Animal welfare considerations of laparoscopic A.I.

Extract

Madam:— Members of the public have brought to my attention that there are some within our profession performing laparoscopic A.I. in goats in an unsatisfactory fashion.     

Animal welfare considerations of laparoscopic A.I. - a reply

Extract

Madam:— D.A. Conway has given us new guidelines to anaesthesia for laparoscopy. What rot.     

Animal welfare: concepts and measurement.

The term "welfare" refers to the state of an individual in relation to its environment, and this can be measured. Both failure to cope with the environment and difficulty in coping are indicators of poor welfare. Suffering and poor welfare often occur together, but welfare can be poor without suffering and welfare should not be defined solely in terms of subjective experiences. The situations that result in poor welfare are reviewed in this study with special reference to those in which an individual lacks control over interactions with its environment. The indicators of poor welfare include the following: reduced life expectancy, impaired growth, impaired reproduction, body damage, disease, immunosuppression, adrenal activity, behavior anomalies, and self-narcotization. The uses of measures of responsiveness, stereotypies, and animal preferences in welfare assessment are discussed. The need to make direct measurement of poor welfare as well as to use sophisticated studies of animal preferences is emphasized.     

Animal behavior and animal welfare

The value of behavioral techniques in assessing animal welfare, and in particular assessing the psychological well being of animals, is reviewed. Using cats and horses as examples, 3 behavioral methods are presented: (1) comparison of behavior patterns and time budgets; (2) choice tests; and (3) operant conditioning. The behaviors of intact and declawed cats were compared in order to determine if declawing led to behavioral problems or to a change in personality. Apparently it did not. The behavior of free ranging horses was compared with that of stabled horses. Using two-choice preference tests, the preference of horses for visual contact with other horses and the preference for bedding were determined. Horses show no significant preference for locations from which they can make visual contact with other horses, but they do prefer bedding, especially when lying down. Horses will perform an operant response in order to obtain light in a darkened barn or heat in an outside shed. These same techniques can be used to answer a variety of questions about an animal's motivation for a particular attribute of its environment.     

动物福利与畜牧业的发展

<正>在经济全球化步伐加快、市场开放程度不断扩大的今天,我国畜牧养殖业获得了加速发展的新机遇,但同时也面临着更加激烈的市场竞争。一方面,在国际市场上,发达国家对我国出口畜禽产品的品质、卫生、安全等要求越来越高,绿色贸易壁垒的门槛不断地被抬高,已成为制约着我国畜禽产品出口的瓶颈;