The science of animal behaviour and welfare: Challenges, opportunities, and global perspective Flashcards
Jeremy N. Marchant-Forde, 2015
Originally, the field of science was heavily focused on ethology. What is it now?
It has emerged into a truly multi- and inter-disciplinary science, encompassing such sciences as behaviour, physiology, pathology, health, immunology, endocrinology, and neuroscience, and influenced by personal and societal ethics.
Historically, what has animal welfare been defined under?
One of the three over-arching and intersecting themes.
These are biological functioning, “naturaliness” and feelings.
Biological functioning
This theme enables us to focus on discreet measurable parameters, such as health indicators, production measures, measures of physiological functioning, and incidence of behaviours, and combine multiple measures to draw an overall picture of the welfare of the given animal at the time, or prior to, when the measures are taken.
Naturalness
This theme focuses on the extent to which the animal is leading, or can lead, a life in which it is free to express its natural behavioural repertoire, with the idea that an animal being able to experience or fulfill its inherent nature, will have good welfare.
Feelings
Feelings, emotions, or affective states of the animal, with the broad idea that for an animal to be experiencing good welfare, it should not only be devoid of negative emotions, such as anxiety or fear, but should also be experiencing position emotions, such as pleasure or happiness.
Animal welfare and emotional states research
There has been a rapid increase in publications and citations of animal welfare.
Recent trend in increasing interest in positive rather than negative emotional states.
Quality of Life term and origin
The term originated within the human sociological/geographical/medical fields in the 50s and 60s.
Within the human field, encompasses measures such as wealth, physical and social environment, health, and biological functioning.
How has quality of life been defined for animals?
As encompassing animal welfare and the subjective feelings of the animal regarding its life, but that it can only be inferred from behavioural, physiological, and other measures.
There is some degree of resistance within the field to use this term, because of subjectivity associated with a definition that includes assessment of an animal’s psychological state by indirect methods.
Differences between welfare assessment in experimental settings vs. the field
Within experimental settings, there is greater focus on the individual animal and more options in terms of the parameters that can be measured.
In the field, there may be more limitations on the types of data that can be collected and where large facility populations are concerned, there will be a focus on the group rather than on individuals within the group.
What are the majority of field welfare assessment protocols based on?
They are heavily weighted in terms of environmental assessment - they gather much information on such things as the physical housing, the management techniques, the health and production records, and relatively less information on measures that are taken on the animals themselves.
What about welfare measures on large farms?
There is a trade-off between time and the number of animals that can be assessed. Assessment has to be carried out on a representative sample, that will give an indication of the overall/population average.
The animal-based measures that are taken are often more concerned with direct measures of health and disease, or indirect measures of behaviour, such as skin lesions, rather than the behaviour itself.
Ethically acceptability boundary?
Within the ethical acceptability boundary is the notion that animal farming systems must meet or exceed standards of animal welfare deemed acceptable by the given society.
Food security and animal welfare.
The standards of acceptable animal welfare are greatly changed by the level of food security and those of us living in food secure households must be aware that our own baseline of acceptability may be quite different from those struggling to feed themselves regularly.
How will climate change impact wildlife welfare?
Affecting habitat and food sources, decreasing water availability and shifts in ranges of disease vectors to the extent that many species will ultimately be at threat of extinction.
Heat and cold? Affects on welfare (climate change)
Heat stress reduces appetite, reduces growth, affects reproduction, decreases milk and egg production, and at critical levels, can lead to heat stroke and death.
Shifts in both maximum and minimum temperatures may result in more animals being exposed to both heat and cold stress events, thereby impacting their welfare.
How does food safety fit with animal welfare?
Animals under stress are often immune-comprised and are more susceptible to disease. Higher levels of disease within an animal population can result in an increased risk of bacterial or viral contamination within food products and there is also a risk of medication residues in food products if withdrawal protocols are not stringently followed.
