Keywords : Housing

Scientific paper showing that the behavioural responses of cats in shelters vary according to sex and time of day, and are affected by noise levels. It advises that noise levels in shelters should be lowered to reduce fear and physiological responses in cats.

Scientific paper presenting a very large-scale Czech retrospective analysis of traumatic lesions in poultry and rabbits detected post-mortem at abattoirs. It reveals a high incidence of limb lesions in chickens and rabbits, and on the thorax in rabbits, exposing the need for reexamination of rearing conditions, and of housing and/or handling before slaughter in particular, in the Czech Republic.

Scientific paper investigating the chronic stress levels of recreational horses in relation to their living conditions in order to determine the best management strategy for the welfare of the horses.

Scientific paper demonstrating that ration composition and energy intake influence the incidence of oral stereotypies (especially empty chewing) and redirected behaviours (especially bedding consumption) in working horses (leisure, equestrian, patrol and endurance). Endurance horses are the most sensitive to ration composition.

Scientific review setting out to identify articles on risk factors and interventions associated with tail biting in pigs, along with data gaps in the literature.

Scientific paper comparing animal-based indicators for health, productivity and behaviour in individually and pair-housed dairy calves. Housing type did not affect health, feed intake or weight gain, but individually-housed calves placed in a new pen scored higher on movement behaviour than pair-housed calves placed in a new pen. This rebound effect indicates that the individual housing of calves results in activity deprivation.

A scientific review of the effects of stocking density for juvenile and adult zebrafish used in research on growth, reproduction, stress responses (including behaviour), water quality and disease outbreaks. It recommends that stocking density should be included in guidelines for housing and should be discussed in the materials and methods sections of papers where zebrafish are used.

Scientific paper providing information on the space requirements of finishing bulls to ensure their welfare. It focuses on the space occupied when motionless in the standing and lying positions and concludes that further studies are needed to take into account the space requirements of bulls to allow movement and social interactions.

Scientific paper comparing the influence of two ventilation systems (natural and mechanical) on the behaviour and welfare of fattening pigs. It concludes that the mechanical system is associated with a more positive emotional state in the pigs, but that in both systems high temperatures are associated with heat stress, and that the welfare state of the animals decreases during the last phases of fattening.

Scientific paper presenting and testing computational fluid dynamics models under 4 different sets of ventilation conditions to simulate airflow in cage-free chicken houses. The transition to cage-free rearing calls for changes to environmental conditions to ensure the best quality of animal welfare.