Social Housing & Companionship

Comparing the relative benefits of grooming-contact and full-contact pairing for laboratory-housed adult female Macaca fascicularis

This study compares the benefits between the two housing types by video recording 14 pairs of adult female Macaca fascicularis in four sequential housing phases following an ABBA design: baseline grooming-contact, full contact shortly after introduction, 1-month-later full contact, and...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Lee, G. H., Thom, J. P., Chu, K. L. et al. 2012. Comparing the relative benefits of grooming-contact and full-contact pairing for laboratory-housed adult female Macaca fascicularis. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 137(3-4), 157-165.

Assessment of a temperament test for use in pairing adult male Macaca fascicularis

Our NHP import quarantine facility has close to a 90% success rate with pairing adult male (> 5 kg) cynomolgus macaques. Given the challenges of pairing adult male NHP, our goal was to determine if a formalized system of temperament...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Harding, K. 2012. Assessment of a temperament test for use in pairing adult male Macaca fascicularis. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 636 (Abstract #PS34).

Relationship between growth rate and oral manipulation, social nosing, and aggression in finishing pigs

Pigs may affect each other's health, welfare and productivity through their behaviour. The effect of a pig on the growth rate of its pen mates is partly heritable and is referred to as its social genetic effect. Social genetic effects,...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Natural Behavior, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Camerlink, I., Bijma, P., Kemp, B. et al. 2012. Relationship between growth rate and oral manipulation, social nosing, and aggression in finishing pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(1-2), 11-17.

Friends with benefits: Social support and its relevance for farm animal welfare

Despite growing interest in promoting positive welfare, rather than just alleviating poor welfare, potential measures of good welfare, and means to provide it, have remained elusive. In humans social support improves stress-coping abilities, health, and promotes positive psychological welfare. Therefore,...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Natural Behavior, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Cattle, Chicken, Equine, Fowl, Goat, Pig, Sheep

Citation: Rault, J.-L. 2012. Friends with benefits: Social support and its relevance for farm animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 136(1), 1-14.

Interspecies pair housing of macaques in a research facility

The eighth edition of The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals establishes social housing as the "default" for social species including non-human primates. The advantages of social housing for primates have been well established, but small research...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Natural Behavior, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: DiVincenti, L., Rehrig, A., Wyatt, J. 2012. Interspecies pair housing of macaques in a research facility. Laboratory Animals 46(2), 1170-1172.

Are you real? Visual simulation of social housing by mirror image stimulation in single housed mice

Individual housing of social species is a common phenomenon in laboratory animal facilities. Single housing, however, is known to inflict social deprivation with a number of detrimental consequences. Aiming to improve housing conditions of single housed rodents, we investigated the...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Fuss, J., Richter, S. H., Steinle, J. et al. 2013. Are you real? Visual simulation of social housing by mirror image stimulation in single housed mice. Behavioural Brain Research 243, 191-198.

Factors influencing the welfare of goats in small established groups during the separation and reintegration of individuals

As a goat's separation from or reintegration into its group is likely to have an adverse effect on the welfare of both the separated goat and the remaining goats in the group, management procedures need to be carried out in...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Goat

Citation: Patt, A., Gygax, L., Wechsler, B. et al. 2013. Factors influencing the welfare of goats in small established groups during the separation and reintegration of individuals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 144(1-2), 63-72.

Effects of group stability on aggression, stress and injuries in breeding rabbits

On Swiss rabbit breeding farms, group-housed does are usually kept singly for 12 days around parturition to avoid pseudogravidity, double litters and deleterious fighting for nests. After this isolation phase there is usually an integration of new group members. Here...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Husbandry & Management, Reproduction, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Andrist, C. A., Bigler, L. M., Wurbel, H. W. et al. 2012. Effects of group stability on aggression, stress and injuries in breeding rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 142(3-4), 182-188.

Effect of short-term pair housing of juvenile rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on immunologic parameters

Social housing of nonhuman primates (NHP) in an infectious disease setting presents unique challenges, and individual housing is often scientifically justified. At our institute, we recognized an opportunity to limit individual housing to the minimal period necessary by pair-housing NHP...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Benton, C. G., West, M. W., Hall, S. M. et al. 2013. Effect of short-term pair housing of juvenile rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) on immunologic parameters. JAALAS 52(3), 240-246.

Does the presence of a human affect the preference of enrichment items in young, isolated pigs?

Pigs may be housed individually in both production and research settings. Gregarious by nature, pigs kept in isolation may show behavioural and physiological signs of stress. In this study we investigated the preference of individually housed pigs, for social and...

Year Published: 2013Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: DeBoer, S. P., Garner, J. P., Lay Jr, D. C. et al. 2013. Does the presence of a human affect the preference of enrichment items in young, isolated pigs? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 143(2-4), 96-103.