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Social Stress And Welfare Problems In Agricultural Animals, D. G. M. Wood-Gush, I. J. H. Duncan, D. Fraser

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

Disruptions of an animal's social behaviour can, in some respects at least, mimic the effects of such classical stressors as infection and exposure to low temperatures. For example, Barnett (1958) found enlarged adrenals among wild rats which were subjected to attack by other rats in the laboratory. However, the experience of being attacked was not necessary for this physiological response, as the aggressors showed much the same changes as the victims. In fact Archer (1969) reported heightened adrenocortical activity among individually caged mice simply as a result of their being housed next to other mice, without actual physical contact. If …