Discipline: Ethology

Advancing the quantitative characterization of farm animal welfare

Harriet Bartlett, Andrew Balmford, Mark A. Holmes, James L. N. Wood

Published in 2023

Paper developing welfare indicators for use in life cycle assessment (LCA) and different ways of aggregating them, then testing them on British pig farms. It shows that farms in the same LCA class have the same types of quality labels, and that the details of the way in which LCA welfare measures are established have little impact on the classification of farms based on their welfare levels.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Environment, Welfare indicators, Living environment

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Welfare issues in broiler chickens: overview

Brian Tainika, Ahmet Şekeroğlu, Ahmet Akyo, Zacharia Waithaka Ng'ang'a

Published in 2023

Publication reviewing the main factors contributing to poor welfare in broiler chickens, their sources, how to mitigate them, and farm management methods that can promote welfare.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Housing, Living environment, Fear, Stress, Livestock farming system, Welfare indicators

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Visual perception of emotion cues in dogs: a critical review of methodologies

Catia Correia-Caeiro, Kun Guo, Daniel S. Mills

Published in 2023

Scientific review revealing that research on the visual perception of emotions in dogs focuses on facial emotional cues, often ignoring whole-body information, and pointing to the interpretive errors that can arise as the result of poor study design and incorporation of biases such as anthropomorphism. It suggests that new technologies nevertheless offer a way to resolve data collection issues, offering useful perspectives in this area of study.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Precision farming, Human-animal relationships

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Welfare of laying hens on farm

Søren Saxmose Nielsen, Julio Alvarez, Dominique Joseph Bicout, Paolo Calistri, Elisabetta Canali, Julian Ashley Drewe, Bruno Garin-Bastuji, Jose Luis Gonzales Rojas, Christian Gortázar Schmidt, Mette S Herskin, Miguel Ángel Miranda Chueca, Virginie Michel, Barbara Padalino, Paolo Pasquali, Helen Clare Roberts, Hans Spoolder, Karl Stahl and Antonio Velarde

Published in 2023

EFSA opinion identifying the most important factors impacting on the welfare of laying hens: bone lesions, group stress, inability to avoid unwanted sexual behavior, inability to engage in comfort behavior, inability to engage in exploratory or foraging behavior, isolation stress, predation stress, resting problems, movement restriction, skin disorders, soft tissue lesions and integument lesions. It proposes animal-based measures to assess them, and sets out the risks related to different farming systems. Measures to prevent risks and mitigate welfare consequences are proposed. Recommendations are made to address specific welfare issues for laying hens.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Consciousness, Enrichment, Risk management, Welfare indicators, Housing, Living environment, Human-animal relationships, Mutilation, Stress, Livestock farming system, Societal issues, Pain

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Welfare of broilers on farm

Søren Saxmose Nielsen, Julio Alvarez, Dominique Joseph Bicout, Paolo Calistri, Elisabetta Canali, Julian Ashley Drewe, Bruno Garin-Bastuji, Jose Luis Gonzales Rojas, Christian Gortázar Schmidt, Mette S Herskin, Miguel Ángel Miranda Chueca, Virginie Michel, Barbara Padalino, Paolo Pasquali, Helen Clare Roberts, Hans Spoolder, Karl Stahl and Antonio Velarde

Published in 2023

EFSA opinion that identifies 19 major welfare consequences for broilers, animal-based measures to assess them, risks related to different farming systems and animal-based measures to assess them. Measures to prevent risks and mitigate welfare consequences are proposed. Recommendations are made to address specific welfare issues for broilers. Indicators for monitoring the welfare of broilers at slaughter are proposed.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Consciousness, Enrichment, Risk management, Welfare indicators, Housing, Living environment, Human-animal relationships, Mutilation, Stress, Livestock farming system, Societal issues, Pain

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Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans

Masanori Kohda, Redouan Bshary, Naoki Kubo, Shumpei Sogawa

Published in 2023

Scientific article showing that the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) is able to recognize itself in a mirror and in a photograph, and to distinguish itself from its relatives, which proves that it has the necessary cognitive capacities to build a mental image of itself.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Consciousness, Memory, Metacognition, Evolutionary processes

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Outside enclosure and additional enrichment for dairy goats

Knut Egil Bøe, Rebecca Ehrlenbruch, Inger Lise Andersen

Published in 2012

A scientific paper investigating the effects of access to an outdoor pen and environmental enrichment on the activity pattern and social behavior of Norwegian dairy goats kept on slatted floors with limited space. It shows that the goats prefer to use the outdoor pen when they are active, and view branches as an attractive enrichment.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Caprines

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Housing, Living environment, Livestock farming system

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Resting pattern and social interactions in goats—The impact of size and organization of lying space

Inger Lise Andersen, Knut Egil Bøe

Published in 2007

Scientific paper showing that the time Norwegian dairy goats spent resting and their resting habits depended more on the size than the lay-out of the lying space, while social interactions depended more on the lay-out than on the size of the lying space.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Caprines

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Housing, Living environment, Livestock farming system

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Looking beyond the Shoal: Fish Welfare as an Individual Attribute

Lauri Torgerson-White, Walter Sánchez-Suárez

Published in 2022

Scientific review on the current status of welfare assessment methods in aquaculture, comparing them with those for terrestrial animals, and offering recommendations for future research that would allow account to be taken of fish welfare at the level of the individual.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Welfare indicators, Livestock farming system

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Glucocorticoids in relation to behavior, morphology, and physiology as proxy indicators for the assessment of animal welfare. A systematic mapping review

Inga Tiemann, Lisa B. Fijn, Marc Bagaria, Esther M. A. Langen, F. Josef van der Staa3, Saskia S. Arndt, Cathalijn Leenaars, Vivian C. Goerlich

Published in 2023

A systematic review of the literature to determine whether glucocorticoid levels are a relevant indicator of animal welfare. It found that interventions that supposedly affect glucocorticoid levels do not always do so, and when they do, the changes in level are not always accompanied by changes in the associated welfare endpoints of behavior, morphology and physiology.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: All animals

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Welfare indicators, Stress

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