Subject: Cognition

Welfare of calves

Søren Saxmose Nielsen, Julio Alvarez, Dominique Joseph Bicout, Paolo Calistri, Elisabetta Canali, Julian Ashley Drewe, Bruno Garin-Bastuji, Jose Luis Gonzales Rojas, Christian Gortazar Schmidt, Mette Herskin, Virginie Michel, Miguel Ángel Miranda Chueca, Barbara Padalino, Paolo Pasquali, Helen Clare Roberts, Hans Spoolder, Karl Stahl, Antonio Velarde, Arvo Viltrop and Christoph Winckler

Published in 2023

EFSA opinion identifying fifteen highly relevant negative welfare consequences, the most common being respiratory disorders, inability to engage in exploratory or foraging behavior, gastroenteric disorders and group stress. It recommends a space provision of at least 3m2 per calf, keeping the calf with its mother for a minimum of 24 hours, after which calves should be kept in stable groups and soft bedding should be provided.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Animal adaptation, Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Risk management, Welfare indicators, Housing, Living environment, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Livestock farming system, Societal issues

Visual perception of emotion cues in dogs: a critical review of methodologies

Catia Correia-Caeiro, Kun Guo, Daniel S. Mills

Published in 2023

Scientific review revealing that research on the visual perception of emotions in dogs focuses on facial emotional cues, often ignoring whole-body information, and pointing to the interpretive errors that can arise as the result of poor study design and incorporation of biases such as anthropomorphism. It suggests that new technologies nevertheless offer a way to resolve data collection issues, offering useful perspectives in this area of study.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Precision farming, Human-animal relationships

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Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans

Masanori Kohda, Redouan Bshary, Naoki Kubo, Shumpei Sogawa

Published in 2023

Scientific article showing that the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) is able to recognize itself in a mirror and in a photograph, and to distinguish itself from its relatives, which proves that it has the necessary cognitive capacities to build a mental image of itself.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Consciousness, Memory, Metacognition, Evolutionary processes

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Cognitive Enrichment and Welfare: Current Approaches and Future Directions

Fay E. Clark

Published in 2017

Scientific review of the different forms of cognitive enrichment that have been tested for laboratory, farm and zoo animals. It identifies research needs and proposes new indicators for testing.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Wild animals, Sheep, Pigs, Rodents, Poultry

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Living environment

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Domestic hens succeed at serial reversal learning and perceptual concept generalization using a new automated touchscreen device

Rachel Degrande, Fabien Cornilleau, Léa Lansade, Plotine Jardat, Violaine Colson, Ludovic Calandreau

Published in 2022

Scientific paper testing the effectiveness of an automated device for performing cognitive tests in domestic fowl: a simple test, a serial instruction reversal learning task; and a more complex test, and a delayed sample matching task. The results reveal the behavioral flexibility and conceptual understanding of domesticated hens. They also demonstrate the value of using automated devices to improve our knowledge of farm animal cognition.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Animal-based measurements

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Dogs functionally respond to and use emotional information from human expressions

Natalia Albuquerque, Briseida Resende

Published in 2022

A scientific review of dogs' abilities to respond to and make functional use of emotional information from human expressions. It discusses the extent to which dogs can read human emotions.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships

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What is really social about social insect cognition?

Laure-Anne Poissonnier, Catherine Tait, Mathieu Lihoreau

Published in 2023

Scientific review on insect cognition, focusing on the hypothesis that there is such a thing as a "social brain", i.e. cognitive capacities specific to social species. Most of the research on cognition in insects is done on highly social species, so it is not possible to make comparisons with less social species. It would therefore be necessary to develop specific research programs to address this issue.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Insects

Keywords:Cognitive processes, Evolutionary processes

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When Do We Start Caring About Insect Welfare?

Tina Klobučar, David N. Fisher 

Published in 2023

Article addressing welfare issues for insects in light of increases in insect farming and consumption, their potential as an alternative source of protein for human and animal food, and their cognitive and sensory abilities suggested by the scientific data.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Insects

Keywords: Pain, Societal issues

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National chicken council broiler welfare guidelines and audit checklist

National Chicken Council

Published in 2022

Two-yearly update of the NCC broiler welfare guidelines including key welfare indicators (including foot pad health, gait, reduction of leg and wing injuries), with a focus on bird behaviour, objective measures and welfare outcomes, enhanced training programs for proper handling of birds, and an improved audit tool.

Document Types: Good practice guide

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Living environment, Mutilation, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Livestock farming system

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Development of human-directed behavior in dairy calves reared individually or in pairs

S.B. Doyle, E.E. Lindner, K.N. Gingerich, E.K. Miller-Cushon

Published in 2022

Scientific paper showing the persistent effects of the social housing of early life dairy calves (singly or in pairs) on human-directed behaviours, a phenomenon that may have implications for long-term management.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Enrichment, Housing, Human-animal relationships

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