Welfare Assessment

A pilot study on behavioural and physiological indicators of emotions in donkeys

Recognizing animal emotions is critical to their welfare and can lead to a better relationship with humans and the environment, especially in a widespread species like the donkey, which is often prone to welfare issues. This study aims to assess...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Seganfreddo, S., Fornasiero, D., De Santis, M. et al. 2023. A pilot study on behavioural and physiological indicators of emotions in donkeys. Animals 13(9), 1466.

Studying and analyzing humane endpoints in the fructose-fed and streptozotocin-injected rat model of diabetes

This work aimed to define a humane endpoint scoring system able to objectively identify signs of animal suffering in a rat model of type 2 diabetes. Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into control and induced group. The induced animals drink...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Disease/Experimental Model, Humane Endpoint, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Silva-Reis, R., Faustino-Rocha, A. I., Silva, J. et al. 2023. Studying and analyzing humane endpoints in the fructose-fed and streptozotocin-injected rat model of diabetes. Animals 13(8), 1397.

Non-invasive methods for assessing the welfare of farmed white-leg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei)

Gradually, concern for the welfare of aquatic invertebrates produced on a commercial/industrial scale is crossing the boundaries of science and becoming a demand of other societal actors. The objective of this paper is to propose protocols for assessing the Penaeus...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Pedrazzani, A. S., Cozer, N., Quintiliano, M. H. et al. 2023. Non-invasive methods for assessing the welfare of farmed white-leg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei). Animals 13(5), 807.

Horse welfare: A joint assessment of four categories of behavioural indicators using the AWIN protocol, scan sampling and surveys

Domesticated horses (Equus caballus) can be exposed to a compromised welfare state and detecting a deterioration in welfare is essential to modify the animals' living conditions appropriately. This study focused on four categories of behavioural indicators, as markers of poor...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Ruet, A., Arnould, C., Lemarchand, J. et al. 2022. Horse welfare: A joint assessment of four categories of behavioural indicators using the AWIN protocol, scan sampling and surveys. Animal Welfare 31(4), 455–466.

An ethics toolkit to support animal-centered research and design

Designers and researchers who work with animals need to employ an array of ethical competencies to guarantee the welfare of animals taking part in animal-centered research. The emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), which deals with the design of animal-centered...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Regulations & Ethical Review, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General, Dog

Citation: Ruge, L., Mancini, C. 2022. An ethics toolkit to support animal-centered research and design. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 891493.

Locomotion as a measure of well-being in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Locomotion in non-human primates, including walking, climbing, and brachiating among other types of movement (but not pacing), is a species-typical behavior that varies with age, social housing conditions, and environmental factors (e.g., season, food availability, physical housing conditions). Given that...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Natural Behavior, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Chimpanzee, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Neal Webb, S., Schapiro, S. 2023. Locomotion as a measure of well-being in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Animals 13(5), 803.

Preliminary validation of a novel tool to assess dog welfare: The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid

Animal welfare monitoring is a vital part of veterinary medicine and can be challenging due to a range of factors that contribute to the perception of welfare. Tools can be used, however; there are few validated and objective methods available...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Malkani, R., Paramasivam, S., Wolfensohn, S. 2022. Preliminary validation of a novel tool to assess dog welfare: The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 940017.

Hidden but potentially stressed: A non-invasive technique to quantify fecal glucocorticoid levels in a fossorial amphisbaenian reptile

To understand wildlife responses to the changing environment, it is useful to examine their physiological responses and particularly their endocrine status. Here, we validated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to non-invasively quantify fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCM) in the fossorial amphisbaenian reptile...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Lizard, Reptile

Citation: Martín, J., Barja, I., Rodríguez-Ruiz, G. et al. 2023. Hidden but potentially stressed: A non-invasive technique to quantify fecal glucocorticoid levels in a fossorial amphisbaenian reptile. Animals 13(1), 109.

A model framework for the estimation of animal “suffering”: Its use in predicting and retrospectively assessing the impact of experiments on animals

This paper presents and illustrates, with a working example, a hypothesis for the assessment of ongoing severity before and during an experiment that will enable humane endpoints and intervention points to be applied accurately and reproducibly, as well as helping...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Humane Endpoint, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Morton, D. B. 2023. A model framework for the estimation of animal “suffering”: Its use in predicting and retrospectively assessing the impact of experiments on animals. Animals 13(5), 800.

Envirionmental and social influences on the behaviour of free-living mandarin ducks in richmond park

Many species of birds are housed in zoos globally and are some of the most popular of animals kept under human care. Careful observations of how species live and behave in their natural habitats can provide us with important knowledge...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Natural Behavior, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Bird, Fowl

Citation: Munday, C., Rose, P. 2022. Envirionmental and social influences on the behaviour of free-living mandarin ducks in richmond park. Animals 12(19), 2554.