Douleurs animales : les identifier, les comprendre, les limiter chez les animaux d’élevage
Published in 2009
Document Types: Scientific review
Keywords: Consciousness, Pain
Subject: Cognition
Animal consciousness
Published in 2017
Document Types: Scientific review
Keywords: Consciousness, Metacognition
Stress and welfare: two complementary concepts that are intrinsically related to the animal's point of view
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
General Principles for the welfare of animals in production systems: the underlying science and its application
Published in 2013
Presentation of the 10 general principles relating to welfare in production systems adopted by the OIE for the development of standards
Document Types: Scientific review
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Pain, Enrichment, Environment, Welfare indicators, Housing, Living environment,Mutilation, Fear, Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Social ties in farmed ruminants: limits on and means of action to encourage the integration of the animal in its environment
Published in 2001
Farmed ruminants belong to gregarious species. Their social organisation is based on stable dominance-subordination relationships which ensure the resolution of many conflicts that are inherent in the promiscuity among animals in livestock farming. Social organisation is also based on affinity relationships that ensure group cohesion and increase tolerance between animals in situations of conflict. Furthermore, affinity relationships are closely involved in the adaptation of the animal to its living environment, since partners will influence the animal's response to its surroundings. Thus, whether through the development of behaviours that are more respectful of the animals' social needs, or by the management of periods of social transition, the adaptation and welfare of farm animals will be considerably increased.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Ruminants
Keywords: Consciousness, Enrichment, Metacognition, Living environment, Cognitive processes
Régulation des émotions chez l’animal d’élevage : focus sur les acteurs neurobiologiques
Published in 2016
The issue of the emotions of farm animals is part of a wider drive to improve farming conditions by taking animal welfare into account. The genesis of emotions derives from the cognitive capacity of individuals to perceive, evaluate and react to their environment. …. The parts of the brain involved in the neural network for emotions are linked to the perception and processing of information from the environment, and/or in the expression of emotional responses. ... . In light of this, it is now necessary to study the effects of early experiences on the development of the neural network for emotions and to better understand the role of cognitive evaluation in the genesis of emotions.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Poultry
Keywords: Anxiety, Consciousness, Brain integration, Metacognition, Neurogenesis, Stress
Bien-Etre animal
Published in 2007
Special issue on Animal Welfare, containing 14 original articles on aims, methodology and purpose, ethical foundations, variants for different species, how it is perceived by the animal industries.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Welfare indicators, Living environment,Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Assessment of positive emotions in animals to improve their welfare
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
A critical review of fear tests used on cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry and horses
Published in 2007
Fear is probably the most-studied emotion in pets. In this overview, we attempt to establish the levels of repeatability and validity for fear tests carried out on cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, poultry and horses. We focus our review on the three most common types of fear tests: the arena test (open field), the novel object test and the stress test. For some tests, e.g. tonic immobility in poultry, there is a good body of literature on the factors affecting test results, test validity and age dependency. However, there are relatively few such well-defined and validated tests, and the element that is particularly lacking for most tests is information on robustness, i.e. what aspects can be modified without affecting the validity of the tests. The relative lack of standardised tests is an obstacle to the development of applied ethology as a science.
Document Types: Scientific review
Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Monogastrics, Ovines, Porcines, Ruminants, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Experimentation, Welfare indicators, Memory, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress, Vocalisation
La Conscience des Animaux
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
