Farming and laboratory industries face questions about whether to breed animals with altered capacities for pleasure and pain. This paper addresses this issue from different approaches to animal welfare based on experiences, fitness and naturalness. This can illuminate both the breeding-related issues and the different approaches themselves. These differences have practical implications for decisions about animal breeding. All three approaches will agree that pleasure that is adaptive in natural environments has positive value and that maladaptive pain has negative value. However, where animals’ environments will not be natural, experiences-based approaches may support breeding animals that experience more pleasure and less pain or insentient animals; whereas, in some cases, fitness-based and naturalness-based approaches might favour the breeding of animals that experience more pain and less pleasure.

Characterisation of the effect of transport on the welfare of fowl requires common currency methods that can compare the effects of diverse stressors using the same unit of measure. Aversion of broiler chickens (42 ± 1 days old) to vibrational and thermal stressors was investigated in a continuous free-choice procedure. Each choice-chamber had four compartments, connected via a central zone, offering a thermal stressor (T: 40°C, relative humidity 21%), a vibrational stressor (V: 2 Hz, 1 ms−2), concurrent vibrational and thermal stressors (VT), or no applied stressors (N). In experiment 1, there were no significant effects of stressor on the latency to leave the compartments after initial introduction (n = 24). In experiment 2, 12 subjects were introduced individually to a chamber for 4 h during each of a control and two treatment sessions. The results indicated that chickens did not avoid vibration, but significantly avoided the thermal stressor overall (T and VT; P < 0.001). As no interactive effect of the stressors was observed, all avoidance of the combined stressors can be attributed to the effects of the thermal stressor alone. Further work is required to establish ways in which delayed stressors can be studied using behavioural methods before common currency methods can be practicable.

There have been many improvements regarding transport conditions, pre-slaughter handling, and captive-bolt stunning of cattle at commercial abattoirs, but many challenges still exist. Animals unaccustomed to human-animal contact, such as free-range beef cattle, may be especially difficult to handle on the day of slaughter. Shifting of the slaughter process from the abattoir to the animals’ familiar environment could improve animal welfare at slaughter. In 2011, the German government passed an amendment allowing farmers to slaughter free-range cattle, on-farm, using a rifle. A proper stun is vital when employing this method but neither sufficient practical experience nor scientific knowledge are in place to allow this. Thus, this study aimed to examine shot placement and the effect of diverse ammunition by means of shooting at cattle heads, post mortem, with a rifle. Impact was assessed using brain tissue damage observed from skull dissections. Placing the shot frontally at the forehead resulted in severe brain damage significantly more frequently than targeting laterally. A precise frontal shot, utilising both large and small bore calibres, caused severe brain damage that would almost certainly have led to immediate unconsciousness and death. One of the small bore calibres caused minimal brain damage apart from the trajectory. However, this was the only calibre not passing straight through. Due to the fact that the bullet remains within the skull, thus transferring all of its energy to the skull and brain, the impact of this calibre on the brain would also be expected to be rapidly fatal. A projectile that does not exit the skull would also be advantageous as regards safety.

Stockpeoples’ ability to recognise pain in their livestock, and to respond appropriately, is of utmost importance for animal welfare. Assessment of pain is complex, and attitudes and empathy are thought to play a role in peoples’ responses to the sight of pain. In a separate paper we investigated the dimensionality of Norwegian dairy goat stockpeoples’ goat-oriented attitudes and empathy. This paper investigates how the stockpeople assess and manage pain and disease in goats. The interrelationships between pain perception and provision of veterinary attention were explored, as well as how these two measures are associated with demographics, attitudes and empathy. Pain assessment scores for individual conditions ranged across most of the picture-based pain assessment scale. Dystocia, gangrenous mastitis and the neurological form of caprine arthritis encephalitis were considered most painful. Linear regression showed that one attitude dimension was positively associated with mean pain assessment score (mPAS), while growing up on a goat farm, having farming as main income and having seen a large number of the conditions were negatively associated with mPAS. Cluster analysis on reported frequency of contacting veterinary surgeons for ten conditions revealed two distinct groups of stock-people. Logistic regression showed that females, older stockpeople and stockpeople who grew up in a rural district were significantly more likely to be in the group that more frequently contacted veterinary surgeons. We conclude that training of stockpeople needs to focus on evaluation and management of pain to ensure a high standard of animal welfare.

More than ever the welfare of horses in equestrian sport is in the spotlight. In response to this scrutiny, one peak body, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) has created an Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission to protect their sport’s longevity. However, for welfare-based strategies to be successful, the conceptualisation of horse welfare must align across various stakeholders, including the general public. The value-laden nature of welfare makes agreement on its definition, even among scientists, difficult. Given little is known about how equestrians conceptualise horse welfare, we interviewed 19 Australian amateur equestrians using a semi-structured format. Systems thinking and the Five Domains Model provided the theoretical framework and informed our methods. Using reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were identified: (1) good horse welfare is tangible; (2) owners misinterpret unwanted horse behaviour; and (3) equestrians publicly minimise horse welfare issues but are privately concerned. Our results highlight participants’ conceptualisations of horse welfare do not align with the Five Domains Model; participants’ ideal of prioritising horse welfare does not align with their practice; and there is inconsistency between what participants share publicly and what they think privately about horse welfare. These findings can inform the development of programmes to improve ridden horse welfare throughout the horse industry. As a starting point, programmes that provide a safe space for equestrians to explore their private horse welfare concerns, and programmes that build a partnership mindset to facilitate knowledge exchange between all stakeholders are needed.

Ketamine has been used for many years for sedating possums captured in the wild in New Zealand, but its recent reclassification as a Class III drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1975) has made its continued use impractical. Consequently, four other injectable anaesthetic compounds (Zoletil, xylazine-butorphanol, medetomidine-butorphanol and Fentazin) were evaluated as replacements for ketamine. Zoletil (a combination of zolazepam and tiletamine) was the only effective alternative. Brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) were sedated adequately for general procedures, such as fitting radio-collars, at an intramuscular dose of 5 mg kg−1. At this dose, possums were sedated on average in 3.6 min, and recovery took 65 min on average. Zoletil did not cause sudden arousal as seen with some other anaesthetics, but most possums showed involuntary chewing during recovery, and in some cases excessive salivation. In contrast, Fentazin and combinations of xylazine-butorphanol and medetomidine-butorphanol failed to produce sedation at doses known to be effective in other mammalian species. Zoletil proved similar to ketamine in both performance and cost, and is therefore recommended as a cost-effective anaesthetic and humane method for sedating possums captured in the wild.

The available methods of electric shock control or containment of farmed animals are increasing and potentially include: (i) fixed and movable electric fencing; (ii) cattle trainers; (iii) prods or goads; (iv) wires in poultry barns; (v) dairy collecting yard backing gates; (vi) automated milking systems (milking robots); and (vii) collars linked to virtual fencing and containment systems. Since any electric shock is likely to cause a farmed animal pain, any such control or containment must, to be ethically justifiable, bring clear welfare benefits that cannot be practicably delivered in other ways. Associated areas of welfare concern with ethical implications include the displacement of stockpersons by technology, poor facility design, stray voltage, coercive behavioural change and indirect impacts on human society and values.

This study sought to investigate Chinese farmers’ attitude towards animal welfare by using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). According to the TPB, an individual's intention to behave in a certain way is determined by his/her attitude towards the behaviour (specific attitude — importance — and general attitudes), the perceived behavioural control (easiness), and the supposed opinion of the people who are important to him/her (subjective norms). A total of 253 questionnaires were used, which included the three main animal productions in China (swine, poultry and cattle). Chinese farmers have perceived the improvement of animal welfare as two abstracts: general attitudes (reward-seeking, and empathic farmer); and four specific categories of actions (favourable environment, animal health, humane treatment of animals and farmers’ well-being). Our analysis revealed that general and specific attitudes were the strongest predictors of farmers’ intentions to improve animal welfare in the questionnaire study. In fact, Chinese farmers considered it fairly important to improve the animal welfare measures considered in the survey. In contrast, the same animal welfare measures were considered difficult to improve by the farmers as indicated by the lack of association between the easiness of improving animal welfare and the intentions. In addition, veterinarians, agricultural advisers, and scientific experts were considered to be relatively influential subjective norms as regards the activities of the farmers. This is the first study to provide an insight into the underlying meanings and values of Chinese farmers’ views on improvements to animal welfare.

There are several examples from human neuropsychology of the intact preservation of processes and capacities in the absence of conscious awareness by the patients. These include loss of visual awareness (blindsight), episodic memory (amnesic syndrome), attention (unilateral neglect) and language (aphasia). The implication of these and other clinical phenomena is that descriptions of ongoing behaviour are necessary but quite insufficient for making inferences about conscious awareness, because even quite ‘high level’ behaviour can be run off in the absence of awareness. A commentary, or independent off-line response, is a prerequisite for determining whether the subject is consciously aware. Whether or not the commentary allows an inference about awareness in animals rests ultimately on an argument from analogy, just as is the case when we make judgements about fellow humans. But when parallel disjunctions between on-line behaviour and off-line classifications are found for both human and infrahuman subjects, as is demonstrable for blindsight and amnesia, not only do they bolster inferences about common neural mechanisms, but they strengthen inferences for analogous processing and hence for conscious experience.

Zebra finches are often housed in monogamous pairs in small barren cages. In the present study it was investigated whether modest enrichment resulted in behavioural changes. Four plywood box cages of two different lengths were compared. A small and a large cage were used for the barren environment. Another small and large cage were used for the enriched environment, and included additional perches, twigs as well as sand and water baths. An ethogram consisting of 19 different behavioural patterns was used. The behaviour of the birds was studied using a combination of alternating (20s) one-zero and instantaneous sampling, one hour per day during a continuous four-week period.

Locomotor activity, vocalization and singing was significantly increased in the enriched cages and flying was more frequent in the large enriched cage than in any of the other cages. The study demonstrated the usefulness of behavioural analyses to determine to what extent simple enrichment allows the birds to exhibit a wider range of their natural behaviour.

Science has been invaluable for increasing understanding of animal welfare and as a result we know of many ways in which animal treatment and housing can be improved. However, implementation is slow because of political and economic considerations. This is particularly clear for farm animals. This raises the question of what else is needed, besides science, for implementation of welfare improvements. At least three other disciplines need more attention in this respect: sociology, economics and ethics. Scientists will continue to be central in achieving improvements in animal welfare by providing credible, authoritative information on animal welfare and other issues. But to increase implementation of their results they need to increase dialogue with all of the players involved — producers, retailers, consumers, legislators and the media — as well as with specialists in other disciplines to improve cross-disciplinary understanding.

The influence of several factors on abnormal behaviour was investigated in 46 singly housed sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) (eight nursery-reared, 38 mother-reared), including self-injurious, self-directed, stereotypic locomotion, and faeces/urine-related behaviours (SIB, SDB, SL, FUR, respectively). An analysis of behavioural assessments spanning a mean of four years per subject showed that 83% displayed at least one form of AB during that time, with SL being the most common (mean of 3.06% of observation sessions and displayed by 59% of subjects) and SIB the least common (mean of 0.09% of all observation sessions and displayed by 20% of subjects). Like other primate species, displaying AB was influenced by the percent of life spent singly housed and by nursery-rearing during infancy. However, unlike some other primates, there was no influence of the number of yearly sedations or room relocations on AB; also, females were more likely to display AB than male mangabeys. To investigate the effects of nursery-rearing further, we compared the eight nursery-reared, singly housed subjects with eight nursery-reared subjects that were socially housed since the age of three years. While nursery-reared subjects in single housing displayed SL and FUR in higher proportions than those in social housing, subjects from both environments displayed SIB and SDB in equal proportions, suggesting that they are persistent forms of AB for nursery-reared mangabeys even after long-term social housing. To reduce future incidence of AB in captive mangabeys, we recommend minimising nursery-rearing and the duration of single-housing whenever feasible or avoiding them altogether.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between bone quality in terms of metabolism, homeostasis of elements, bone mineral density (BMD), and microstructure and keel-bone fractures in laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus). One hundred and twenty 17 week old Lohmann White laying hens with normal keel bones were individually housed in furnished cages for 25 weeks. Birds were then euthanased and dissected to assess keel-bone status at 42 weeks. Serum and keel-bone samples from normal keel (NK) and fractured keel (FK) hens were collected to determine the previously mentioned bone quality parameters. The results showed FK hens to have higher levels of the components of osteocalcin, greater alkaline phosphatase activity in serum and keel bones, and greater tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity in keel bones, compared to NK hens. Additionally, FK hens also had higher concentrations of Li, B, K, Cu, As, Se, Sn, Hg, and Pb, but lower concentrations of Na, P, and Ca. Moreover, FK hens showed decreased bone microstructural parameters including bone volume/tissue volume, trabecular number, degree of anisotropy, connectivity density, and BMD, but increased trabecular separation. Meanwhile, no differences were detected in serum TRAP activity, trabecular thickness, bone surface, or bone surface/bone volume. Results showed laying hens with keel-bone fractures to have differences in bone metabolism, elements of home-ostasis, bone microstructure parameters, and BMD. These results suggest that keel-bone fractures may be associated with bone quality.

Health is an important aspect of animal welfare, which is difficult to assess at herd level. Clinical examination of individual animals is time-consuming, and most measures of clinical herd health depend significantly on the examiner. Acute phase proteins are produced during inflammatory processes, and could therefore be used as general markers of infection and injury. Our objective was to evaluate whether haptoglobin could be used to monitor the health status of herds at slaughter.

107 groups of 20 slaughter pigs each were examined at two large abattoirs. Clinical signs of tail biting, lameness, injuries, abscesses, pneumonia, pleurisy, hepatitis and gastritis were recorded. The association between elevated haptoglobin concentration in meat juice samples and clinical signs was assessed via multiple logistic regression.

Pigs from groups in which tail biting, lameness, othaematomas, abscesses, pneumonia, pleurisy, pericarditis or condemnations of livers, lungs or carcasses occurred, showed higher levels of haptoglobin than pigs from slaughter groups without any of these clinical signs. In the multiple regression model, only the variables of lameness and tail biting were statistically significant. The haptoglobin test classified 66% of all slaughter groups correctly according to the presence of these clinical signs. These results demonstrate the potential for haptoglobin to be used as a screening test to identify problem herds at slaughter.

In recent years, analysis of tissue samples has become a powerful tool in cetacean ecology since it provides information for effective conservation and management policies. Biopsy samples taken for such studies have been obtained by various means including crossbows, rifles, and pole systems. We investigated sampling success and the reaction of dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) off the coast of Argentina to a biopsy pole system from 2008 to 2009. Using ad libitum behavioural sampling, we documented individual behavioural reactions to biopsy sampling immediately after a biopsy was taken. Log-linear models were used to determine whether there were significant differences in behavioural response for different group size, composition or behavioural context. In total, 109 sampling attempts were made and 58 biopsy samples were obtained (53.21% success rate). The intensity of individual response was influenced by group size and composition. Small groups (typically mother/calf) reacted more frequently than larger groups (generally mixed-age adults and juveniles). The behaviour of the animals prior to our approach for biopsy sampling also affected their response. Milling dolphins appeared to respond more intensively than dolphins socialising or travelling. In conclusion, biopsy sampling with the biopsy pole system presented here show generally mild and short-term reactions, though behaviour, group size and group composition affected the response. This information can be used to minimise the impact of biopsy sampling, and facilitate the collection of data critical to effective conservation strategies.

Lameness is an indicator of pain and suffering, which has substantial animal welfare and economic impact on the dairy industry. Subjective locomotion scoring is unreliable for detecting mild cases of lameness in dairy herds. Undetected lameness can progress to a more serious and painful state with unfavourable prognosis. The aim of this study was to conduct an investigation on the use of a pressure plate for early detection of lameness in dairy heifers compared to a subjective visual scoring system. Seven heifers deemed sound, on the basis of a visual scoring system, were walked through a chute where a pressure plate was disguised on the floor. Claws were then inspected during trimming and revealed no lesions (n = 3) and hairy heel warts on at least one hind claw (n = 4). Peak vertical force (PVF) and right-left hind limb PVF symmetry were calculated. Sound heifers demonstrated significantly higher PVF and better right-left hind limb symmetry than those with hairy heel warts. Using a pressure plate, gait abnormalities from foot lesions that were undiagnosed using a subjective lameness scoring system, were detected. Early detection of lameness is vital to reduce dairy industry losses and to improve animal welfare.

We recently used radio-tracking to demonstrate short-term, post-release survival of five orphaned, hand-reared pipistrelle bats. Here, we present further evidence of short-term, post-release survival and also demonstrate longer term survival using re-sighting data of ringed common (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and soprano (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) pipistrelle bats. Ten bats (five common and five soprano pipistrelles) were radio-tracked for between one and ten days. Three of these were retrieved after one, two and four days, respectively. In addition, five of the 39 (13%) ringed bats returned to their release boxes between 38 and 1,389 days after release, at least two of which survived over the winter in the wild. A sixth ringed bat was retrieved 27 days after release after becoming trapped in a house. We also identified potential barriers to successful rehabilitation. Two of the ten bats radio-tracked in the current project became trapped within buildings and another bat had to be retrieved following entanglement with debris. We therefore recommend that attention be paid to giving bats the opportunity, prior to release, in identifying and using small exit holes similar to those found in buildings and loft spaces. We also recommend allowing bats to self-release following prolonged pre-release flight training in a large flight cage situated in suitable bat habitat.

Given the multi-dimensionality of animal welfare, any monitoring system for slaughter animals should comprise an integrative vision that facilitates animal welfare and food safety assessment. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate risk factors as possible causes for liver condemnations, hoof disorders, bruise prevalence, and the quality of beef carcases under commercial operating conditions in Mexico. Data were recorded for 143 journeys encompassing 1,040 commercial cattle, originating from feedlots, free-range, and dairy production systems. Details on journey distance, vehicle type, cattle type, and animals’ origin were gathered from abattoir reports. We found that carcase bruising (41%) and hoof disorders (43.9%) had the highest prevalence, regardless of the production system. Variables such as cattle type and production system influenced liver condemnations; old bulls extensively raised were more prone to present parasitosis such as Fasciola hepatica. Transportation conditions (journey distance, vehicle type) and cattle type might have influenced the development of hoof disorders in the evaluated animals. Multivariable logistic regression showed that animals’ origin was a potential risk factor for severe bruising and high muscle pH, with cull dairy cows getting the most serious damage. In general, cattle transport conditions were factors that showed interactions with three of the evaluated indicators (severe hoof injuries, carcase bruising, meat pH24h). Our study shows the need to implement integrative surveillance to identify risk factors according to the production system from which the animals originate. With this information it is possible to develop strategies to mitigate specific cattle welfare problems.

Legislation governing non-stun slaughter of sheep in England requires that they are individually and mechanically restrained for slaughter and not moved for at least 20 s post neck cut, until unconsciousness or insensibility occurs. Complying with the need for individual handling, in what is a flock animal, has the potential to adversely affect welfare, in turn contravening the general legislative requirement to reduce any avoidable distress at slaughter. This study investigated the effects of individually loading and restraining lambs compared with the normal practice of group loading and restraint of lambs prior to slaughter when using a V-shaped restrainer. Rotating and static design loading pens were also compared to represent the range of conditions and facilities found across English abattoirs. Plasma cortisol and lactate concentrations were significantly lower in group-loaded animals and significant reductions were observed in the time duration of a range of components of handling as well as the average total time to load each lamb. Loading pen type had a less marked impact upon results, however, individual loading and restraint of lambs within a V-shaped restrainer appears particularly stressful for sheep in comparison with group loading. The loading pen type had a mixed effect although the rotating crowding pen is likely to have minimised physical exertion in lambs during loading and restraint. Based on these findings, group loading in a V-shaped restrainer, whilst complying with the 20-s standstill, is likely to be preferable in religious, non-stun slaughter of sheep.