Keyword: Enrichment

AWIN Welfare assessment protocol for sheep

Cathy Dwyer, Roberto Ruiz, Ina Beltran de Heredia

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 the evaluation of animal welfare in order to promote the improvement of animal production systems across Europe. The protocols have been developed for species with very different husbandry systems, ranging from highly intensive to pasture-based systems, and involving different production parameters, from intensive dairy production to extensive meat or draught animal production.
This particular welfare assessment protocol is intended for adult female sheep (over one year of age), kept for milk and/or meat and has been tested for this specification. The protocol has not been tested for ewes kept primarily for wool production, or for dual-purpose meat and wool production, but it is expected that the protocol may also be applicable  for such cases. The protocol applies and has been tested on adult ewes kept indoors and outdoors. Since the indicators are based on sheep biology, many of the indicators may also be relevant to adult male sheep, but the protocol has not yet been tested for use in male animals.

Document Types: Guides to Good Practice

Animal categories: Ovines

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

Go to document

AWIN Welfare assessment protocol for goats

Monica Battini, Silvana Mattielo, George Stiwell, Ana Viera

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

The AWIN welfare assessment protocol for horses

Emanuela Dalla Costa, Michela Minero

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 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 horses over 5 years of age.

Document Types: Guides to Good Practice

Animal categories: Equines

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

Go to document

Assessment of positive emotions in animals to improve their welfare

Boissy A., Manteuffel G., Jensen M.B., Moe R.O., Spruijt B., Keeling L., Winckler C., Forkman B., Dimitrov I., Langbein J., Bakken M., Veissier I., Aubert A.

Published in 2007

It is now widely accepted that social welfare is not simply the absence of negative experiences, but rather the presence of positive experiences such as enjoyment. However, scientific research on positive emotions has long been neglected. This paper addresses two main issues: first, it reviews the current state of scientific knowledge supporting the existence of positive emotional states in animals and, second, it suggests possible applications of this knowledge to improve quality of life under animal management conditions. In the first part of the paper, we review recent advances in psychology and neuroscience to provide pragmatic frames based on cognitive processes (such as positive anticipation, contrast and controllability) for use in further investigation of positive emotions in animals. Next, the neurobiological basis of positive emotions is brought to animal welfarer in the identification behavioural and physiological expressions of positive experiences in animals. The monitoring of the autonomic nervous system (via the heart rate and its variability) and the immune system could provide appropriate tools to better assess emotional states in animals, supplementing classic adrenal cortical measurements. In the second part of the paper, useful strategies to enhance positive experiences (such as physical, social and cognitive enrichment or putative genetic selection) are described. The paper then turns to practical applications to assess and promote positive emotions that can help improve an animal's quality of life. Play, affiliation behaviours and certain vocalisations would appear to be the most promising indicators to evaluate positive experiences in laboratory animals and in farm animals kept under commercial production conditions.

Document Types: Scientific review

Keywords: Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Pain, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Brain integration, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress

Go to document

La Conscience des Animaux

Pierre Le Neindre, Muriel Dunier, Alain Boissy, Emilie Bernard, Xavier Boivin, Ludovic Calandreau, Nicolas Delon, Bertrand Deputte, Sonia Desmoulin-Canselier, Nathan Faivre, Martin Giurfa, Jean-Luc Guichet, Léa Lansade, Raphaël Larrère, Pierre Mormède, Patrick Prunet, Benoist Schaal, Jacques Servière, Claudia Terlouw

Published in 2018

Are animals conscious beings?  How do they perceive their own worlds? These questions are being debated in the scientific community for both academic and practical reasons. Accordingly, on 7 July 2012, a group of leading scientists in England headed by Philip Low felt it necessary to publish The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. This manifesto states that "a convergence of evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuro-anatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states as well as the ability to express intentional behaviour...". It calls for further research to learn more about this capacity in animals. In 2015, INRA carried out a multidisciplinary scientific expertise in order to provide a critical review of the literature on animal consciousness. This work was executed at the request of the European Food Safety Authority (request EFSA-Q-2015-00390, contract no. EFSA/Inra/2015/01).

This study is an overview based on the report from INRA's collective scientific expertise (Le Neindre et al., 2017). It is divided into six chapters:
––the social, ethical and legal context for the expertise (chapter 1)
––consciousness in the animal kingdom: historical perspectives, epistemology and definitions (chap. 2)
––overview of current knowledge on human consciousness, with a discussion of the main current innovative concepts given their usefulness for our understanding of the available data on animals (Chapter 3)
––behavioural and neurobiological components in animals that allow us to talk about more or less elaborate content of consciousness. This chapter constitutes the core of the expertise (chap. 4).
––the positive consequences of taking consciousness into account on our understanding of welfare, suffering and pain (chap. 5)
––the importance of consciousness in the adaptive capacities of animals, especially in their phylogenetic components (Chapter 6)
The book concludes with proposals for future avenues of research resulting from the deliberations of various scientific bodies.

Document Types: Scientific work

Animal categories: Bovines, Canines, Caprines, Equines, Mammals, Monogastrics, Birds (except poultry), Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Primates, Reptiles, Rodents, Ruminants, Poultry

Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Enrichment, Brain integration, Metacognition, Cognitive processes, Evolutionary processes, Stress

Go to document