Animal Sciences Commons^™

Laterality Enhances Cognition In Australian Parrots, Maria Magat, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Cerebral lateralization refers to the division of information processing in either hemisphere of the brain and is a ubiquitous trait among vertebrates and invertebrates. Given its widespread occurrence, it is likely that cerebral lateralization confers a fitness advantage. It has been hypothesized that this advantage takes the form of enhanced cognitive function, potentially via a dual processing mechanism whereby each hemisphere can be used to process specific types of information without contralateral interference. Here, we examined the influence of lateralization on problem solving by Australian parrots. The first task, a pebble-seed discrimination test, was designed for small parrot species that …

Investigation Of Van Gogh-Like 2 Mrna Regulation And Localisation In Response To Nociception In The Brain Of Adult Common Carp (Cyprinus Carpio), Siobhan C. Reilly, Anja Kipar, David J. Hughes, John P. Quinn, Andrew R. Cossins, Lynne U. Sneddon

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

The Van Gogh-like 2 (vangl2) gene is typically associated with planar cell polarity pathways, which is essential for correct orientation of epithelial cells during development. The encoded protein of this gene is a transmembrane protein and is highly conserved through evolution. Van Gogh-like 2 was selected for further study on the basis of consistent regulation after a nociceptive stimulus in adult common carp and rainbow trout in a microarray study. An in situ hybridisation was conducted in the brain of mature common carp (Cyprinus carpio), 1.5 and 3 h after a nociceptive stimulus comprising of an acetic acid injection to …

Cow Preference And Usage Of Free Stalls Compared With An Open Pack Area, J. A. Fregonesi, M. A. G. Von Keyserlingk, D. M. Weary

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

Free-stall housing systems are designed to provide a comfortable and hygienic lying area, but some aspects of stall design may restrict usage by cows. The aim of this study was to compare free-stall housing with a comparable lying area (open pack) without stall partitions. We predicted that cows would spend more time lying down and standing in the bedded area when provided access to an open pack than when in free stalls. We also predicted that cows would spend less time standing outside of the lying area and less time perching with the front 2 hooves in the lying area …

Prevalence And Risk Factors For Skin Lesions On Legs Of Dairy Cattle Housed In Freestalls In Norway, C. Kielland, L. E. Ruud, A. J. Zanella, O. Østerås

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

Appropriate indoor housing facilities for dairy cattle promote improved animal welfare. Skin alterations are an indicator of dysfunctional housing. The purpose was to determine the relationship between different housing design and skin lesions, hence providing farmers more insight into how to reduce the occurrence of lesions. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2,335 animals in 232 Norwegian freestall-housed dairy cattle from September 2006 to June 2007. A model was established to investigate risk factors related to the presence of lesions including hair loss, swelling, and wounds on the legs of dairy cattle. Separate models were developed to investigate risk factors …

Assessing Animal Welfare: Different Philosophies, Different Scientific Approaches, David Fraser

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

Attempts to improve animal welfare have commonly centered around three broad objectives: (1) to ensure good physical health and functioning of animals, (2) to minimize unpleasant ‘‘affective states’’ (pain, fear, etc.) and to allow animals normal pleasures, and (3) to allow animals to develop and live in ways that are natural for the species. Each of these objectives has given rise to scientific approaches for assessing animal welfare. An emphasis on health and functioning has led to assessment methods based on rates of disease, injury, mortality, and reproductive success. An emphasis on affective states has led to assessment methods based …

Pain Perception In Fish: Indicators And Endpoints, Lynne U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

Recent evidence has shown that fish display aversive behavioral and physiological reactions and a suspension of normal behavior in response to noxious stimuli that cause pain in other animals and humans. In addition to these behavioral responses, scientists have identified a peripheral nociceptive system and recorded specific changes in the brain activity of fish during noxious stimulation. As a result of these observations teleost fish are now considered capable of nociception and, in some opinions, pain perception. From both an experimental and an ethical perspective, it is important that scientists be able to assess possible pain and minimize discomfort that …

Lying Behavior: Assessing Within- And Betweenherd Variation In Free-Stall-Housed Dairy Cows, K. Ito, D. M. Weary, M. A. G. Von Keyserlingk

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

One of the most important design criteria for dairy cow housing is access to a comfortable lying area. Behaviors such as the time cows spend lying down and how often they lie down can be used to evaluate the quality of stalls; however, assessing lying behavior on farms can be challenging. Indices such as the cow comfort index (CCI) and stall use index (SUI) have been widely used in on-farm assessments. The aims were to establish reliable sampling and recording methods for measuring lying behavior, to evaluate the adequacy of the CCI and SUI as estimates of lying behavior, and …

Response To Displaced Neighbours In A Territorial Songbird With A Large Repertoire, Elodie F. Briefer, Thierry Aubin, Fanny Rybak

Ethology Collection

Neighbour recognition allows territory owners to modulate their territorial response according to the threat posed by each neighbour and thus to reduce the costs associated with territorial defence. Individual acoustic recognition of neighbours has been shown in numerous bird species, but few of them had a large repertoire. Here, we tested individual vocal recognition in a songbird with a large repertoire, the skylark Alauda arvensis. We first examined the physical basis for recognition in the song, and we then experimentally tested recognition by playing back songs of adjacent neighbours and strangers. Males showed a lower territorial response to adjacent neighbours …

Automatic Recognition Of Frog Calls Using A Multi-Stage Average Spectrum, Wen-Ping Chen, Song-Shyong Chen, Chun-Cheng Lin, Ya-Zhung Chen, Wen-Chih Lin

Bioacoustics Collection

The automatic recognition of animal sounds is one of the powerful techniques for replacing the traditional ecological survey method that mainly depends on manpower, which is hence both costly and time consuming. This study developed an automatic frog call recognition system based on the combination of a pre-classification method of the syllable lengths and a multi-stage average spectrum (MSAS) method. In this system, the input frog syllables are first classified into one of the four groups determined by the pre-classification method according to syllable length. Then the proposed MSAS method is used to extract the standard feature template to analyze …

Preference And Usage Of Pasture Versus Free-Stall Housing By Lactating Dairy Cattle, A. L. Legrand, M. A. G. Von Keyserlingk, D. M. Weary

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

The aim of the current study was to assess if cows preferred pasture or indoor housing, and how diurnal and environmental factors affected this preference. Lactating dairy cows (n = 5 groups, each containing 5 cows) were sequentially housed either in a free-stall barn on pasture, or given the choice between the 2 environments. Each group was tested 3 times under each condition, for a total of 21 d, to assess the effects of varying climatic conditions (outdoor temperature ranged from 9.9 to 28.2°C and daily rainfall from 0 to 65 mm/d over the course of the experiment). When provided …

Preference For Pasture Versus Freestall Housing By Dairy Cattle When Stall Availability Indoors Is Reduced, A. C. Falk, D. M. Weary, C. Winckler, M. A. G. Von Keyserlingk

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

Providing cattle with access to pasture has been shown to yield benefits, including access to more space, fewer agonistic interactions, better air quality, and the ability to perform a greater range of normal behaviors. Preference for pasture appears to depend on several parameters, including weather conditions and availability of shade. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the preference for pasture versus inside a freestall barn with variable stocking densities at the stalls. We also investigated the effect of temperature-humidity index (THI) and precipitation on this preference. Overall, cows spent on average 13.7 ± 2.6 h/d (mean ± …

The Stall-Design Paradox: Neck Rails Increase Lameness But Improve Udder And Stall Hygiene, F. Bernardi, J. A. Fregonesi, C. Winckler, D. M. Veira, M. A. G. Von Keyserlingk, D. M. Weary

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

Housing conditions for dairy cows are thought to af-fect lameness, but almost no experimental work has addressed this link. The aim was to assess the effect of one feature of free-stall design, the position of the neck rail, testing the prediction that cows will be more likely to become lame if using pens with the neck rail positioned such that it prevents standing fully inside the stall. Cows (n = 32) were housed in 8 pens. Treat-ments were tested using a crossover design; treatments were allocated alternately to pens at the beginning of the experiment and switched halfway through the …

Fallow Bucks Get Hoarse: Vocal Fatigue As A Possible Signal To Conspecifics, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Many studies of sexually selected vocal communication assume that calls remain stable throughout the breeding season. However, during this period, physiological and social factors change and these can have strong effects on the structure of calls and calling rates. During the rut, fallow bucks, Dama dama, reduce their feeding and increase the time and energy spent on vocalizing and fighting to gain matings, and consequently their body condition declines greatly. The availability of matings and intensity of competition between males also change. Therefore, we predicted that male vocal signalling would vary over time in response to the changing intersexual and …

Animal Behaviour, Animal Welfare And The Scientific Study Of Affect, David Fraser

Emotion Collection

Many questions about animal welfare involve the affective states of animals (pain, fear, distress) and people look to science to clarify these issues as a basis for practices, policies and standards. However, the science of the mid twentieth century tended to be silent on matters of animal affect for both philosophical and methodological reasons. Philosophically, under the influence of Positivism many scientists considered that the affective states of animals fall outside the scope of science. Certain methodological features of the research also favoured explanations that did not involve affect. The features included the tendency to rely on abstract, quantitative measures …

Animal Pleasure And Its Moral Significance, Jonathan Balcombe

Sentience Collection

This paper presents arguments for, and evidence in support of, the important role of pleasure in animals’ lives, and outlines its considerable significance to humankind’s relationship to other animals. In the realms of animal sentience, almost all scholarly discussion revolves around its negative aspects: pain, stress, distress, and suffering. By contrast, the positive aspects of sentience – rewards and pleasures – have been rarely broached by scientists. Yet, evolutionary principles predict that animals, like humans, are motivated to seek rewards, and not merely to avoid pain and suffering. Natural selection favours behaviours that enhance survival and procreation. In the conscious, …

Assessing Lameness In Cows Kept In Tie-Stalls, K. A. Leach, S. Dippel, J. Huber, S. March, C. Winckler, H. R. Whay

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

Identifying lame cows and quantifying the prevalence of lameness are important elements of cattle welfare assessment that are generally achieved by methods involving observations of each animal walking. There is no published method for assessing lameness in cows confined in tie-stalls. The objective of this study (carried out within the European Commission’s Welfare Quality® project) was to develop a suitable method and validate it for lameness detection against a published locomotion score. A series of indicators of lameness visible in tied cows was formalized into a stall assessment protocol. This was validated against a traditional locomotion score and tested for …

Wild Justice - Honor And Fairness Among Beasts At Play, Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce

Social Cognition Collection

This essay challenges science’s traditional taboo against anthropomorphizing animals or considering their behavior as indicative of feelings similar to human emotions. In their new book Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, the authors argue that anthropomorphism is alive and well, as it should be. Here they describe some activities of animals, particularly animals at play, as clear signs that they have recognizable emotions and moral intelligence. Based on years of behavioral and cognitive research, the authors discuss in their book that animals exhibit a broad repertoire of moral behaviors, including empathy and cooperation, but here they concentrate on the …

Effect Of Noxious Stimulation Upon Antipredator Responses And Dominance Status In Rainbow Trout, Paul J. Ashley, Sian Ringrose, Katie L. Edwards, Emma Wallington, Catherine R. Mccrohan, Lynne U. Sneddon

Aquaculture Collection

A potentially painful experience may modify normal behavioural responses. To gauge the importance of pain relative to predation or social status, we presented competing stimuli, a predator cue or an unfamiliar social group, to two groups of noxiously treated rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. In the predator cue experiment, fish were classified as bold or shy. Noxiously stimulated fish did not show antipredator responses, suggesting that pain is the imperative. In the social status experiment, noxiously stimulated fish held individually and undisturbed showed an increase in respiration rate and plasma cortisol. As a comparison, we used the dominant or subordinate fish …

The Effects Of The Acetic Acid “Pain” Test On Feeding, Swimming, And Respiratory Responses Of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss): A Critique On Newby And Stevens (2008), Lynne U. Sneddon

Experimentation Collection

Newby and Stevens’ (2008) paper ‘‘The effects of the acetic acid ‘pain’ test on feeding, swimming, and respiratory responses of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)’’ examines the effects of a noxious stimulus on the behaviour of trout in an attempt to replicate research conducted in my laboratory (Sneddon, 2003a; Sneddon, 2007; Sneddon et al., 2003a,b; Reilly et al., 2008). However, the authors used a different protocol to the one already published and I would like to respond to some of their points of discussion to provide scientific explanations for their results using data from my laboratory. The authors show that swimming …

Recognition Of Distress In Animals – A Philosophical Prolegomenon, Bernard E. Rollin

Sentience Collection

For those who continue to doubt the studiability of distress or suffering or misery in all of its forms in animals, consider the following thought experiment: If the government were to come up with a billion dollars in research funding for animal distress, would that money go a-begging? We can study these states just as we studied pain—excellent work on boredom by Franciose Wemelsfelder in a volume on laboratory animal welfare I co-edited made the methodology for such study quite explicit. (Wemelsfelder, 1990) And when the ideological scales fall from our eyes, we realize that the work of scientists like …

Constructive And Deconstructive Tool Modification By Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Amanda E. Bania, Stephany Harris, Hannah R. Kinsley, Sarah T. Boysen

Sentience Collection

Nine chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were tested for their ability to assemble or disassemble the appropriate tool to obtain a food reward from two different apparatus. In its deconstructed form, the tool functioned as a probe for one apparatus. In its constructed form, the tool functioned as a hook, appropriate for a second apparatus. Each subject completed four test trials with each apparatus type. Tool types were randomized and counter-balanced between the two forms. Results demonstrated that adult and juvenile chimpanzees (N = 7) were successful with both tool types, while two infant chimpanzees performed near chance. Off-line video analyses revealed …

Animal Welfare: Review Of The Scientific Concept And Definition, Corrado Carenzi, Marina Verga

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

The aim of this paper is to present a review of the current scientific viewpoints about the concept and definition of animal welfare. The need of interaction among different disciplines is stressed, as well as the need to scientifically assess welfare, using validated indicators. The role of applied ethology in animal welfare science is stressed.

The paper provides a brief overview of the historical steps in the development of the concept and presents scientific viewpoints, briefly explaining their theoretical foundation.

The possibility of defining welfare on a scientific basis is explained, identifying the main problems according to the scientific, cultural …

Concepts Of Distress, Suffering And Their Operational Interpretation, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Ethology Collection

The major concern of this paper is with the operational interpretation of animal distress and suffering – that is, with the issue of how we can measure the extent of an animal’s distress in practice. I shall probably make myself very unpopular by expressing the view right from the outset that I think it is neither possible nor desirable to try to discover universal ‘indicators’ of distress that will apply to all animals in all situations.

Effect Of Restricted Access Time To Pasture On Dairy Cow Milk Production, Grazing Behavior, And Dry Matter Intake, E. Kennedy, M. Mcevoy, J. P. Murphy, M. O'Donovan

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of restricting pasture access time on milk production and composition, body weight and body condition score change, dry matter intake, and grazing behavior of autumn calving dairy cows in midlactation. Fifty-two (19 primiparous and 33 multiparous) Holstein-Friesian dairy cows (mean calving date, August 17 ± 91.2 d) were randomly assigned to a 4-treatment (n = 13) randomized block design grazing study. The 4 grazing treatments were: (i) full-time access to pasture (22H; control), (ii) 9-h access to pasture (9H), (iii) two 4.5-h periods of access to pasture after both milkings …

Can We Measure Distress In Animals?, David Fraser

Ethology Collection

When scientists try to identify and mitigate distress in animals, an obvious first question is: can we actually measure distress? Today, after three decades of scientific research on animal welfare it must seem obvious that this is possible, but let me offer a more guarded response.

Understanding Norms Without A Theory Of Mind, Kristin Andrews

Sentience Collection

I argue that having a theory of mind requires having at least implicit knowledge of the norms of the community, and that an implicit understanding of the normative is what drives the development of a theory of mind. This conclusion is defended by two arguments. First I argue that a theory of mind likely did not develop in order to predict behavior, because before individuals can use propositional attitudes to predict behavior, they have to be able to use them in explanations of behavior. Rather, I suggest that the need to explain behavior in terms of reasons is the primary …