Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science最新文献

The present study was aimed to determine the most appropriate stocking density in breeding partridges by considering animal welfare. For this purpose, feed consumption, egg production and quality parameters, fertility, survival rate, feather condition score, cortisol and testosterone hormones were examined. A total of 552 breeding partridges with a ratio of 3 females to 1 male were used in the study and the groups were designed as 0.25 m², 0.19 m², 0.15 m² and 0.11 m² per partridge (4 groups and 3 replicates). Increasing the stocking density had no effect on feed consumption while it negatively affected egg production. Higher stocking density had a negative effect on the feather condition score which is similar to those for egg production. A parallel decrease in feed consumption and egg production was observed with the temperature increases according to the summer months. Stocking density had no effect on egg quality parameters, fertility rate, survival rate, testosterone and cortisol. In conclusion, a larger allowed space with 0.20 m²/bird or more benefits egg production and the welfare degree of chukar partridges.

Environmental changes like vet visit could cause stress in cats. Studies have attempted to develop stress management strategies targeting sensory systems. Even though species-appropriate music which includes cat affiliative sound (e.g., cats' purring and suckling sound) has been shown to relieve stress in cats. Little is known whether the cat sound alone works in stress management. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of species-relevant auditory stimuli on stress in cats exposed to a novel environment. During the 28-day experiment periods, 20 cats received four types of sound treatments which included silence (T1), purr of cats (T2), eating sound in cats (T3), and the mixed sound of T2 and T3 (T4) in a novel environment in random orders with intervals of 1 week between treatments. Cats' behaviors were recorded during each 10-min test. Results showed that T4 reduced visual scanning (P = 0.017) without significantly affecting other behaviors, compared with other treatments. Together, the two types of cat-specific sounds did not exert pronounced effects of relieving stress on cats exposed to a novel environment.

Hippotherapy is considered as a beneficial field of activity for Žemaitukas, a Lithuanian native horse breed. The aim of this study is to analyze the suitability of Žemaitukas breed horses for hippotherapy by using a set of tests based on the temperament, behavioral reactions, and zoometric measurements. Results of these tests inform whether the future use of Lithuanian native horses in hippotherapy can ensure their welfare. In total, 32 horses were evaluated. Twenty-nine of the evaluated horses were horses of the Žemaitukas breed that had never been used for hippotherapy, the others were hippotherapy horses representing different breeds, which were considered the control group. As expected, control hippotherapy horses scored better in many tests, thus confirming the suitability of these tests for the evaluation of horses for hippotrapeutic use. Žemaitukas breed horses scored an average of 15.9% less points for the test of temperament and 21.3% less points for "Hippo-test" compared with the hippotherapy horses. Nevertheless, the results suggest that Žemaitukas breed horses could be used in hippotherapy after special training courses.

This study evaluated manual and mechanical catching methods on slower growing broiler chickens on the day of processing. Ten catching events, five mechanical and five manual, were evaluated for animal welfare and an additional set of 241 catches, 128 manual and 113 machine, were analyzed to determine the effect on carcass quality. No significant difference in serum corticosterone concentration (CORT) was found between the catching methods (p = 0.9). Pre-catching CORT (15.07 ± 2.24) was significantly lower than post-catching (25.41 ± 2.22) (p < 0.001). Manually caught broilers had four times greater odds of tonic immobility (TI) than mechanically caught birds (OR 4.0, 95% CI: 1.54-10.54) (p < 0.001). Birds also had 77% lower odds of TI before being caught than after, irrespective of catching method. Manually caught birds had 19% greater risk of bruised wings (p < 0.05) and 23% greater risk of bruised legs (p < 0.05). Lower odds of TI and decreased risk of injury in the machine caught birds indicate improved welfare and carcass quality compared with manual catching. Overall, machine catching was found to improve welfare and carcass quality in these slower growing broilers.

Data collected by animal shelters can provide an overview of population numbers and recommendations for shelter management and community programming. While studies utilize data from shelter software, questions remain on whether such data are reliable. The objective of the online experiment was to determine the agreement in data input for surrender reason, breed, and color across shelter staff (n = 81) when presented with four complex narratives of fictional owners surrendering dogs. Additionally, we aimed to understand how staff select surrender reasons for data input through qualitative analysis. Out of 40 possible surrender reasons, the number of unique reasons selected for each scenario ranged from 12-16, suggesting a variety of possible data entries for the same surrender narrative. Agreement was also low for breed and color. Shelter staff described a variety of different methods of determining the surrender reason for input into shelter software, such as asking the owner for their most influential reason or inferring the underlying reason. Further research is required to understand how animal shelter data can be collected consistently in a way that can meaningfully inform shelter management decisions.

Assistance dogs for people with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) support their handlers by performing tasks that are supposed to mitigate the effects of their mental disability. This study examined the Quality of Life (QoL) of PTSD-assistance dogs' handlers in Austria and Germany using a qualitative online questionnaire based on the Capability Approach. To correspondingly explore whether the involved assistance dogs experience distress triggered by their daily schedules, we measured their salivary cortisol values. These were compared to the cortisol levels of companion dogs without special tasks, as well as diabetic-signal dogs that have a similar workload. Our results showed that people suffering from PTSD-symptoms can improve their QoL with the aid of their assistance dog. However, being accompanied by an assistance dog creates new social barriers. Surprisingly, we found significantly lower salivary cortisol levels in PTSD-assistance dogs compared to the control groups. We conclude that a positive relationship between PTSD-assistance dogs and their handlers can reduce stress on both sides, and that training well tuned to the requirements of an assistance dog can prevent stress in their daily lives.

Free-roaming dogs are removed from the street by the Municipal Animal Control division/shelter and NGOs to safeguard public health as well as to prevent any suffering dogs may face and to find them homes. However, adoption rates are low and there is a lack of public programs aimed at humane control causing increased numbers of street dogs and overcrowding in shelters, compromising health and welfare. We aimed to evaluate the health of dogs from municipal shelters and independent shelters, and community dogs in the city of Guarapuava through clinical examination and complete blood cell count tests. The main changes found in the clinical examination of 297 dogs were hyperthermia in 4.0%, tachypnea in 20.5%, ocular and oral mucosa hypocorada in 6.4%, and ectoparasite infestation in 42.7%. Changes found in the erythrogram were anemia in 15.1% and polycythemia in 3.4%. In the platelet count, thrombocytopenia was found in 10.1% and thrombocytosis in 10.4%. On the leukogram, leukocytosis was observed in 14.8% and leukopenia in 3%. The results reveal the compromised health of some animals, requiring better diagnostic investigation, since certain clinical and complete blood cell count alterations may be caused by zoonotic agents that can endanger human and animal health.

We used proximity loggers to map the social network of 15 group-housed suckling Holstein calves over a 70-day period divided into five trial periods. Tag ID, encountered tag ID, and encounter start time and length were collected from the proximity loggers. Use of 3D matrices and trendlines distinguished three encounter types: "rapid decline" (up to ~ 120 s), "moderate decline" (~120 to ~ 600 s), and "exponential decline" (longer than ~ 600 s). We hypothesized that a random encounter between two calves with an agonistic relationship would terminate quickly, whereas affiliative encounters would linger. Quadratic assignment with 5000 random permutations revealed a significant negative correlation between short encounters ("agonistic") and long encounters ("affiliative") matrices in periods 1 and 5 (r = -0.490 and -0.767, respectively), tendency toward negative correlation in period 3 (r = -0.141, p = 0.104), and no significant correlations in periods 2 and 4. These results were in accordance with the social network analyses revealing agonistic (short encounters) relationships in those periods. We suggest using this method in further studies on the effects of various factors on social network dynamics and its effect on health, intake, growth, and efficiency.

To determine the humane use of slaughter methods we examined the clinical signs of life in 61 American alligators harvested on-farm using one of three methods: (i) captive bolt and spinal cord severance; (ii) electrostunning, spinal cord severance and pithing; and (iii) spinal cord severance and pithing. Loss of consciousness and the six clinical signs of life that can be used on-farm were assessed for evidence of irreversible unconsciousness and death at Time 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 30 min post slaughter. The brains of alligators from each slaughter method were removed to assess brain tissue disruption. A combination of loss of blink reflex, pupillary light response, jaw tone and respiration are a reliable on-farm tool for determining death. Heartbeat and withdrawal reflex persisted. Captive bolt and electrostunning methods were effective in immediately producing loss of response consistent with irreversible unconsciousness, subsequent death and destruction of neural tissue integrity in the mid and hind brain. They are therefore humane forms of slaughter in American alligators.

Short-term modifications to animals' enclosures, stemming from zoo husbandry practices, can significantly impact animal behavior and, consequently, their welfare. In this case study, we examined a captive-bred population of 23 adult Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) during a non-breeding season to evaluate whether short-term alterations in the spatial distribution of feeders would affect the birds' feeding and agonistic behaviors. Initially, we developed an ethogram to establish baseline behavioral data. Subsequently, we assessed individual (latency to approach the feeders) and group (feeding and agonism) responses to feeder changes using an ABA-type experimental design (A1 and A2 feeders at the original location; B feeder location changed). Latency to approach feeders was also correlated with the birds' sex and body weight. The results revealed that during and immediately after the alterations, agonistic behaviors at the most frequently used feeding site by the flamingos increased, while the use of alternative food sources decreased significantly. Latency was not influenced by the birds' sex or body weight. These findings emphasize the importance of closely monitoring even seemingly minor changes in food spatial distribution to prevent negative impacts on the behavior, and presumably, the welfare of flamingos.