Keywords: Animal-based measurements

Scientific review of scientific assessments of the impact of castration on cattle welfare, including pain and injury, stress, inflammation, effects on the immune system and on production levels. It describes the different methods of castration, the pain responses associated with each, and how age and pain mitigation strategies affect these responses.

Report listing those animal-based measures that the AHAW network considers useful to record and monitor in abattoirs as a means to assess the on-farm welfare of cattle. The information contained in this report will be used to draw up EFSA's scientific opinion on the welfare of cattle on farm, due in 2025.

Scientific article comparing two common procedures to evaluate human attention as a means of reinforcing dog behaviors.

Scientific review emphasising that poultry have varied and well-developed senses, that they interact with each other, that they are capable of learning, and that they have  a much wider repertoire of cognitive skills than is often assumed.

Presentation of the 6 objectives that make up the cattle welfare strategy designed by Ruminant Health & Welfare in conjunction with the entire British cattle industry.

Article on the development and testing of a specific protocol for measuring the welfare of horses known to be reared in either extensive or confined systems, and assessing whether the  welfare indicators selected for it were influenced by the type of system (extensive or confined).

Scientific article on the development of a brain-machine interface to study rats' abilities to voluntarily navigate and direct objects in a virtual reality arena, solely by activating and sustaining appropriate hippocampal representations of remote locations.

Report on work, carried out by the network of national contact points providing scientific support on animal welfare at the time of killing, on turkey welfare. This work produced a list of animal-based measures considered by the experts to be useful for on-site recording and monitoring activities in abattoirs to retrospectively assess the on-farm welfare of turkeys .

Scientific article documenting the various facial signals produced by cats during affiliative and non-affiliative intraspecific interactions. It demonstrates that cats produce a great number of expressions by combining a set of facial muscle movements in different ways. Affiliative and non-affiliative signals are notably different, and it is possible for humans to distinguish between some of them. 

Scientific article presenting an algorithm designed to assess the welfare of dairy cows based on sensor data (accelerometer and/or lactometer) and farm records. It concludes that the algorithm alone cannot not provide a sufficiently sensitive and specific assessment of cow welfare, but that there is merit in combining it with farm-based welfare measurement visits.