Document type : Scientific article

Symposium review: scientific assessment of affective states in dairy cattle

Thomas Ede, Benjamin Lecorps, Marina A.G.von Keyserlingk, Daniel M.Weary

Published in 2019

Preview:  “Drawing upon a body of theoretical and applied work, we critically review the scientific literature on the assessment of affective states in animals, drawing examples where possible from research on dairy cattle, and highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of scientific methods used to assess affective states in animals.”

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords: Welfare indicators

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Effects of environmental complexity on welfare indicators of fast-growing broiler chickens

Tahamtani FM, Pedersen IJ, Riber AB

Published in 2019

The study aims to investigate the effects of different types of environmental complexity on leg health and welfare indicators for fast-growing chickens housed in accordance with mainstream European legislation.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords: Pain, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Housing, Living environment, Stress, Livestock farming system

Ethical justifications for animal welfare concerns

Larrère R

Published in 2007

The article addresses the issue of moral concern for domestic animals and for animal welfare defined as freedom from mortality and morbidity, freedom from stress, and the animal's freedom to express the natural behaviour of its species. While the first two definitions can lead to a failure to consider the animal in all its aspects, the third has the advantage of achieving this, taking into account the needs and social behaviours of livestock.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Keywords: Consciousness, Societal issues, Human-animal relationships

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Stress and welfare: two complementary concepts that are intrinsically related to the animal's point of view

Veissier I., Boissy A

Published in 2007

The closely associated concepts of welfare and stress may be considered as opposites since welfare cannot be achieved under stress and vice versa. Stress was first considered as an unspecific response to any challenge taxing the organism's resources where the HPA axis plays a central role. Along the same lines, welfare was considered as the state of an individual on a continuum between poor and good depending on the efforts required to adapt to the environment. However, these views cannot explain opposite results such as up- vs. down-regulation of the HPA axis and hypo- vs. hyper-behavioural reactivity under chronic stress. ... It is therefore suggested that the discrepancies found in the literature in terms of responses of the HPA axis or modification of behaviour under aversive conditions may stem from differences in the way a situation is evaluated. It is argued that stress comes from the animal's evaluation of the outcome of a situation, and that welfare is the state resulting from that evaluation.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Keywords: Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Consciousness, Welfare indicators, Brain integration, Memory, Metacognition, Cognitive processes, Resilience, Stress

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