Life Sciences Commons^™

Benchmarking Cow Comfort On North American Freestall Dairies: Lameness, Leg Injuries, Lying Time, Facility Design, And Management For High-Producing Holstein Dairy Cows, Marina A.G. Von Keyserlingk, A. K. Barrientos, K. Ito, E. Galo, Daniel M. Weary

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to corporate involvement in on-farm assessment, driven by the desire to provide a service for dairy producers and to create a vehicle for engagement on issues of dairy cow welfare. This program provides producers with feedback on animal-based (including gait score, leg injuries, and lying time) and facility-based (including freestall design, bedding practices, feed bunk design and management, and stocking density) measures that can be used to better address their management goals. The aim of this paper is to describe variation in the prevalence of lameness and leg injuries, lying behavior, facility …

Impact Of Different Handling Styles (Good Vs. Aversive) On Growth Performance, Behavior, And Cortisol Concentrations In Beef Cattle, Joan Bauer

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Our objective was to determine effects of aggressive handling on growth performance, behavior, and cortisol concentrations in beef calves. Crossbred calves (313 ± 4.7 kg; n = 54; 24 steers, 30 heifers) from a single herd were stratified by gender, body weight, and initial chute score, then allocated randomly to 1 of 6 pens. Each pen was randomly assigned to 1 of 2 handling treatments (good or adverse) applied on days 7, 35, 63, and 91. The objective of good treatment was to handle the calves quietly and gently to minimize stress. The objective of adverse treatment was to move …

Bias During The Evaluation Of Animal Studies, Andrew Knight

Morality and Ethics of Animal Experimentation Collection

My recent book entitled The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments seeks to answer a key question within animal ethics, namely: is animal experimentation ethically justifiable? Or, more precisely, is it justifiable within the utilitarian cost:benefit framework that fundamentally underpins most regulations governing animal experimentation? To answer this question I reviewed more than 500 scientific publications describing animal studies, animal welfare impacts, and alternative research, toxicity testing and educational methodologies. To minimise bias I focused primarily on large-scale systematic reviews that had examined the human clinical and toxicological utility of animal studies. Despite this, Dr. Susanne Prankel recently reviewed my …

Animal Learning And Training: Implications For Animal Welfare, Sabrina I.C.A. Brando

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

KEY POINTS

• A definition of animal welfare is the state of the individual as it attempts to cope with its environment.
• Welfare concerns all of the mechanisms for coping, involving physiology, behavior, feelings, and pathologic responses.
• When training programs are not in place the animal’s welfare could be impaired.
• Some of the behaviors an animal exhibits can be used to gain insight into how the animal feels about the environment, caretakers, and procedures.
• Many contemporary animal trainers and care specialists focus on building relationships using positive reinforcement.