Enrichment of the environments of captive primates is currently of interest as both a basic and an applied research question, particularly when social and inanimate enhancements are used simultaneously. We measured the behavioural effects of two intensities of inanimate enrichment on 12 unimale-multifemale groups and 12 all-male groups from three cohorts of three to four-year-old rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Half of the groups received a simple, inexpensive enrichment programme while the other groups received a more complex and costly combination of physical andfeeding enhancements. Observations were conducted on 93 subadults of both sexes during their initial year of group housing. Intensity of enrichment did not differentially affect the amount of time subjects spent in any of the activities analysed. Subjects that received the more complex programme spent only 8.3 per cent of their time using the extra enhancements. Therefore, there was little demonstrated benefit of the more costly enrichment programme. The three cohorts differed in the amount of time that they spent inactive, behaving agonistically, playing and located near a group mate. A planned comparison of one cohort that had been single-housed without visual access to social groups, to the two cohorts that had visual access to social groups during single caging, revealed differences in play and socially-located behaviour, which may have been due to differences in extra-cage conditions two years prior to the present study. When primates are housed socially with conspecifics as ‘social enhancements ‘, the relatively simple inanimate enrichment programme we used was as effective as the more costly programme. When enrichment resources are limited, inanimate enrichment efforts should be focused on monkeys that are not socially enriched.

Despite improvements in zoo housing and management conditions over the last years, zoo animals may still present undesirable behaviours, such as aggression, stereotypies, boredom and a general absence of natural behaviours. In order to improve animal welfare, researchers are constantly looking for tools to enrich the environment and increase sensory information. Semiochemicals carry important information and are already in use for domestic and wild species. The aim of the current study was to evaluate their impact on the behaviour of captive lions. The behaviour of 18 African lions (Panthera leo) living at Aqualeon Safari Park, Tarragona, Spain was recorded during four different experimental conditions: (i) no intervention (baseline); (ii) Cat Facial Pheromone F3 in gel-diffuser blocks; (iii) Cat Appeasing Pheromone (CAP) in gel-diffuser blocks; and (iv) placebo blocks. The schedule consisted of six days with exposure to each condition and three days without. It was repeated twice. The statistical analysis showed a number of differences: animals exhibited longer periods of ‘follow’ behaviour when exposed to F3 than control or placebo; and longer periods of ‘play’ behaviour during F3 than control, placebo or CAP, although there was also a significant difference between CAP and placebo vs control. The lions also ‘ran’ more during F3 than during all other conditions and ‘walked’ more during F3 than during control or CAP; walking time was also significantly higher during placebo and CAP vs control. These results suggest that semiochemicals affect the behaviour of lions in captivity and might be considered and studied more thoroughly as potential tools to improve welfare.

Determining objective measures for proof of consciousness in non-human animals has been helped by improved understanding of neural correlates of human consciousness. Functional imaging and neuropsychological studies have shown remarkable overlap between structures involved in actual perception of social and non-social objects and those involved in forming mental images of them. One area of particular interest is individual face recognition. This involves regions of the temporal lobe that are mainly only activated by actual perception or mental imagery of faces. Using behavioural, neuroanatomical and neurophysiological approaches in sheep, we have found that they have similar specialized abilities for recognizing many individuals from their faces. They have developed the same specialized neural processing regions in the temporal lobe for aiding such recognition. Furthermore, parallel activation of other brain regions controlling behavioural and emotional responses only occurs when they are overtly interested in the individuals whose faces they perceive. Such interest might therefore equate to their becoming consciously aware of them. Preliminary experiments have indicated that sheep may form and use mental images and that the regions of the temporal lobe that respond to faces can also do so under conditions where faces are suggested but do not actually appear. Such similarities between humans and sheep in this form of social recognition make it difficult to claim that humans can form mental images of faces whereas sheep cannot. While the ability to form and use mental imagery is not in itself definitive proof of consciousness, it is an important component part.

Increased production has been the major goal of animal breeding for many decades, and the correlated side-effects have grown to become a major issue in animal welfare. In this paper, the main genetic mechanisms in which such side-effects may occur are reviewed with examples from our own research in chickens. Pleiotropy, linkage and regulatory pathways are the most important means by which a number of traits may be affected simultaneously by the same selection pressure. Pleiotropy can be exemplified by the gene PMEL17 which causes a lack of black pigmentation in chickens and, simultaneously, predisposes them to become the victims of feather pecking. Linkage is a probable reason why a limited region on chicken chromosome 1 affects many different traits, such as growth, reproduction and fear-related behaviour. Gene regulation is affected by stress, and may cause modifications in behaviour and phenotype which are transferred from parents to offspring by means of epigenetic modifications. Insights into phenomena, such as these, may increase our understanding not only of how artificial selection works, but also evolution at large.

Farm assurance schemes can set standards to assure compliance with specific requirements relating to animal welfare. As such, standards can be set to address genetic-related welfare problems in farm animals, such as those associated with fast growth rates in meat chickens (broilers) (Gallus gallus domesticus). Based on discussions with broiler breeding companies, broiler producers and in line with published research, the RSPCA placed a maximum limit on the genetic growth rate potential of broilers that could be used within its own farm assurance scheme — Freedom Food. Despite the introduction of this requirement, the number of birds reared on the scheme increased from 25 million to 55 million per year over a three-year period, with all of these birds meeting the genetically slower growing requirement. In addition, the two largest global broiler breeding companies responded to this change in the market by each developing a genetically slower growing bird. This demonstrates that assurance schemes can have a pivotal role in tackling genetic welfare problems in farm animals, such as those associated with fast growth in broilers.

The effect of environmental enrichment on the welfare of stabled horses was estimated on the basis of positive and negative behavioural indicators. Six stabled horses were exposed for seven days to each of two conditions in early spring: i) a window at the back of the loose box was opened, but no horses were within the view of the subject horses (OW) and ii) the window in the loose box was opened and two horses that had been in the same stable as the subject horses were turned out to the paddock next to the stable and were within view of the subject horses (OWH). The window in the loose box had been closed prior to the start of the study for protection against the cold during winter months (CW condition) but horses could see outside the loose box through the grille door. The behaviour of the subject horses was recorded by video camera from 1300 to 1530h, firstly, in the CW condition for the three days prior to treatment as the control condition, and then for the last three days of each week in the OW and OWH conditions. The behaviour was focal- and instantaneous-sampled at 30-s intervals. Significant differences between the effects of the loose box conditions on the mean percentage of time spent in standing behaviour, looking behaviour, and bedding investigation behaviour (which may be an indicator of frustration) were observed but no significant difference in the mean percentage of time spent in standing-sleep behaviour (which may be an indicator of behavioural satisfaction) was observed. When the window was opened, bedding investigation and standing behaviour decreased and, when the conspecifics were within view, bedding investigation behaviour decreased and looking behaviour increased. The results suggested that the OW and OWH treatments suppressed the frustration of stabled horses which did not perform any abnormal behaviour, but may not increase the behavioural satisfaction of stabled horses.

This paper describes a case example where initiatives from private assurance schemes, scientists, charities, government and egg companies have improved the welfare of UK cage-free laying hens. The RSPCA and Soil Association farm assurance schemes introduced formal welfare outcome assessment into their annual audits of laying-hen farms in 2011. Feather loss was assessed on 50 birds from each flock on a three-point scale for two body regions: Head and Neck (HN) and Back and Vent (BV). In support of the observations, assessors were trained in feedback techniques designed to encourage change in farmer behaviour to improve welfare. In addition, during Year 2 farmers were asked about changes they had made, and intended to make on their farms. During 2011-2013 there were also wider industry initiatives to improve feather cover. Data were analysed from 830 and 743 farms in Year 1 and Year 2, respectively. From Year 1 to Year 2 there was a significant reduction in the prevalence of feather loss from 31.8% (9.6% severe) to 20.8% (6% severe) for the HN region, and from 33.1% (12.6% severe) to 22.7% (8.3% severe) for BV. Fifty-nine percent of 662 farmers reported they had made changes on their farms during Year 1 to improve bird welfare. For such a substantial industry change, attributing causation to specific initiatives is difficult; however, this is the first study to demonstrate the value to animal welfare of certification schemes monitoring the effectiveness of their own and other industry-led interventions to guide future policy.

Development agencies and animal welfare charities try to improve the health and welfare of livestock in the developing world by educating owners and providing healthcare. The impact assessment of these projects relies mainly upon input-related parameters (eg number of animals treated or educational lectures delivered). The aim of this study was to investigate whether animal-based parameters, such as scores for skin lesions, body condition and lameness, could be used to assess the impact of interventions by development agencies on working donkeys. A general checklist for integument assessment of livestock, developed and then tested on two British farms, was redefined for assessment of equine animals in West Kenya. In total, 346 donkeys were assessed over four days with a mobile clinic of the Kenyan Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, using 25 animal-based parameters. The checklist was easy to use: the parameters could be scored using visual assessment or palpation, and the procedure was completed in approximately 5 min per animal. The method was found to be acceptable for owners and animal health technicians, and no special equipment was required. Significant observations included a reduced frequency of leg lesions when head-tethering (as opposed to leg-tethering) was used, and a reduced frequency of foot lesions in regions previously visited by the charity. This animal-based method proved that the charity had made a positive impact on donkey welfare through owner education.

Companion or pet animals are an integral part of many societies. Ownership rates of at least one pet for every two households (50%) have been reported in numerous countries, including the UK (Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association 1996), The Netherlands (Endenburg et al 1990), Poland (Fogle 1994), the USA (Rowan 1992), France (Anon 1995a) and Australia (Anon 1995b). While on one hand the animals gain from their close association with humans by being sheltered, fed and loved, they can also suffer neglect, cruelty, abandonment, unnecessary euthanasia, and may develop behaviour problems. The quality of our relationships with these animals is indeed variable.

‘Animal Ethics Dilemma’ is a freely available computer-supported learning tool (www.animalethicsdilemma.net or www.aedilemma.net) which has been developed primarily for veterinary undergraduates but is applicable also to students in other fields of animal science. The objectives of the computer program are to promote students' understanding of the ethics related to animal use, to illustrate ethical dilemmas that arise in animal use, to broaden students' moral imagination, and to enable students to differentiate between types of ethical argument. The program comprises five case studies: (1) the blind hens; (2) ANDi the genetically modified monkey; (3) euthanasia of a healthy dog; (4) animal slaughter; and (5) rehabilitation of seals. Special consideration has been given to enhancing the pedagogic value of the program. Students can control their learning by selecting a variety of ways to explore the program; for example, they can navigate the program using the ‘Assist Me’ option, which explains the basis of the ethical arguments. Reality text provides details of real events on which the case is based, and a glossary of terminology is available for the students to explore. Selected access to a case template is also available, enabling students and teachers to create their own case studies. Evaluation of the program has been ongoing during its development.

The study of farm animal behaviour is a critical tool for assessing animal welfare. Collecting behavioural data with continuous sampling or short scan sampling intervals (eg every 60th second) is considered ideal as this provides the most complete and accurate dataset; however, these methods are also time and labour intensive. Longer sampling intervals provide an alternative in order to increase efficiency, but these require validation to ensure accurate estimation of the data. This study aims to validate scan sampling intervals for lambs (Ovis aries) housed on pasture. Grazing, lying, standing, drinking, locomotion, and mineral consumption were evaluated from six pens of crossbred lambs (six lambs per pen) for 15 h. Data from 1-min instantaneous scan sampling were compared with data from instantaneous scan sampling intervals of 5, 10, 15, and 20 min in two statistical tests: generalised linear mixed model and regression analysis. Using the mixed model, the percentage of time each behaviour was performed did not differ amongst sampling intervals for all behaviours except grazing, which was statistically different at 20-min intervals. Using regression analysis, lying and grazing estimations were accurate up to 20-min intervals, and standing was accurate at 10- and 20-min intervals only. Locomotion, mineral consumption, and drinking demonstrated poor associations for all tested intervals. The results from this study suggest that a 10-min instantaneous scan sampling interval will accurately estimate lying, grazing, and standing behaviour for lambs on pasture. This validation will assist with the efficiency of future data collection in lamb behaviour and welfare research.

Environmental enrichment is a key component in improving the psychological and physiological well-being of animals under professional care. Environmental enrichment involves the addition of stimuli, including objects and cognitive challenges, into the environment in order to increase species-specific behaviour and provide opportunities for choice and control. The effectiveness of enrichment should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine if the desired result has been achieved. Environmental enrichment devices (EEDs) can be utilised to present novel problems to animals under professional care. Here, a submerged interactive cognitive apparatus was presented to eight bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) five days a week for 18 weeks and behavioural indicators of animal welfare assessed. As a group, dolphins spent more time in social swims compared to solitary swims and more time at the bottom of the habitat than the middle or top throughout the day, even when the apparatus was not immediately available. Individuals’ differences were apparent in the type and amount of engagement with the apparatus. Three dolphins engaged with the apparatus by solving it or consuming the reward. Two dolphins, D4 and D8, engaged simultaneously with the apparatus and participated in more social swimming with each other. D4 solved the interactive apparatus and engaged in more social active and solitary active behaviours. D1 and D4 increased their use of the bottom of the habitat. This study is the first report of underwater enrichment increasing dolphins time at depth throughout the day even when the enrichment device is not available. The interactive apparatus was an effective form of enrichment for dolphins participating in successful trials.

The stressful effects that environments have on farm and laboratory animal welfare are likely to depend on how much animals understand of the behaviour and intentions of their conspecifics as well as on their understanding of their physical environment. However, studies on animal social cognition have primarily focused on primates. Here, we report on our work on social cognition in domestic pigs. It focuses on the ability of domestic pigs to assess and use to their advantage the behaviour of conspecifics, and uses approaches pioneered in studies on primates. Our work has shown that dominant pigs use the privileged knowledge of a subordinate to their own advantage in a competitive foraging situation. While such exploitative behaviour is likely to be based on rapid learning about the subordinate ‘s behaviour, it is also possible that ‘higher’ cognitive abilities such as visual perspective taking could be involved. Ongoing work uses an adaptation of the Guesser-Knower paradigm to test whether pigs are indeed capable of visual perspective taking.

Positive reinforcement training is one component of behavioural management employed to improve psychological well-being. There has been regulatory promotion to compensate for restricted social housing in part by providing human interaction to singly caged primates, implying an efficacy standard for evaluating human interaction. The effect of positive reinforcement training on the behaviour of 61 singly housed laboratory rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) was evaluated at two large primate facilities. Training involved body part presentation and basic control behaviours. Baseline data were compared to two treatment phases presented in varying order across individuals, six minutes per week of positive reinforcement training and six minutes per week of unstructured human interaction. While a MANOVA involving behavioural categories and study conditions across study subjects was significant, univariate ANOVAs found no effect of phase within any behavioural category. Categorising subjects according to rearing, housing facility, or baseline levels of abnormal behaviour did not reveal changes in behaviour with positive reinforcement training or human interaction. This study failed to detect, to any degree, the types of behavioural changes documented in the scientific literature to result from pairing singly housed monkeys. Implementing short durations of positive reinforcement training across large numbers of singly housed animals may not be the most effective manner for incorporating positive reinforcement training in the behavioural management of laboratory macaques. Rather, directing efforts toward individuals with specific behavioural, management, clinical, research or therapeutic needs may represent a more fruitful approach to improving psychological well-being with this technique.

Rats are a well-understood and widely used laboratory species that should be provided with environmentally enriched caging in line with modern animal welfare guidelines. This paper reviews which sources of enrichment are effective and should be prioritised, and how methods for providing enrichment might be selected using rats’ preferences as a guide. Rats demonstrate high demand for social contact and prefer larger cages, and cages with shelters, nesting material and foraging devices. Rats also discriminate between different methods of providing a given type of enrichment. It is clear that rats should be provided with enrichments such as social contact and shelter, and, in fact, that these should probably be considered basic husbandry requirements rather than optional improvements. It is still difficult, however, for animal caretakers to access proven, standardised methods for providing appropriately enriched caging, and the level of enrichment routinely provided to most rats in the laboratory appears to be low. Further research is required to assess the impact of enrichment upon research variables and to develop commercially viable enrichment products for rats in the laboratory.

The Action Plan of the European Commission 2006-2010 proposed a move towards more private and less state regulation of animal welfare and Great British (GB) Governments made a commitment to reduce the burden of inspection of farms by targeting high-risk enterprises. In previous research in GB, farmers in private, voluntary regulated schemes were more compliant with GB legislation and code at statutory welfare inspections made by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) than farmers not in such schemes. The current study investigated whether membership of other private voluntary regulators and national data sources were associated with greater compliance with welfare at APHA inspections and whether the previous association between greater compliance and membership of private schemes persisted. Compliance at APHA inspections remained higher on farms in the private schemes previously investigated. It was also higher in the one retailer and seven herd health schemes investigated. There was no association between non-welfare EU cross-compliance inspections and compliance at APHA inspections. Approximately 90% of farmers in a scheme passed animal welfare inspections compared with 80% of non-scheme members. We conclude that farms in private schemes are more likely to pass APHA inspections and so this criterion can be used in selection of farms for risk-based inspection. We hypothesise that private regulation with regular inspection of all farms could raise compliance with animal welfare legislation to at least the minimum legal standards, however, it could result in animals with low welfare being concealed; consequently, this hypothesis requires testing.

Choice tests may aid determining whether qualitative dietary restriction improves the welfare of feed-restricted broiler breeder chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus). However, hunger-stress may reduce competency to choose by impairing learning. The effect of chronic feed restriction on the ability of broiler breeders to learn a hunger-relevant discrimination task was investigated using a Y-maze paradigm. The task was to associate black and white arms with large and small quantities of feed. Birds were reared to three growth curves by means of severe (n = 12), moderate (n = 12) or very mild feed restriction (n = 12). Learning the task and selecting the larger food option allowed birds to increase their feed intake. Time taken to traverse the Y-maze was also measured. Birds from all treatment groups traversed the Y-maze more quickly over time, indicating that they had learnt that running down the Y-maze arms was associated with a rewarding outcome (food). However, feed restriction significantly reduced their ability to associate the black and white cues with differences in food quantity. Consequently, average pay-offs in terms of daily feed increments disproportionately accrued to the less feed-restricted treatment groups. It is concluded that feed restriction affected the performance of broiler breeders in this task, perhaps by narrowing their attention such that they ignore potentially hunger-relevant contextual cues. However, low overall group success rates demonstrate that this task was difficult to learn even for less severely feed-restricted birds. Therefore, Y-maze choice tests may not be the most appropriate method for determining hungry broiler breeder dietary preferences.

In this paper we describe the existence and consequences of subspecific and individual variation in the genetic make-up of house mice. The purpose is to illustrate forms of variation that are often neglected in discussions about animal care and experimental design. Towards this end, different inbred mouse strains as well as genetically selected mouse lines are compared in relation to their ecological origin. Firstly, the behaviour of BALB/c, C57BL/6J and CBA mice is described in relation to different habitats. Furthermore, their aggression is compared, as measured by two paradigms. It appears that some inbred lines (eg BALB/c and C57BL/6J) clearly show behaviour that reflects the functional adaptation to the natural habitats in which their ancestors lived. Other strains (eg CBA) show a lack of such behavioural adaptation and their phenotypes appear to be very unstable over time. Secondly, two fundamentally different characters, both present in populations of wild house mice and under genetic control, are described: on the one hand, active copers are characterized by aggressive behaviour; on the other hand, passive copers are reluctant to attack. The active, aggressive animals (manipulators) are well adapted to an invariant environment like their own territory, whereas the passive, non-aggressive copers (adjustors) are well adapted to a changing environment, eg when roaming. We discuss to what extent these coping styles are present in laboratory strains of mice. The major conclusion with regard to both phenomena is that individual and subspecific variation may have significant implications for experimental design and the welfare of the experimental animals.

The illuminance and spectral power distribution in 19 duckling and 16 turkey poult houses in the UK were sampled. Illuminance was highly variable within duckling houses and to a lesser extent in housing for turkey poults. In a free choice experiment, the preferences of commercial ducklings and turkey poults for four incandescent illuminances (<I, 6, 20 and 200 Ix; Osram, 60 W, Pearl) were tested at 2 and 6 weeks of age. Four replicate flocks of 12 birds were given continuous access to four compartments illuminated with each illuminance for six days. The illuminances were changed daily between the compartments. After two days of conditioning, the birds’ location and behaviour was recorded at 10 min intervals over 22 h. Nine and 12 defined behavioural categories were recorded for the ducklings and poults respectively. Ducklings spent significantly more time occupying the three brightest light environments both at 2 and 6 weeks of age, and the least time in the dimmest. Illuminance had a significant effect on the partition of behaviours amongst the light environments. At 2 weeks of age, locomotion and environmentally directed pecking occurred most often in 6, 20 and 200 lx, whereas at 6 weeks, preening and feeding also occurred more often in these light environments. At 6 weeks of age, resting, standing and drinking occurred significantly more often in 6 lx than in the dimmest environment. Turkeys spent most time in the brightest environment at 2 weeks of age, but in 20 and 200 Ix at 6 weeks. This change in overall preference was reflected in the partition of different behaviours between the light environments. At 2 weeks of age, all behaviours were observed to occur most often in 200 lx. At 6 weeks, resting and perching were observed least often in <I lx, whereas all other activities were observed more in the two brightest light environments. These results show that ducklings and turkey poults have significant but differing preferences for illuminance, and imply that some spatial or temporal variation in the ambient illuminance of housing would be consistent with their preferences.

Stunning by inhalation of nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) mixtures reduces aversion compared to high concentrations of CO2 in pigs and poultry. The objective of the study was to assess the aversion to 90% of CO2 (90C) and an alternative gas mixture of 80% N2 and 20% CO2 (80N20C) in commercial rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Sixty animals, divided into two groups, were used. During the first day, the rabbits of both groups were lowered in pairs into the pit with atmospheric air and their behaviour was recorded as control. During the second day, one group was exposed, again in pairs, to 90C and the other to 80N20C for 1 min. Exploratory behaviour and general activity were assessed 2 min before the exposure, during the exposure and for 2 min subsequently. During the exposure, signs of respiratory distress, loss of balance, muscle twitching and recovery of balance were also assessed. In the control sessions (atmospheric air), animals did not show respiratory distress or muscle twitching and were less active while the crate was descending than when gas treatments were applied. The percentage of animals with respiratory distress was higher in 90C (97%) than 80N20C (40%). Muscle twitching occurred earlier in 80N20C (97%; 23.9 s) than in 90C (17%; 37.4 s). A second phase of muscle twitching occurred only in 90C at 93.0 s. Mean latency of lost of balance and recovery were lower in 80N20C (24.2 and 98.6 s, respectively) than in 90C (28.2 and 110.2 s, respectively). It is concluded that rabbits showed less signs of respiratory distress to inhalation of 80N20C than 90C but more signs of aversion than when they were exposed to atmospheric air.