Abstract In order to improve well-being of dogs during veterinary visits, we aimed to investigate the effect of human social interactions on behavior and physiology during routine examination. ...Firstly, we assessed the impact of a standardized veterinary examination on behavioral and physiological indicators of stress in dogs. Secondly, we examined whether the owner's tactile and verbal interactions with the dog influenced behavioral and physiological stress-associated parameters. A randomized within-subjects crossover design was used to examine behavior (n = 33), rectal temperature (n = 33), heart rate (HR) (n = 18), maximal ocular surface temperature (max OST) (n = 13) and salivary cortisol concentrations (n = 10) in healthy privately owned pet dogs. The study consisted of two experimental conditions: a) “contact” - owner petting and talking to the dog during the examination; b) “non-contact” - owner present during the examination but not allowed to interact with the dog. Our findings showed that the veterinary examinations produced acute stress responses in dogs during both “contact” and “non-contact” conditions, with significant increases in lip licking, HR, and max OST. A significant decrease in attempts to jump off the examination table ( p = 0.002) was observed during the examination in the “contact” compared to the “non-contact” condition. In addition, interactions of owners showed an attenuating effect on HR ( p = 0.018) and max OST ( p = 0.011) in their dogs. The testing order (first vs. second visit) had no impact on behavioral and physiological parameters, suggesting that dogs did not habituate or sensitize to the examination procedure. Moreover, the duration of the owner-dog interactions had no significant impact on the behavioral and physiological responses of their dogs. This study demonstrates that owner-dog interactions improve the well-being of dogs during a veterinary examination. Future research may assist in further understanding the mechanisms associated with reducing stress in dogs in similar settings.
Stroking by humans is beneficial to the human-animal relationship and improves welfare in many species that express intraspecific allogrooming, but very few studies have looked at species like sheep ...that do not express such contact except around parturition. This study investigated the way lambs perceive regular human tactile contact using behavioral and physiological responses. Twenty-four lambs were reared and bucket-fed in groups of four. All were stroked daily by their familiar caregiver. At 8 weeks of age, the lambs were individually tested in their home pen but in a 1×1m open-barred pen after a 15 h period of habituation to physical separation from peers while remaining in visual and auditory contact. Half of the lambs received stroking by their caregiver for 8 min and half were exposed to their caregiver's immobile presence. Heart rate and heart rate variability were recorded and analyzed by 2-min slots over the same interval based on three measures: mean heart rate value (HR), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and standard deviation of all intervals measured between consecutive sinus beats (SDNN). Behavioral responses (ear postures of the lamb and time spent in contact with the familiar caregiver, on the knees of the familiar caregiver, and moving) were recorded throughout the test. Lamb HR decreased continuously while in the presence of their caregiver. Lambs being stroked showed slower HR and higher RMSSD which reflected positive emotional states compared to lambs left unstroked. All behavioral variables were highly correlated with the main component axis of the PCA analyses: the more the animals stayed in contact with their caregiver, the less they moved and the more their ears were hanging. This first component clearly differentiates lambs being stroked or not. Behavioral and physiological observations support the hypothesis that gentle physical contact with the caregiver is perceived positively by lambs.
Vocal expression of emotions has been observed across species and could provide a non-invasive and reliable means to assess animal emotions. We investigated if pig vocal indicators of emotions ...revealed in previous studies are valid across call types and contexts, and could potentially be used to develop an automated emotion monitoring tool. We performed an analysis of an extensive and unique dataset of low (LF) and high frequency (HF) calls emitted by pigs across numerous commercial contexts from birth to slaughter (7414 calls from 411 pigs). Our results revealed that the valence attributed to the contexts of production (positive versus negative) affected all investigated parameters in both LF and HF. Similarly, the context category affected all parameters. We then tested two different automated methods for call classification; a neural network revealed much higher classification accuracy compared to a permuted discriminant function analysis (pDFA), both for the valence (neural network: 91.5%; pDFA analysis weighted average across LF and HF (cross-classified): 61.7% with a chance level at 50.5%) and context (neural network: 81.5%; pDFA analysis weighted average across LF and HF (cross-classified): 19.4% with a chance level at 14.3%). These results suggest that an automated recognition system can be developed to monitor pig welfare on-farm.
Après les fascicules « Comprendre » et « Évaluer », cet ouvrage présente des pistes pour améliorer le bien-être des animaux d’élevage, focalisées sur l’environnement physique et social des animaux, ...la relation humain-animal, la prise en charge de la douleur, ainsi que la bientraitance dans le transport et l’abattage. Certains leviers d’amélioration sont particulièrement distingués, tels que la création de relations positives, fondées sur une meilleure compréhension des animaux, la gestion intégrée de leur santé et la valorisation de solutions pour supprimer, substituer ou soulager des pratiques douloureuses.La mise en place d’actions doit bien sûr être adaptée à chaque élevage, et respecter aussi le bien-être de l’éleveur. Cette démarche s’inscrit dans le concept de one welfare, où les bénéfices pour l’animal, pour l’humain et pour l’environnement sont étroitement liés.Cet ouvrage s’adresse aux étudiants et aux professionnels des filières agricole et vétérinaire, ainsi qu’à tout citoyen s’intéressant au bien-être des animaux d’élevage.Le Laurier 2021 Impact de la recherche a récompensé le collectif INRAE « Bien-être animal », chercheurs et chercheuses en éthologie, physiologie, neurobiologie et génétique, dont sont issus une partie des auteurs et des contributeurs de cet ouvrage.
The study compared the perception of ordinary citizens from Curitiba, Brazil (OB) and Clermont-Ferrand, France (OF), as well as OB, Brazilian veterinarians (VB), biologists (BB) and animal scientists ...(AB), concerning animal welfare and sentience. An online survey containing 18 open-ended, multiple choices and Likert scale questions was conducted from November 2014 to May 2016. The survey covered questions on demographics, perception of animal welfare, sheep welfare, sentience and animals' emotional capacities. In total, 1103 respondents participated in the survey (388 OB, 350 OF, 248 VB, 92 BB and 25 AB); data were compared using non-parametric tests. Brazilian citizens (46.9%) believed more than OF (3.7%) that welfare is not considered for farm animals and OB attributed higher scores of suffering to sheep during management procedures (median 4, severe suffering) than OF (3, moderate suffering). Additionally, OB gave higher scores of emotions to animals (5) than OF (4). In general, OB and BB had similar perceptions; OB and BB differed from VB and AB who were similar to each other. Citizens (46.9%) and BB (29.3%) believed more than VB (18.5%) and AB (12.0%) that welfare is not considered for farm animals; OB and BB also attributed higher scores of suffering to sheep during management procedures than VB and AB. Women and older respondents showed higher perception of animal welfare issues. There was no clear correlation between perception of animal welfare or sentience and education. Overall, ordinary citizens differed on their perceptions of welfare and sentience in livestock and specifically in sheep, and sheep suffering during management procedures. Ordinary citizens from Curitiba showed higher perception of animal welfare issues as compared to respondents from Clermont-Ferrand and to veterinarians and animal scientists. Ensuring a better consideration of welfare at farm level and in educational programs seems warranted according to the results of this study.
The automated quantification of the behaviour of freely moving animals is increasingly needed in applied ethology. State-of-the-art approaches often require tags to identify animals, high ...computational power for data collection and processing, and are sensitive to environmental conditions, which limits their large-scale utilization, for instance in genetic selection programs of animal breeding. Here we introduce a new automated tracking system based on millimetre-wave radars for real time robust and high precision monitoring of untagged animals. In contrast to conventional video tracking systems, radar tracking requires low processing power, is independent on light variations and has more accurate estimations of animal positions due to a lower misdetection rate. To validate our approach, we monitored the movements of 58 sheep in a standard indoor behavioural test used for assessing social motivation. We derived new estimators from the radar data that can be used to improve the behavioural phenotyping of the sheep. We then showed how radars can be used for movement tracking at larger spatial scales, in the field, by adjusting operating frequency and radiated electromagnetic power. Millimetre-wave radars thus hold considerable promises precision farming through high-throughput recording of the behaviour of untagged animals in different types of environments.
For coordinated movement, group-living individuals have to reach consensus decisions through recruitment processes. Success in recruitment can depend on the spatial distribution and behaviour of ...animals before and/or after departure, and on their affinitive relationships. We tested the effect of such factors on recruitment processes in a group of 19 ewe lambs,
Ovis aries, at pasture. Two observers continuously videotaped the behaviours of animals from a platform located in the centre of the field. Results showed that group orientation, group vigilance and activities such as head movements, stillness and number of steps increased before departure. Using general linear modelling we found that changes in most of these variables predicted the number of participants in movements. Similarly, activity of the first mover was modified in the last 2
min preceding departure, and at departure time the location and number of close neighbours of the first mover were especially influential in recruiting conspecifics. Animals first recruited were those that were close to the first mover and also its preferential partners. The behaviours of the second and third moving individuals could further influence the recruitment process. Moreover, there were clues that individuals were able to recruit others intentionally. Our findings emphasize that decision making in a group of domestic sheep was a continuous and distributed process. Recruitment depended both on group state and on the behaviour of individuals and their social relationships.
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