A new animal welfare concept based on allostasis
Open accessAbstract
Animal welfare is an increasing issue of public concern and debate. As a result, many countries are reconsidering the way animal welfare is embedded in the legislation and rules for housing and care of animals. This requires general agreement of what animal welfare is. Unfortunately, the current science of animal welfare is less scientific than what has been claimed. In our view, it is overly guided by anthropocentric thinking about how animals ought to be handled and neglects the latest concept of physiology: 'The Allostasis Concept'. Allostasis, which means stability through change, has the potential to replace homeostasis as the core model of physiological regulation. Not constancy or freedoms, but capacity to change is crucial to good physical and mental health and good animal welfare. Therefore, not homeostasis but allostasis is at the basis of our new animal welfare concept. This paper is aimed at a broader scientific discussion of animal welfare that includes knowledge from the latest scientific developments in neurobiology and behavioral physiology, and generates views that are extremely relevant for the animal welfare discussion.
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Methods like allostatic load indexes are gaining attention because of their ability to capture cumulative stress, and so could potentially be used to predict mortality and morbidity risks.
“Methods like allostatic load indexes are gaining attention because of their ability to capture cumulative stress (109), and so could potentially be used to predict mortality and morbidity risks.”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [109]
Section 2.3 describes allostatic load as a cumulative load on the brain and body, and section 3 proposes tissue damage as a measure of it. The paper therefore supports the cumulative-stress rationale, but these passages do not establish that allostatic load indexes are gaining attention. The mortality-and-morbidity prediction follows the citation in the citing sentence and is not treated as attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.79)
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“Methods like allostatic load indexes are gaining attention because of their ability to capture cumulative stress (109), and so could potentially be used to predict mortality and morbidity risks.”
Background
- Authors
- Korte, S. M., Olivier, B., & Koolhaas, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Korte, S. Mechiel
- Venue
- Physiology & Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-10
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 422-428
- ISSN
- 0031-9384 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2147688343
- Cited by
- 340
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 1.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Physiology & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
- WBI Studies Repository (submittedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Pharmacology and Anesthesia
- Keywords
- animal welfare, allostasis, homeostasis, physiological regulation, animal welfare legislation, anthropocentrism, behavioral physiology
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Welfare, Animals, Domestic, Behavior, Animal, Legislation, Veterinary, Allostasis
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