Search results for "Animal welfare"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
Chemosensory enrichment as a simple and effective way to improve the welfare of captive lizards
2018
The more the merrier? Scoring, statistics and animal welfare in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
2016
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a frequently used animal model for the investigation of autoimmune processes in the central nervous system. As such, EAE is useful for modelling certain aspects of multiple sclerosis, a human autoimmune disease that leads to demyelination and axonal destruction. It is an important tool for investigating pathobiology, identifying drug targets and testing drug candidates. Even though EAE is routinely used in many laboratories and is often part of the routine assessment of knockouts and transgenes, scoring of the disease course has not become standardized in the community, with at least 83 published scoring variants. Varying scales with diffe…
2021
Animal Welfare Attitudes (AWA) are defined as human attitudes towards the welfare of animals in different dimensions and settings. Demographic factors, such as age and gender are associated with AWA. The aim of this study was to assess gender differences among university students in a large convenience sample from twenty-two nations in AWA. A total of 7914 people participated in the study (5155 women, 2711 men, 48 diverse). Participants completed a questionnaire that collected demographic data, typical diet and responses to the Composite Respect for Animals Scale Short version (CRAS-S). In addition, we used a measure of gender empowerment from the Human Development Report. The largest varia…
Horses Could Perceive Riding Differently Depending on the Way They Express Poor Welfare in the Stable
2020
International audience; This study investigated the relationships between four behavioral and postural indicators of a compromised welfare state in loose boxes (stereotypies, aggressive behaviors toward humans, withdrawn posture reflecting unresponsiveness to the environment, and alert posture indicating hypervigilance) and the way horses perceived riding. This perception was inferred using a survey completed by the usual riding instructor and during a standardized riding session (assessment of behaviors and postures, qualitative behavior assessment (QBA) and characterization of the horses' locomotion using an inertial measurement unit). In accordance with ear and tail positions and the QBA…
The taboo against group contact: Hypothesis of Gypsy ontologization
2007
The concept of this article is that the symbolic relationships between human beings and animals serve as a model for the relationships between the majority and the ethnic minority. We postulate that there are two representations that serve to organize these relationships between human beings and animals: a domestic and a wild one. If the domestic animal is an index of human culture, the wild animal is an index of nature which man considers himself to share with the animal. With the wild representation, contact with the animal will be taboo, as it constitutes a threat to the anthropological difference. We offer the hypothesis that ontologization of the minority, that is, the substitution of …
Use of running plates by floor housed rats: A pilot study
2021
The outfit of husbandry facilities of, and the enrichment provided for, experimental rodents plays an important role in the animals’ welfare, and hence also for the societal acceptance of animal experiments. Whether rats and mice benefit from being provided with running wheels or plates is discussed controversially. Here we present observations from a feeding experiment, where rats were provided a running plate. As a pilot study, six identical cages, with three animals per cage, were filmed for six days, and the resulting footage was screened for the number of bouts and the time the animals spent on the plates. The main activities observed on the plate in descending order were sitting (18.…
Proceedings of the ASPA 18th Congress, Palermo, June 9-12, 2009
2009
Design of composite measure schemes for comparative severity assessment in animal-based neuroscience research: A case study focussed on rat epilepsy …
2020
PLOS ONE 15(5), e0230141 (2020). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230141
Environmental enrichment prevents pup mortality in laboratory mice.
2018
Early death of mouse pups is a commonly known problem in breeding mice colonies, which is still often regarded as ‘normal’ or is even overlooked due to the counting procedures applied. As reduced breeding performance probably indicates reduced well-being, this seems to be an underestimated welfare issue in laboratory mouse breeding. The present study compares the influence of three different forms of enrichment in breeding cages on infant survival rate and development of C57BL/6J mice. Our data reveal that lack of enrichment results in greater preweaning pup mortality, reduced weight and delayed development. Changing the environmental conditions after birth cannot prevent litter loss but i…
The genetics of phenotypic plasticity in livestock in the era of climate change: a review
2020
Climate change has the potential to adversely affect the health of livestock, with consequences to animal welfare, greenhouse gas emissions, productivity, human health and livelihoods. Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a genotype to produce different phenotypes, depending on environmental, biotic or abiotic conditions; it is a factor influencing and modifying the genes of animal and plant organisms, to adaptation to climate change. Among the various climate variables, heat stress has been reported to be the most detrimental factor to the economy of the livestock industry. There are a number of candidate genes that are associated with adaptation of ruminants, monogastric and poultry to…