Scientific assessment of animal welfare
Abstract
Animal welfare is a state within the animal and a scientific perspective provides methodologies for evidence-based assessment of an animal's welfare. A simplistic definition of animal welfare might be how the animal feels now. Affective experiences including emotions, are subjective states so cannot be measured directly in animals, but there are informative indirect physiological and behavioural indices that can be cautiously used to interpret such experiences. This review enunciates several key science-based frameworks for understanding animal welfare. The biological functioning and affective state frameworks were initially seen as competing, but a recent more unified approach is that biological functioning is taken to include affective experiences and affective experiences are recognised as products of biological functioning, and knowledge of the dynamic interactions between the two is considered to be fundamental to managing and improving animal welfare. The value of these two frameworks in understanding the welfare of group-housed sows is reviewed. The majority of studies of the welfare of group-housed sows have employed the biological functioning framework to infer compromised sow welfare, on the basis that suboptimal biological functioning accompanies negative affective states such as sow hunger, pain, fear, helplessness, frustration and anger. Group housing facilitates social living, but group housing of gestating sows raises different welfare considerations to stall h…
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Aggression can compromise welfare if it results in injury and has also been widely associated with physiological stress.
“For example, aggression can compromise welfare if it results in injury [50] and has also been widely associated with physiological stress [47,51].”
From The visitor effect on zoo animals: implications and opportunities for zoo animal welfare (2019) · cites this paper as [47]
Exploratory, play and affiliative behaviours have been used as indicators of positive welfare states.
“In contrast, exploratory, play and affiliative behaviours have been used as indicators of positive welfare states [45,47].”
From The visitor effect on zoo animals: implications and opportunities for zoo animal welfare (2019) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Hemsworth, P., Mellor, D., Cronin, G., & Tilbrook, A.
- Affiliations
- Animal Welfare Science Centre, University of Melbourne
- Massey University (NZ)
- Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney
- Venue
- New Zealand Veterinary Journal
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-12-11
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24-30
- ISSN
- 0048-0169 (ISSN-L)
- 1176-0710
- OpenAlex
- W2050156844
- Cited by
- 252
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 2.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- New Zealand Veterinary Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Pharmacology and Anesthesia
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Keywords
- animal welfare assessment, gestating sows, feeding competition, welfare indicators
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Husbandry, Animal Welfare, Behavior, Animal, Housing, Animal
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