Welfare Assessment

Equid assessment, research and scoping (EARS): The development and implementation of a new equid welfare assessment and monitoring tool

The assessment of animal welfare poses numerous challenges, yet an emerging approach is the consolidation of existing knowledge into new frameworks which can offer standardised approaches to welfare assessment across a variety of contexts. Multiple tools exist for measuring the...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Raw, Z., Rodrigues, J., Rickards, K. et al. 2020. Equid assessment, research and scoping (EARS): The development and implementation of a new equid welfare assessment and monitoring tool. Animals 10(2), 297.

Welfare assessment on pasture: A review on animal-based measures for ruminants

Outdoor and extensive farming systems allow animals to behave in a natural way and are often perceived as welfare friendly. Nonetheless, the natural environment poses multiple challenges to the welfare of animals, sometimes hampering their capacity to cope. Welfare assessment...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Cattle, Goat, Sheep

Citation: Spigarelli, C., Zuliani, A., Battini, M. et al. 2020. Welfare assessment on pasture: A review on animal-based measures for ruminants. Animals 10(4), 609.

Equine Facial Action Coding System for determination of pain-related facial responses in videos of horses

During the last decade, a number of pain assessment tools based on facial expressions have been developed for horses. While all tools focus on moveable facial muscles related to the ears, eyes, nostrils, lips, and chin, results are difficult to...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Rashid, M., Silventoinen, A., Gleerup, K. B. et al. 2020. Equine Facial Action Coding System for determination of pain-related facial responses in videos of horses. PLOS ONE 15(11), e0231608.

Wheel running behaviour in group-housed female mice indicates disturbed wellbeing due to DSS colitis

Voluntary wheel running (VWR) behaviour is a sensitive indicator of disturbed wellbeing and used for the assessment of individual experimental severity levels in laboratory mice. However, monitoring individual VWR performance usually requires single housing, which itself might have a negative...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Weegh, N., Füner, J., Janke, O. et al. 2020. Wheel running behaviour in group-housed female mice indicates disturbed wellbeing due to DSS colitis. Laboratory Animals 54(1), 63–72.

Where are we heading? Challenges in evidence-based severity assessment

Evidence-based severity assessment in laboratory animals is, apart from the ethical responsibility, imperative to generate reproducible, standardized and valid data. However, the path towards a valid study design determining the degree of pain, distress and suffering experienced by the animal...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Keubler, L. M., Hoppe, N., Potschka, H. et al. 2020. Where are we heading? Challenges in evidence-based severity assessment. Laboratory Animals 54(1), 50–62.

Blink rate as a measure of stress and attention in the domestic horse (Equus caballus)

Measuring animal stress is fundamentally important for assessing animal emotional state and welfare. Conventional methods of quantifying stress (cortisol levels, heart rate/heart rate variability) require specialist equipment and are not instantly available. Spontaneous blink rate (SBR) has previously been used...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Mott, R. O., Hawthorne, S. J., McBride, S. D. 2020. Blink rate as a measure of stress and attention in the domestic horse (Equus caballus). Scientific Reports 10(1), 21409.

In-person caretaker visits disrupt ongoing discomfort behavior in hospitalized equine orthopedic surgical patients

Horses have evolved to show little indication of discomfort or disability when in the presence of potential predators, including humans. This natural characteristic complicates the recognition of pain in equine patients. It has been our clinical impression that, whenever a...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Torcivia, C., McDonnell, S. 2020. In-person caretaker visits disrupt ongoing discomfort behavior in hospitalized equine orthopedic surgical patients. Animals 10(2), 210.

Tilapia on-farm welfare assessment protocol for semi-intensive production systems

The aim of this study was to develop and test a tilapia on-farm welfare assessment protocol, based on Brazilian semi-intensive production systems. The study included two mains steps: the elaboration of tilapia welfare protocol and its on-field feasibility test. The...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Euthanasia, Husbandry & Management, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Fish, Tilapia

Citation: Pedrazzani, A. S., Quintiliano, M. H., Bolfe, F. et al. 2020. Tilapia on-farm welfare assessment protocol for semi-intensive production systems. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 7, 606388.

Indicators of horse welfare: State-of-the-art

Animal welfare is defined as a chronic state reflecting an individual’s subjective perception of its situation. Because it is possible to be in a good welfare state and nevertheless experience acute fear or pain, and conversely, short-term positive emotions can...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Lesimple, C. 2020. Indicators of horse welfare: State-of-the-art. Animals 10(2), 294.

Too cute to kill? The need for objective measurements of quality of life

The recognition of animal suffering is influenced by cultural and societal prejudices and the cuteness of an animal leads to bias in the way it is treated. It is important to consider the animal’s behaviour and its environment—not just its...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Wolfensohn, S. 2020. Too cute to kill? The need for objective measurements of quality of life. Animals 10(6), 1054.