Animal welfare science
concepts, measurement and improving
quality of life
Amy KilBride
Human animal studies
Outline
• What is ‘animal welfare’
• Measuring welfare
• Outcomes of welfare
science
Resources / images used from
www.worldanimalprotection.org
Animal rights or animal welfare?
• Animals as moral patients– compelling
argument (lecture 2)
BUT
• Majority of society believes human use of
animals is acceptable
• ‘Animal welfare’ is the position of science, law
and governance
Modern intensive agriculture
In Europe and North America, farming became more
industrialised in 1950s and 1960s
– focus on production and efficiency  cheaper food for humans  better
human health
– housing animals in large numbers  easier supervision, but increased
disease
– important welfare contribution from veterinary medicine  vaccinations,
treatment
– food production specialised  less contact between the consumer and
animals
– production mechanised  less human contact
– impact on animal welfare  animal welfare science
– increasing demand for meat in expanding economies in global south 
UK small part of a global market
Meat industry
 Animals produced for consumption in the UK per
year




Broilers (meat chicken) 950 million
Pig 10 million
Sheep 15 million
Cattle 2.6 million
(Human Slaughter Association)
 1961 average consumption 22kg / year
2007 average consumption 40kg /year
(UN food and Agriculture org. )
 Production subsidised by CAP
 Subsidy policy impacts welfare
Sentience
“ The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same
emotions as ourselves is so well established that is will
not be necessary to weary the reader by many details”
(Darwin 1872)
• Consideration of welfare is based on assumption of
sentience
• Vertebrates and some invertebrates
– e.g. Pigs but not prawns
• Legal standing
– EU recognition 1997 treaty of
Amsterdam
What is ‘welfare’
Three key areas /approaches
• Physical processing
• Naturalness ‘telos’
• Mental state
Definitions of animal welfare:
physical
I suggest that an animal is in a poor state of
welfare only when [its] physiological systems
are disturbed to the point that survival or
reproduction are impaired (McGlone, 1993)
Definitions of animal welfare:
natural behaviour
• In principle, we disapprove of a degree of
confinement of an animal which necessarily
frustrates most of the major activities which make up
its natural behaviour (Brambell Committee, 1965)
• Not only will welfare mean control of pain and
suffering, it will also entail nurturing and fulfilment of
the animal’s nature, which I call telos (Rollin,1993)
Is more ‘natural’
always better welfare?
Definitions of animal welfare:
mental state
... Neither health nor lack of stress nor fitness is
necessary and/or sufficient to conclude that an animal
has good welfare. Welfare is dependent upon what
animals feel (Duncan, 1993)
To be concerned about animal
welfare is to be concerned with the
subjective feelings of animals,
particularly the unpleasant
subjective feelings of suffering and
pain (Dawkins, 1988)
A working definition of welfare –
The Five Freedoms
Farm Animal Welfare Council (1992)
– Freedom from hunger and thirst
– Freedom from discomfort
– Freedom from pain, injury and disease
– Freedom to express normal behaviour
– Freedom from fear and distress
(Brambell Committee, 1965; FAWC, 1992)
The Five Freedoms and animal
welfare
More than the 5 freedoms?
FAWC (2009)
How do we measure welfare?
Quantitative
Physical
• Observations of physical
wellbeing
Behaviour
• Observation of natural
behaviour
• Choice experiments
• Motivation experiments
Physiological
• Biomarkers
Cognitive
• Cognitive bias
Qualitative
• Behavioural assessment
Measurement of physical functioning
• Poor welfare; gastric ulcers, mastitis, lameness
• Good health; weight gained, offspring born, milk
produced
USEFUL; important, efficient, measures health,
repeatable, links to profit
BUT only part of the story
Behaviour; recognising normal behaviour in a
natural environment
Edinburgh Pig Park
• Modern breed lines
• Semi natural
environment
• Complex repertoire
of behaviour
– nest building
(Stolba and Wood-Gush, 1989)
Behaviour; observing and recording
normal behaviour
• Ethology – scientific and objective study of
animal behaviour
• Start with preparation of ethogram –
catalogue of behaviour
• Welfare emphasis on quantifying behaviour
• e. g. comfort of lying areas
– Position shifting (per hour)
– Time spent lying (% of total)
Behaviour; stereotypies and misdirection
Stereotypies
–
–
–
–
Repetitive behaviour
Constant in form
No obvious purpose in the context
Indicate past or present
frustration
– Restrictive environment
(Mason, 1991)
Misdirected behaviour
–
–
e.g tail biting
Lack of opportunities to carry out
behaviour
(Taylor et al, 2010)
Behaviour; choice experiments
In the T maze animals choose
where to spent time
Farrowing sows choose
• Bigger space
• Bedding
(Avey et al 1992)
Lame animals choose feed
with analgesic
(Danbury et al 2000)
Choices
Behaviour; motivation experiments
• Application of consumer demand theory
– Marian Dawkins (Dawkins, 1983)
• How much is an animal willing to ‘pay’?
• As cost of items increases only necessities are
sort
• Sows are highly motivated to access substrate
to nest build
Physiological; biomarkers
• Response to physical or psychological
challenges can be detected in release of
‘stress hormones’
• Increased cortisol levels in restrained sows
– Peak prior to farrowing
(Jarvis et al 2001)
Physiological biomarkers; limitations
• Do not indicate if animal’s
experience is positive, negative or
neutral
• Increased activity from stress
• Measurement itself may be
stressful
• Welfare cost (e.g. implanted
devices, some lab analyses)
Exploring cognitive processing to
assess welfare: cognitive bias
• Cognitive = information processing, i.e
attention, learning, memory, decision
making
• Cognitive processes influence emotion
and emotions can influence cognition
• Animals exposed to negative stimulus did
not anticipant positive outcomes
(Harding et al 2004)
Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA)
• Do we need quantitative measures to
understand animal welfare?
• What do our intuitive beliefs about what
other being feel offer to this debate?
• QBA is based on careful observations
• Anthropomorphic / centric
– Animals have different senses / different
needs
Validity of qualitative assessment
• Repeatable – by same observers
• Reproducible – by different observer
• Based on the animal not the
environment
• Are ‘saying something’ about mental
state of the animal
(Wemelsfelder, 2007)
Animal welfare inputs
- what affects animal welfare?
Animal welfare
Welfare inputs; management
Domesticated animals are reliant
• Food and water
• Shelter / thermal comfort
• Vet care
Intensive production = reliance
Extensive production = greater
independence
Fear / human animal relationship
• Positive / negative interactions
• Measureable in approach distance
• Linked to production outcomes; less milk, fewer piglets born etc
(See Paul Hemsworth’s research e.g Hemsworth (2003) review).
Welfare inputs; environment
Policy focus
• Sow crates outlawed UK 2001
– Elsewhere in Europe 2013
• Cages for laying ‘battery’ hens 2011
Welfare assurance
• Food chain assessment
• Resource based
Needs to go beyond this
Welfare inputs; animal’s genetics
• Milk production; doubled in last 30 years = chronic
mastitis and lameness
(National Milk Producers Federation 1996)
• Weeks to produce a broiler chicken = limb damage
In 1923 = 16 wks vs in 1993 = 6 1/2 wks (Maudlin, 1995)
• Belgium Blue muscle
development = high %
of caesarean
(Broom,1993)
Summary
• Animal welfare is a young science
• Concerned with the ‘private’ experiences of
sentient animals
• Consensus is developing that good welfare is
‘a life worth living’
• Range of quantitative and qualitative
techniques used to understand and measure
welfare
• Aim is to improve animal welfare
References
Arey DS, Petchey AM and Fowler VR 1992. The effect of straw on farrowing site choice and nest building behaviour in sows. British
Society of Animal Science. 54, 1, pp 129-133
Broom D.M., 1993. Assessing the welfare of modified or treated animals. Livestock Production Science, 36: 39-54.
Danbury TC, Weeks CA, Chambers JP, et al., 2000. Self-selection of the analgesic drug carprofen by lame broiler chickens. Vet. Rec.
146 (11), 30
Dawkins MS 1988. Behavioural deprivation: a central problem in animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 20: 209-225
Dawkins MS 1983. Battery hens name their price: Consumer demand theory and the measurement of ethological ‘needs’ Animal
Behaviour. Volume 31, Issue 4, November 1983, Pages 1195–1205
Duncan IJH 1993. Welfare is to do with what animals feel. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 6, Supplement 2: 8-14
Harding EJ, Paul ES, Mendl M 2004. Animal behaviour: Cognitive bias and affective state. Nature 427, 312 (22 January 2004) |
doi:10.1038/427312a
Hemsworth PH 2003. Human animal interactions in livestock production. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 81 185-198
Jarvis S, Van Der Vegt BJ, Lawrence AB, McLean KA, Deans LA, Chirnside J, Calvert SK 2001. The effect of parity and environmental
restriction on behavioural and physiological responses of pre-parturient pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 71, pp. 203–216
Mason G 1991. Stereotypies: a critical review. Animal Behaviour,41, 1015-1037
Maudlin, JM 1995. Behavior and Management of Broiler Breeder Chickens. ASAE Pap. No. 954512. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., Chicago.
McGlone JJ 1993 What is animal welfare? Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 6. Supplement 2: 26-36
Rollin B E 1993 Animal welfare, science, and value. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 6. Supplement 2:44-50
Stolba A and Wood-Gush DGM 1989. The behaviour of pigs in a semi-natural environment. Animal Production. 48, 2., pp 419-425
Taylor NR, Main D, Mendl M, Edwards SA 2010. Tail-biting: A new perspective. The Veterinary Journal 186 (2010) 137–147
Veissier, I., and A. Boissy. 2007. Stress and welfare: Two complementary concepts that are intrinsically related to the animal’s
point of view. Physiol. Behav. 92(3):429–433.
Wemelsfelder, F 2007. How animals communicate quality of life: the quantitative assessment of behaviour. Animal Welfare I 6(s):
25-31
Qualitative behavioural assessment
(QBA)
Thanks to François Wemelsfelder /
Marianne Farish
SRUC Scottish Rural collage for
providing the video resources used
QBA task
Phase 1.
• Watch video clip
• Write down terms that in YOUR view best sum up
the expressive qualities of that animal(s)
behaviour
Phase 2.
• Using terms devised above
• Score animals behaviour with respect to these
terms on a continuous rating scale
Behaviour welfare /terms
• You are free to choose new terms for each
new animal or use terms chosen for previous
animals
• Concentrate on choosing the best terms for
each individual animal
How would these data be analysed?
• Generalized Procrustes analysis (GPA) can be
thought of as a pattern-matching mechanism
• Based on the assumption that even if observers
use different terms the differences / similarities
between animals will be comparable
• GPA detects the level of consensus between
observer assessment patterns not on the basis of
fixed terms, but on the basis of the
(multidimensional) intersample distances
specified by each observer (i.e. how each
observer uses his/her terms to score animals
behaviuor)
(Wemelsfelder, 2007)
Questions; quantitative vs. qualitative
methods
• What was it like to attempt QBA?
– Individual vs. groups
– Settings
• Is it necessary to measure welfare
quantitatively?
• Is qualitative assessment of value in the
scientific study of animal welfare?