Housing

Feeding from perches in an aviary system reduces aggression and mortality in laying hens

Some commercial aviary systems for laying hens allow birds to access feed by standing on perches instead of platforms. Despite reports that providing laying hens with perches relates to reduced aggression and cannibalism, and increased prevalence of keel bone damage,...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Bird, Chicken

Citation: Sirovnik, J., Stratmann, A., Gebhardt-Henrich, S. G. et al. 2018. Feeding from perches in an aviary system reduces aggression and mortality in laying hens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 202, 53-62.

Housing conditions do not alter cognitive bias but affect serum cortisol, qualitative behaviour assessment and wounds on the carcass in pigs

Measures of animal emotions are essential to assess animal welfare. Recently, the cognitive bias technique has been proposed as a measure of animal affective state. This technique is based on the premise that subjects in negative affective states make more...

Year Published: 2016Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Carreras, R., Mainau, E., Arroyo, L. et al. 2016. Housing conditions do not alter cognitive bias but affect serum cortisol, qualitative behaviour assessment and wounds on the carcass in pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 39-44.

Impact of tank background on the welfare of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis (Daudin)

The captive environment of a laboratory animal can profoundly influence its welfare and the scientific validity of research produced. The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) is a common model organism, however current husbandry guidelines lack supporting quantitative evidence. The visual...

Year Published: 2016Topics: HousingAnimal Type: Amphibian, Frog & Toad

Citation: Holmes, A. M., Emmans, C. J., Jones, N. et al. 2016. Impact of tank background on the welfare of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis (Daudin). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 185, 131-136.

The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments

Few studies have sought to describe cat elimination behavior in detail and much of the information presently available focuses on factors that potentially cause cats to reject a litter box. Thus, the ethograms published in the current veterinary and scientific...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Housing, Husbandry & Management, Natural BehaviorAnimal Type: Cat

Citation: McGowan, R. T. S., Ellis, J. J., Bensky, M. K. et al. 2017. The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 67-78.

Aggressiveness in group-housed rabbit does: Influence of group size and pen characteristics

The aim of this work was to study how the group size and the number of doorways in a pen may influence the aggressive interactions throughout the reproductive cycle among does kept in a part-time group housing system. Thirty-two crossbred...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Zomeño, C., Birolo, M., Zuffellato, A. et al. 2017. Aggressiveness in group-housed rabbit does: Influence of group size and pen characteristics. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 79-85.

Zebrafish welfare: Natural history, social motivation and behaviour

Zebrafish are now one of the most used animal model species in scientific research worldwide. Our current knowledge of wild zebrafish is limited to an estimated range of their natural habitats and their tendencies to form groups. In laboratories, zebrafish...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Natural BehaviorAnimal Type: Fish, Zebrafish

Citation: Graham, C., von Keyserlingk, M. A. G., Franks, B. 2018. Zebrafish welfare: Natural history, social motivation and behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 200, 13-22.

The effects of kennel size and exercise on the behaviour and stress physiology of individually-housed greyhounds

Greyhounds are routinely bred and managed for racing and are usually housed in individual kennels. To address the question of whether greyhounds would benefit from an increase in the minimum kennel size specified in the Victorian Code of Practice, the...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Jongman, E.C., Butler, K.L., Hemsworth, P.H. 2018. The effects of kennel size and exercise on the behaviour and stress physiology of individually-housed greyhounds. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 199, 29-34.

The effect providing space in excess of standards on the behaviour of budgerigars in aviaries

Budgerigars housed in conventional cages have no opportunity for some normal behaviours, in particular flight, and develop stereotyped behaviours. Increasingly aviaries are used for groups of budgerigars but the minimum space requirement to support normal behaviour is not known. We...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Housing, Natural BehaviorAnimal Type: Bird, Parrot

Citation: Phillips, C. J. C., Farrugia, C., Lin, C.-h. et al. 2018. The effect providing space in excess of standards on the behaviour of budgerigars in aviaries. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 199, 89-93.

Shelter preference in the Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish)

For many animals, shelters are valuable source to hide from predators. To know acquisition of adequate shelter is important to understand social interactions of animals. Preferences for types of shelter used by the Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish) were analysed behaviourally. Individual...

Year Published: 2016Topics: Environmental Enrichment, HousingAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Takahashi, K., Nagayama, T. 2016. Shelter preference in the Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish). Behaviour 153(15), 1913-1930.

Effect of a change in housing conditions on body weight, behavior and brain neurotransmitters in male C57BL/6J mice

The development of modern housing regimes such as individually ventilated cage (IVC) systems has become very popular and attractive in order to reduce spreading of pathogenic organisms and to lower the risk to develop a laboratory animal allergy for staff...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Pasquarelli, N., Voehringer, P., Henke, J. et al. 2017. Effect of a change in housing conditions on body weight, behavior and brain neurotransmitters in male C57BL/6J mice. Behavioural Brain Research 333, 35-42.