Qualitative behaviour assessment as an indicator of animal emotional welfare in farm assurance

Livestock ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-183
Author(s):  
Richard Cooper ◽  
Françoise Wemelsfelder
Keyword(s):  
Physical Health ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Qualitative Behaviour ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Sentient Beings

Acknowledgement of animals as sentient beings (including farm animal species), capable of experiencing positive and negative emotions, has highlighted the need for suitable ‘welfare outcome’ measures in farm assurance schemes. Current schemes tend to focus on measures of physical health and productivity, but there is as yet a lack of indicators addressing farmed animals' emotional wellbeing. A number of assessment techniques exist that may help us develop such indicators, and better understand the extent to which farm animals do, or do not, experience ‘a good life’. This article focuses on one such technique, ‘qualitative behaviour assessment’ (QBA), and reviews the potential benefits of, and challenges to, its practical deployment in the field.

scholarly journals Allonursing in Wild and Farm Animals: Biological and Physiological Foundations and Explanatory Hypotheses

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3092
Author(s):  
Daniel Mota-Rojas ◽  
Míriam Marcet-Rius ◽  
Aline Freitas-de-Melo ◽  
Ramon Muns ◽  
Patricia Mora-Medina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Pathogen Transmission ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Energy Expenditures ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
The Individual

The dams of gregarious animals must develop a close bond with their newborns to provide them with maternal care, including protection against predators, immunological transference, and nutrition. Even though lactation demands high energy expenditures, behaviors known as allonursing (the nursing of non-descendant infants) and allosuckling (suckling from any female other than the mother) have been reported in various species of wild or domestic, and terrestrial or aquatic animals. These behaviors seem to be elements of a multifactorial strategy, since reports suggest that they depend on the following: species, living conditions, social stability, and kinship relations, among other group factors. Despite their potential benefits, allonursing and allosuckling can place the health and welfare of both non-filial dams and alien offspring at risk, as it augments the probability of pathogen transmission. This review aims to analyze the biological and physiological foundations and bioenergetic costs of these behaviors, analyzing the individual and collective advantages and disadvantages for the dams’ own offspring(s) and alien neonate(s). We also include information on the animal species in which these behaviors occur and their implications on animal welfare.

scholarly journals Effect of Music on Animal Behavior: A Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 142-149
Author(s):  
S. Dhungana ◽  
D.R. Khanal ◽  
M. Sharma ◽  
N. Bhattarai ◽  
D.T. Tamang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Milk Yield ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Stress Relief ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Music Preference ◽  
History Of ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
And Behavior

Music is an expression of moods and emotions, which has a history of physical and emotional healings. It is thought to have both analgesic and anxiolytic properties. Various effects of music therapy on the physiology and psychology of human have been documented. The effect of music on physiology and behavior have been studied in animals too. Many of these studies claim that even animals are affected by the music. The potential benefits of music in animals might be through auditory enrichment which modifies the behavior of animals. The milking behavior and milk yield of farm animals including cattle and buffalo are affected by music. The objective of this study was to review the influence of music in animal behavior and discuss its usefulness for stress relief. The available literatures indicated that there is a variation among animals for music preference and their behavior is affected depending upon the animal species.

Registration of animal rabies in Krasnodar region

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-4
Author(s):  
Oleg Yu. Chernykh ◽  
◽  
Vadim A. Bobrov ◽  
Sergey N. Zabashta ◽  
Roman A. Krivonos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Natural Focus ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Epizootic Process ◽  
Krasnodar Region ◽  
Spread Of Infection ◽  
Reporting Data

Rabies remains a constant threat to humanity in many parts of the world. At the same time, scientifically grounded antiepizootic measures should be based on the peculiarities of the regional epizootology of this zooanthroponosis. The authors studied the epizootological and statistical reporting data of the Kropotkin Regional Veterinary Laboratory, presented an analysis of the registration of rabies in animals in Krasnodar region. From the obtained data, it should be noted that despite the wide range of animals involved in the epizootic process of rabies infection in Krasnodar region, dogs, cats and foxes play a major role in the reservation and spread of infection, which account for 78.6. Of the total number of registered cases, 15.5% falls on foxes, that indicates the natural focus of the disease, along with the manifestation of the disease in an urban form. At the same time, stray and neglected dogs and cats, which occupy a significant place among the total number of sick animals, are also sources and spread of the infection. Thus farm animals (8.3% of the total number of infected animals) are a biological dead end for the infection. Isolated cases of the disease were noted in muskrat, donkey, raccoon, raccoon dog, marten, ferret and jackal. The authors also established the specific morbidity of various animal species with rabies infection, that is an important aspect in the development and implementation of antiepizootic measures complex

Chromosomal instability in different species of agricultural animals (review)

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
V. A. Andreeva
Keyword(s):  
Chromosomal Instability ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Reproductive Function ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Chromosomal Disorders ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Karyotypic Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Almost All

The purpose of the work was to analyze the frequency of chromosomal instability in different species of agricultural animals in Western Siberia on the basis of literature data. The analysis of the literature on the topic of somatic chromosomal instability in agricultural animals has been carried out. Despite the stability of the chromosome set, deviations from it are quite common. It is noteworthy that chromosomal instability is characteristic of almost all individuals in the population and serves as an important indicator for assessing the natural mutability of chromosomes. It has been found if an aberration appeared in one tissue, it is very likely to occur in others. It has been noted that somatic chromosomal instability occurs in animals with reduced reproductive function, as well as those suffering from any pathology. For example, in calves with parakeratosis the increase in the frequency of chromatid and isochromatid breaks has been found. Analysis of the frequency of aberrations in sires, which differ in the level of perinatal mortality of offspring revealed the increased percentage of offspring mortality in fathers with the large number of chromosomal disorders. Therefore, low fertilization, spontaneous abortions and stillbirths may be indications for karyotypic analysis. It has been revealed that the lability of the karyotype is inherent in all animal species, regardless of the species, sex and age, as well as the morphofunctional state. The data on some types of somatic chromosomal instability in different types of farm animals in Western Siberia has been presented. Such indicators as the frequency of polyploidy, the number of cells with fragments of chromosomes, as well as single and paired fragments of chromosomes has been given. Different types of chromosomal instability varied depending on the animal species and climate zone. The presented data can be accepted as a physiological norm and used in veterinary medicine and animal science.

scholarly journals A scoping review of palliative care outcome measures in interstitial lung disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (161) ◽  
pp. 210080
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. Gersten ◽  
Amanda C. Moale ◽  
Bhavna Seth ◽  
Judith B. Vick ◽  
Hannah Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Care Outcome

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) confers a high mortality and symptom burden, substantially impacting quality of life. Studies evaluating palliative care in ILD are rapidly expanding. Uniform outcome measures are crucial to assessing the impact of palliative care in ILD. This scoping review evaluates existing outcome measures in general health-related quality of life (HRQoL), physical health, mental health, social health and advance care planning (ACP) domains in patients with ILD. Articles in English with quantitative assessment of at least one measure of general HRQoL, physical health, mental health, social health or ACP in patients with ILD were included. Searches across three databases yielded 3488 non-duplicate articles. 23 met eligibility criteria and included three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or secondary analysis of an RCT (13%), three cross-sectional studies or secondary analysis of cross-sectional study (13%), one prospective study (4%) and 16 retrospective studies (70%). Among eligible articles, 25 distinct instruments were identified. Six studies assessed general HRQoL (26%), 16 assessed physical health (70%), 11 assessed mental health (48%), six assessed social health (26%) and 16 assessed ACP (70%). The ability to compare results across studies remains challenging given the heterogeneity in outcome measures. Future work is needed to develop core palliative care outcome measures in ILD.

scholarly journals Relevance of animal infections in SARS-Cov-2 spread: an update after 1 year of pandemic.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frazzini Sara ◽  
Amadori Massimo ◽  
Lauretta Turin ◽  
Federica Riva
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Natural Infection ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
World Health ◽  
Chinese City ◽  
Experimental Infections ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Therapy Studies

In December 2019, several cases of pneumonia caused by a novel Coronavirus, later identified as SARS-CoV-2, were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Due to its rapid, worldwide spread, on 11 March 2020 the World Health Organization declared a pandemic state. Since this new virus is genetically similar to the coronaviruses of bats, it was thought to have a zoonotic origin. Within a year of the appearance of SARS-CoV-2, several cases of infection were also reported in animals, suggesting animal-to-human and animal-to-animal transmission within mammals. Natural infection has been found in both companion and captive animals such as lions, tigers and gorillas. Among farm animals, the only ones found to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection so far are minks. Experimental infections have documented the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 of several animal species, such as humanized mice, hamsters, cats, dogs, ferrets, racoon dogs, cattle and non-human primates. Experimental infections are crucial for both elucidation of the role of animals in transmission and development of appropriate animal models for pathogenesis and therapy studies. This review aims to update the knowledge on natural and experimental SARS-CoV-2 infections in animals.

scholarly journals Working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people: cultural considerations and acceptability of a cognitive behavioural group approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy King ◽  
Glorianne Said
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Routine Practice ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural

AbstractThis paper outlines a psychological skills group for unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people with a focus on cultural adaptations in the context of a UK mental health service. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people have typically experienced multiple losses, traumatic experiences, significant disruption and psychosocial stressors. These experiences occur during a key developmental period and outside of the context of a supportive family environment. Mental health difficulties are estimated to be present in 41–69% of this population. Prevalence rates are higher than among children seeking asylum with their families or children who are not from refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds. Cognitive behavioural approaches were considered to be applicable and useful when working with this client group. Group approaches may offer unique benefits for this population through peer support and normalization. The group described was planned around three key themes: physical health needs, emotional wellbeing and resilience-building. A number of adaptations were made to meet the needs of this population which included engagement, considering physical health needs, sleep, language needs, issues related to power, race and status, and thinking about the needs of the group as young people. Attendance ratings, session rating scale outcomes, preliminary effectiveness data and qualitative feedback from young people identified that this is an acceptable approach for these young people. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people require a broad package of care; however, making adaptations to routine practice allowed access to evidence-based interventions to support mental health and wellbeing.

scholarly journals Evaluation of HBV-Like Circulation in Wild and Farm Animals from Brazil and Uruguay

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 2679
Author(s):  
Yasmine R. Vieira ◽  
Moyra M. Portilho ◽  
Flávia F. Oliveira ◽  
Alexandro Guterres ◽  
Débora Regina L dos Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatitis B Virus ◽  
Hepatitis B ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Core Antigen ◽  
Qualitative Polymerase Chain Reaction ◽  
Health Response ◽  
B Virus ◽  
Polymerase Chain ◽  
Partial Genome

The origin of the hepatitis B virus is a subject of wide deliberation among researchers. As a result, increasing academic interest has focused on the spread of the virus in different animal species. However, the sources of viral infection for many of these animals are unknown since transmission may occur from animal to animal, human to human, animal to human, and human to animal. The aim of this study was to evaluate hepadnavirus circulation in wild and farm animals (including animals raised under wild or free conditions) from different sites in Brazil and Uruguay using serological and molecular tools. A total of 487 domestic wild and farm animals were screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV) serological markers and tested via quantitative and qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect viral DNA. We report evidence of HBsAg (surface antigen of HBV) and total anti-HBc (HBV core antigen) markers as well as low-copy hepadnavirus DNA among domestic and wild animals. According to our results, which were confirmed by partial genome sequencing, as the proximity between humans and animals increases, the potential for pathogen dispersal also increases. A wider knowledge and understanding of reverse zoonoses should be sought for an effective One Health response.

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