Measuring Stress & Welfare

Question 1

Body Condition Score

Answer 1

Method of quantifying the horses batty deposits and is very important in Welfare Assessment

Question 2

Cognitive Bias

Answer 2

A method of measuring how optimistic or pessimistic an animal is. Although individuals vary in their natural cognitive bias, this changes in response to the environment.
Good Welfare = optimism
Bad Welfare = pessimism

Question 3

Cortisol

Answer 3

Cortisol is released as part of the HPA Axis in response to a stressor. We can measure it from blood, saliva, hair, urine, and faeces. Each gives a different time period for stress with blood being the most short term and hair the longest.

Question 4

Demand Studies

Answer 4

These assess how important a resource is to the animal. The more it is willing to work to get to that resource, the more valuable and vital it is. Inelastic demands are those the animal will try everything to get to, no matter how hard it has to work.
Elastic demands are resources that the animal likes but doesn’t REALLY need it.

Question 5

Heart Rate Variability

Answer 5

Heart Rate increases in response to stress, while Variability decreases. We can measure these to quantify stress.

Question 6

Horse Grimace Scale

Answer 6

A system of scoring a horse’s face to determine whether they are in main or not. This is a very useful tool for welfare as horses will do anything to hide stress and pain –> prey animal

Question 7

Infrared Thermography

Answer 7

This a method of taking images or video which records surface temperature. The hottest part of the eye correlates with the core temperature. Core temp increases with stress/arousal and decreases with pain.

Question 8

Preference Tests

Answer 8

These let us ask the animal what choices it would make for itself. They involve present two choices and providing the animal with a method of indicating which it would prefer. They can be used to give the animal more control over its environment or ask about what it prioritises in general.