Satisfaction of farm animal behavioral needs in behaviorally restricted systems: Reducing stressors and environmental enrichment

In modern intensive husbandry, systems often restrict farm animal behavior. Behavioral needs will be generated by external stimuli such as stressors deriving from environmental factors or the method of animal care, or some internal factor in farm animals. This means that behavioral restriction would induce maladaptation to stressors or chronic stress. Such a risk of behavioral restriction degrades an animal's physical and mental health and leads to economic loss at a farm. Methods to reduce the risk of behavioral restrictions are to ameliorate the source of a stressor through adequate animal management or to carry out environmental enrichment. This review is intended to describe the relation between animal management and behavioral needs from the perspective of animal motivation.     

Stress Reactivity and Coping in Horse Adaptation to Environment

“Coping” or “coping strategy”, defined as the behavioral and physiological efforts of animal to master the situation, is more and more in interest of researchers dealing with applied animal behavior and welfare. Knowledge about “coping styles” may be helpful in understanding individual adaptive capacity to stressful events. At least two types of animal coping strategy (or coping style) can be involved: (1) active copers (proactive) and (2) passive copers (reactive). The individual differences in stress response to threatening situations have been found in horses, and these animals can show specific coping strategies such as other species. This article reviews the set of behavioral, psychoneuroendocrine, and psychoneuroimmune mechanisms involved in animal adaptation to environmental challenges and discusses the relationship between behavioral and physiological factors involved in stress response of the horse. Exploring coping strategies in horses and in any captive animal can be successful when a multidimensional approach including behavioral, neural, hormonal, and hematological measures is considered. Knowledge on stress coping styles can provide valuable information to predict the behavior of individuals during response to specific challenging situations. Moreover, assessing individual differences in adaptation strategies can be useful in horse selection to different exploitation tasks and reproduction.     

Ethical stockmanship

The objective of this review is to consider the ethics of stockmanship, particularly from the perspective of the nature and extent of the duties of stockpeople to their farm animals. It will consider what science tells us about the impact of stockmanship on the animal, particularly the welfare of the farm animal. The effects of human-animal interactions on the stockperson will also be considered, since these interactions affect the work performance and job satisfaction of the stockperson and thus indirectly affect animal welfare. Animal ethics is broader than animal welfare and includes economic as well as philosophical, social, cultural and religious aspects. This paper is predicated on the view that farm animals can suffer, and that animal suffering is a key consideration in our moral obligations to animals. Housing and husbandry practices affect farm animal welfare and thus farmers and stockpeople have a responsibility to provide, at minimum, community-acceptable animal housing and husbandry standards for their animals. The farmer's or stockperson's attitudes and behaviour can directly affect the animal's welfare and thus they also have a responsibility to provide specific standards of stockmanship for these animals. However, research suggests that the behaviour of some stockpeople is not as correct as it might be. Such situations exemplify the inevitably unequal human - domestic animal relationship, and this inequality should be considered in analysing the boundary between right and wrong behaviour of humans. Thus ethical discussion, using science and other considerations and involving stockpeople, livestock industries, government and the general public, should be used to establish and assure acceptable stockperson competencies across the livestock industries. Training programs targeting the key attitudes and behaviour of stockpeople presently offer the livestock industries good opportunities to improve human-animal interactions.     

Physiological adaptation to the environment

The ability of an animal to cope with new environments arises from its capacity to respond to environmental variables and maintain body equilibrium (homeostasis). Each compensating mechanism depends on, and is a part of, a physiological feedback process. The severity (intensity and duration) of an environmental change relative to the animal's capacity to respond determines the potential disruption to the animal's equilibrium and the resources that must be invested to regain homeostasis. However, an environmental change sufficient to seriously challenge one individual may be insufficient to produce a measurable response in another. The principles behind the responses occurring in animals as a consequence of a change in their physical environment are illustrated in this review by examples drawn from responses of animals to cold stress. Behavioral opportunities sometimes are constrained in farm animals, and internal metabolic responses tend to become more prominent in such situations. Furthermore, as a disturbing factor persists, the immediate defensive responses are replaced by longer-term and adaptive mechanisms that reduce the burden on the animal. As we gain greater understanding of the environment-animal interface and the sensitivity and response of animals to disruption, we will be better able to establish and maintain suitable environments for our farm animals.     

Halal slaughtering,welfare, and empathy in farm animals: a review

Pre-slaughter and slaughter stressors are considered major concerns in animal welfare. Halal slaughtering method is considered one of the slaughtering stressors in livestock. This method seems to cause fear followed by stress in animals mainly due to inhuman handling. In this review, empathy and animal welfare are discussed in light of Islamic sharia and has further linked with animal’s physiology and behavioral responses during slaughtering. Islam as a religion forbids slaughtering an animal in front of another animal as through optic, olfactory, and cochlear senses animals can perceive the stress state of conspecifics. This suggests and strengthens the hypothesis that animals being slaughtered in front of each other may produce stress in them. This argument further leads to a claim that animals can experience empathy of each other through olfaction of semiochemicals (stress pheromones) emitted from animals slaughtered in the stressful condition that can be detected by other animals in abattoirs. Hence, research is needed to find out these specific stress pheromones and legislation needs to be adopted in slaughterhouses to isolate the areas of butchery from slaughtering lines to ensure proper guidelines of Halal slaughtering in slaughterhouses.     

Farm animal welfare: the five freedoms and the free market

This review addresses the scientific, ethical and economic factors that impact on the welfare of farm animals. Respect for animals within the food chain is considered within the context of an ethical matrix that affords respect according to the principles of wellbeing, autonomy and justice to consumers, farm animals, farmers and the living environment. The welfare of a farm animal depends on its ability to sustain fitness and avoid suffering. The responsibility of the farmer is to make provision for good welfare through good husbandry; he cannot ensure good welfare. Improvements to farm animal welfare can only come about within the context of the forces that drive the free market. In essence, consumers need to afford a greater extrinsic value to farm animals. The costs to farmers of legislation to impose higher animal welfare standards are substantial but the cost to consumers can be very small. The responsibility is therefore on the consumer to convert an expressed desire for higher welfare standards into an effective demand. A promising route to encourage and fulfil this demand is through welfare-based quality assurance schemes with quality control ensured by independent audit. At present, audit protocols are based largely on identification of the elements of good husbandry. Ultimately we need a further independent audit to ensure that the outcome of these perceived elements of good husbandry is, in fact, good animal welfare.     

Research Advances and Application Status of Timed Artificial Insemination (TAI) in Farm Animals

With the wide application of the artificial insemination (AI) in animal husbandry,the utilization rate of excellent sire got greatly improved.The key point of AI is predicting the time of ovulation and insemination accurately.It is also the point which the animal husbandry technologists highly concerned to improve the application effect of AI.Estrus and ovulation are regulated minutely by reproductive hormones in vivo in farm animals.Timed artificial insemination (TAI) is based on the synchronization of estrus and ovulation,both of which are triggered by reproductive hormones.So the optimal time for AI could be determined from the reproductive hormone treatment.The purpose of TAI is to improve the reproduction performance of farm animals,reduce the workload of identification of estrus,and promote batch management.This review mainly summerized the principles of TAI and its applications status,and the prospects was also discussed.It would provide a reference for the research and application of new reproductive technology in farm animals.     

家畜定时输精技术研究进展与应用现状

随着人工授精技术在畜牧业中的广泛应用,优秀种公畜的利用率得到了极大提高。而人工授精成功的关键是输精的准确性和及时性,因此如何准确预测排卵时间及输精时间是提高人工授精效果的重要途径,也是当前畜牧工作者高度关注的问题。家畜的发情排卵受到体内生殖激素的精密调控,定时输精技术就是在利用生殖激素进行同期发情、同期排卵的基础上,通过调控母畜的发情和排卵来确定人工输精的最佳时间,以期达到提高家畜繁殖性能、减少发情鉴定工作量和促进养殖场批次化管理的目的。作者综述了家畜定时输精的原理及当前的应用现状,同时对其发展前景进行了展望,以期为畜牧业繁殖新技术的研究和应用提供参考依据。     

Poultry husbandry and animal health

Close interactions are existing between poultry husbandry and poultry health. The more housing systems and the environment of the animals can be controlled, the less the general risk of disorders in poultry flocks--especially of diseases which are caused by the introduction of microoganisms. Resulting deterimental effects will affect not only the animals themselves, but also pose a risk indirectly for humans via food originating from animals under production. Also, by keeping the risk of infections as low as possible, the use of therapeutics can be avoided. This will reduce the risk of residues in food of animal origin. In summary, with all probability open poultry husbandry systems, especially those including free range systems pose increased risks for poultry health and consequently for the quality of food originating from poultry production. At least, those systems require highest standards of biosecurity, defined as management, location, farm layout, cleaning and desinfection incl. pest control programs, immunization and specific veterinary monitoring concepts to prevent infections.     

Ethical demands in animal production

Since the second world war, particularly within the last twenty years the structure of agriculture has been changed dramatically by intensifying, specialization and rationalization of every aspect of production methods. This has led to a severe change in the human-animal relationship. Large numbers cause alienation of man from the farm animals confided to him. Extremely high pressure of performance and mechanization of livestock husbandry often overstress the adaptability of the animals. It is to be expected that introduction of new methods of biotechnology will increase this process. The problems caused by this development necessitate to revise the management of animal production and husbandry, judgement to be based on ethical criterions. Farm animals are to be recognized and treated as creatures again. But in the context of livestock husbandry human-human relations are to be reconsidered under ethical aspects, too. In doing so, the scientific scale of values fails, determining correct or incorrect, true or false, whereas ethical judgement uses good or bad as criterions. The personal view is given, making use of some examples.     

A model for assessing the impact of behavioral stress on domestic animals

Animal scientists need a reliable measure of behavioral stress in domestic animals if they are going to be able to assess the stress of various management practices and to answer public concern about the well-being of animals used in agriculture. Popular measures of stress, alterations in behavior or changes in hormone secretion, are not adequate because of a failure to establish any direct correlation between changes in these characteristics with adverse effects on animal well-being. Further complicating the use of these indicators of stress is the variation in their pattern of response to different kinds of stressors. Even the same stressor can elicit divergent responses in different animals because of inter-animal variation in the stress response. To address these problems, a model of animal stress is discussed and tested. From this model it is proposed that the best indicator of an animal suffering from stress is the development of a pre-pathological state; i.e., a stress-related change in biological function that threatens the animal's well-being. Examples of such pre-pathological states would be a suppression of the immune system, the loss of reproductive events critical for normal reproduction, or the development of behaviors that would lead to such undesirable acts as tail-biting or excessive fighting. Although determining the existence of such pre-pathological states is not convenient, their existence is currently the only defensible indicator of an animal suffering from behavioral stress.     

Teaching animal welfare in the land grant universities

Colleges and universities have an obligation to teach the basis of animal husbandry and welfare and must prepare students so that they can respond effectively to challenges by proponents of the animal welfare and animal rights movements. Veterinary curricula must now contain formal instruction in professional ethics and humane stewardship of animals for accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association. It is helpful if students have an understanding of farm animal behavior, stress physiology and methods of assessing welfare prior to learning about the animal welfare/rights movement's philosophies and issues. A review of early judicial practices, "classical" Judeo-Christian philosophy, the philosophy of Rene Descartes, Jeremy Bentham, Albert Schweitzer, and current philosophers and the entertainment media places the movements in perspective. Students should be familiar with such concepts as the mind-body controversy, equality of suffering, self-awareness or intelligence, and speciesism. After acquiring an appreciation of the basics, a knowledge of the issues facing animal agriculture and the arguments for and against each issue are necessary. Graduates of colleges of agriculture need to realize the potential effects the movements can have and take the initiative to improve the image of animal agriculture.     

The importance of applied ethology for the execution of animal welfare legislation]

Applied ethology in general and farm animal ethology in particular have a great importance in connection with animal welfare regulations on a national and international level. They have through the legislation on animal welfare brought about important repercussions on housing of farm animals, wild animals and experimental animals in Switzerland. The animal welfare legislation has been a considerable boost to scientific research. The application of ethological knowledge in the legislation and in practice has indeed also its limits. The importance of applied ethology for animal welfare and for animal husbandry will still increase in future.     

Cognitive enrichment in zoo and farm animals--implications for animal behaviour and welfare

Animals in the wild are facing a wide variety of challenges and ever-changing environmental stimuli. For successful coping, animals use both innate behavioural programs and their cognitive skills. In contrast, zoo- and farm animals have to cope with restricted husbandry conditions, which offer only few opportunities to adequately satisfy their various needs. Consequences could be sensory and cognitive underchallenge that can cause boredom and frustration as well as behavioural disturbances. Initially intended for improvement of management and husbandry, different forms of operant behavioural training have been applied firstly in zoo- and later also in farm animals. It has been suggested that successful coping with appropriate cognitive challenges is a source of positive emotions and may lead to improved welfare. Under the term cognitive enrichment, new approaches have been developed to integrate cognitive challenges into the housing of zoo- and farm animals. The present article reviews actual research in the field. Previous results indicate that, beyond improvement of management and handling routines, such approaches can positively affect animal behaviour and welfare. The combination of explorative and appetitive behaviour with successful learning improves environmental predictability and controllability for the animals, activates reward-related brain systems and can directly affect emotional processes of appraisal. For practical implementation in farm animal husbandry, it sounds promising to link individual access to e.g. automated feeders or milking systems with previously conditioned stimuli and/or discriminatory learning tasks. First experimental approaches in pigs, dwarf goats and cattle are available and will be discussed in the present article.     

Combination of variance components estimation, regression trees and logistic regression as a concept for exploring associations between animal husbandry conditions and lesions found at slaughter

Integrated quality control measures have been discussed in farm animal husbandry and veterinary medicine for some time in search of concepts to link information on management factors with disease data gained by veterinary meat inspection at slaughter. Better understanding of relationships between these variables hopefully will help to improve management practices as well as meat quality and safety. In order to analyse data gained on-farm and at slaugherhouses and to investigate relationships between animal husbandry conditions and lesion occurrence at slaughter a biometrical concept has been developed. This concept combines a characterization of variation structures, the generation of regression trees to explore association structures in available animal management and disease data, and logistic regression used to quantify systematic effects of farm management factors. The combination of these three steps is illustrated with an example.     

Aspects of animal welfare in livestock production

The modern consumer is increasingly concerned about the welfare of farm animals which are kept in intensive systems on specialised farms where the health and well-being is almost completely dependent on the will, ability and care of the farmer. Further demands related to animal production are consumer health (quality and safety of food products), the protection of the environment and cheap food. The currently used husbandry systems are man made and emphasise automation which requires permanent critical observation of the welfare of the animals. Ethological indicators are equally important as health and performance to evaluate keeping systems. Future animal farming will be influenced by new technologies such as electronic animal identification and milking robots, and more important by biotechnology and genome analysis. Veterinary surgeons and farmers have to co-operate on the basis of scientifically sound animal welfare schemes which help to protect our farm animals in modern and intensive livestock production systems.     

畜禽粪尿氮污染情况及降低污染的措施

随着畜牧业的迅速发展,畜禽粪尿造成的环境污染问题变得更加突出,而含氮物质又是粪尿中首要的污染物质。中国畜牧业要走可持续发展道路就必须治理好粪尿氮污染。作者概述了中国目前畜禽粪尿氮污染情况,并针对中国畜牧业生产现状,详细综述了降低污染的各种措施。     

Assessment of comfort and well-being in farm animals

The assessment of comfort and well-being in farm animals is discussed in terms of physical damage, physiological responses and behavior. Injuries may be due to the physical environment or contact, such as aggression, with other animals. Animals may reduce the frequency of injuries by modifying their behavior. Evaluation of injuries requires a methodical assessment of specific areas of the body and examination of the facilities and behavior of the animal to determine cause. The physiological response of an animal is dependent upon its psychological response. The adrenal medullary and cortical responses represent distinct strategies that may occur simultaneously or independently of each other. Stress frequently results in suppression of immune responses, although some aspects of the immune system are enhanced. Inadequate or excessive motivation results in behavioral problems and facilities must accommodate the behavior of the animals. Methods of preference-testing have been improved to evaluate factors in the environment and assess motivation for specific behaviors more reliably. All of the methods used to assess comfort and well-being must consider the animal's ability to adapt to different environments. Although it remains difficult to assess comfort and well-being across systems, improvement within a system can be demonstrated.     

Living space in zoos--criteria for species-specific animal husbandry

Keeping wild animals in captivity is still object of criticism, above all due to the fact that room is restricted for these animals. But wild animal husbandry is basing on several factors: It has to concern physiological requirements as well as natural behaviour patterns, so as actions and reactions of wild living animals caused by ecological occasions have to be replaced by suitable arrangements. Most of the time proper animals husbandry is valued by quantity; in that way, that the measurements of artificial homes are often supposed to be more important than the quality of this enclosures. Optimal feeding, social structure, stimula for behaviour patterns like playing, breeding an rearing in calmness and well trained keepers are other basic requirements for wild animal husbandry. Criteria for keeping wild animals should not be scheduled by restrictive arrangements; innovations would be complicated by any regulations.