Multi-animal 3D social pose estimation, identification and behaviour embedding with a few-shot learning framework

Yaning Han, Ke Chen, Yunke Wang, Wenhao Liu, Zhouwei Wang, Xiaojing Wang, Chuanliang Han, Jiahui Liao, Kang Huang, Shengyuan Cai, Yiting Huang, Nan Wang, Jinxiu Li, Yangwangzi Song, Jing Li, Guo-Dong Wang, Liping Wang, Yaping Zhang, Pengfei Wei

Published in 2024

Scientific article presenting a computer tool for quantifying subtle animal social behaviors in fields such as neuroscience and ecology

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: All animals

Keywords:Precision farming, Socialization

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Providing elevated structures in the pullet rearing environment affects behavior during initial acclimation to a layer aviary

Allison N. Pullin, Christina B. Rufener, Suzanne T. Millman, John F. Tarlton, Michael J. Toscan

Published in 2024

Scientific article reporting that hens with access to elevated platforms during the rearing phase make better use of the space in laying aviaries when they are first transferred there than those reared on the ground. The latter acclimatize within 1-2 weeks, but continue to make little use of the highest level of the aviary.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Enrichment, Housing, Livestock buildings

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Gut Microbiome Characteristics Of Horses With History Of Cribbing Behavior: An Observational Study

Ana Margarita Arias-Esquivel, Kwang Cheol Jeong, Peixin Fan, Jill Lance, Sally DeNotta, Carissa Wickens

Published in 2023

Scientific article to assess whether the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota differs in horses receiving a gastric health support supplement or a placebo on the one hand, and between "cribbing" or "non-cribbing" horses on the other. No difference was observed, however, a link was established between cribbing and fecal microbiota composition.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Microbiota, Stress, Behavioural disorders

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Fetching felines: a survey of cat owners on the diversity of cat (Felis catus) fetching behaviour

Jemma Forman, Elizabeth Renner, David A. Leavens

Published in 2023

Scientific article showing that, according to cat owners, where cats engage in "fetching" sessions, it is mostly the cats who determine when sessions begin and end and actively influence their owners' play behavior.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Felines

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships

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Feeding management of giraffe towards positive welfare

Sarah Depauw, Leen Verbist, Jeroen Stevens, Marina Salas

Published in 2023

Scientific article using the Five Domains of Animal Welfare model to optimize feeding strategies that promote positive affective states in zoo giraffes. The changes that were introduced increased the animals' pleasure, gastrointestinal comfort and engagement.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Human-animal relationships

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