132 research outputs found
A Survey of Rabbit Handling Methods Within the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
Get PDFRabbits are commonly kept in a variety of settings, including homes, laboratories, and veterinary clinics. Despite the popularity of keeping this prey species, little research has investigated current methods of handling. The aim of this study was to examine the experience of caregivers (owners and keepers) in using five handling methods commonly referred to in books written for companion animal (pet) owners and veterinary and/or laboratory personnel. An online survey was completed by 2644 respondents, representing all three of these groups, and breeders. Data were acquired to determine sources that participants used to gain knowledge of different handling methods, the methods they used and for what purposes they used them, and their perceptions of any associated difficulties or welfare concerns. Results indicated that participants most frequently used the method of supporting a rabbit’s body against a person’s chest, which was considered the easiest and most welfare-friendly method of the handling methods explored. “Scruffing with rear support” was the least used method and was considered to be distressing and painful for the rabbit. As rabbits are a terrestrial prey species, being picked up is likely an innately stressful experience. Additional research is encouraged to explore the experience of rabbits during handling to identify methods that can be easily used with the fewest welfare compromises.</p
Recognising & assessing positive welfare: developing positive indicators for use in welfare assessment
No full textThe use of positive welfare indicators: a proactive approach.
Welfare assessment methods have developed greatly over recent decades with regards to both behavioural and physiological indicators. However, whether welfare is being assessed on the basis of biological function, affective state or ‘naturalness’, the emphases have remained heavily on identifying those key indicators of poor welfare or welfare concerns that require more immediate action, often via legislative change. The reactive approach in identifying welfare concerns has been the underpinning force behind legislative changes to mould animal management systems into more acceptable arrangements but as consumer interest in food sourcing grows, it is becoming increasingly apparent that acceptable is no longer enough and positive welfare indicators offer a future avenue for developing improved, ‘higher welfare’ systems in a more proactive manner [1]. The benefits of employing positive welfare indicators as assessment tools offer potential avenues of development for all animal sectors, not just within agriculture. Positive welfare indicators can fall into 3 categories: indications of contentment / pleasure, luxury behaviours, and behaviours that support ability to cope with challenge.
Indications of contentment / pleasure.
Good welfare is not just an absence of negative experiences but also an ability to experience positive affective states. The ability of non-human animals to experience emotions in the same manner as humans remains a controversial topic, however, recent advances in neuroscience have been used to evidence the existence of positive affective states in animals with regards to behaviours such as positive anticipation [2].
Luxury behaviours.
Luxury behaviours are often deemed to be key positive welfare indicators due to them being the first behaviours to be lost during challenging situations. As such, any occurrences have been assigned the ‘good welfare’ indicator label – if the animal is performing these behaviours then the situation must be of a sufficient welfare level to enable them to. These luxury behaviours have often been considered separate from those ‘fundamental’ behavioural needs [3] so commonly used to determine minimum requirements in welfare legislation. There is, however, a risk that by focusing on the more urgent ‘demand’ behaviours, a situation may never be achieved that is high enough for the luxury behaviours to occur. As the luxury behaviours may be indicative of less transparent long-term rewards, their absence could still result in negative or less favourable consequences for the animal involved. The identification of key luxury behaviours for different species could therefore become essential tools in the assessment of good rather than acceptable welfare, and behaviours such as play, allogrooming and certain vocalisations could become increasingly important [4-7]. In the absence of clear indicator luxury behaviours, it may be enough to assess behavioural diversity as a measure of welfare (e.g. using the Shannon-Weaver diversity index) by identifying those systems where a greater spread across the behavioural repertoire is encouraged, a method increasingly employed in zoo collections (McCormick & Melfi, unpublished) [8]. The use of behavioural diversity as an assessment tool can also help to eliminate the risk of over-recording luxury behaviours that are acting as self-rewarding mechanisms in stressful situations.
Behaviours that support the ability to cope with challenge.
It may not be enough to simply identify the presence of behaviours indicative of positive emotions, but focus may also be required on identifying the existence of systems that allow animals to cope. Management systems do not need to be absent of any potential stressors – in fact this could be argued to result in a lack of stimulation – but should enable animals to cope with these acute events in a way that prevents a chronic stress situation from occurring. As such, the study and assessment of positive indicators of welfare should also include those behaviours / situations that allow coping. Studies in rats have identified that negative affective states are associated with faster startle responses and reduced anticipatory behaviours [1, 9] but investigations into the situations that link positive affective states to coping are limited.
Previous social studies in domestic cattle have focused on the negative perspectives, i.e. dominance and aggression, but no work had been conducted on the potential positive benefits of social bonding. A large, dynamically managed, dairy cattle herd was studied to establish the existence of preferred partners according to proximity scorings. During these initial stages, it was established that heifers (52%, n=34) were significantly more likely to have one or more preferred partners compared to cows (32%, n=12) (X2 = 8.210, df=1, p=0.004) with relation to the probability of being associated with a particular individual – although it was suggested that this could have indicated that experience of repeated regroupings in cows had caused a dissolution of previously formed bonds.
Following stage 1, commercial regrouping practices continued to affect the possible existence of preferred partnerships. During stage 2, six focal animals, previously identified as having a preferred partners (PP) that they were still housed alongside were separated off from the rest of the group for 30 minutes in a holding pen, either with their preferred partner or with a random individual from within the group. Three separation conditions were studied: 1. Focal animal (A) separated with their PP (B); 2. Focal animal (A) separated with a random individual (C) whilst B is released back to the home group; 3. Animal B separated with a random individual C whilst focal animal A is released back into the group. The heart rates of focal animal A during stage 1 and stage 2, and animal B during stage 3, were monitored using a Polar (Protrainer 5 Equine RS800) heart rate monitor, adapted for use in cattle, at 15 sec intervals. All protocols were approved by a Moulton College ethical committee. Heart rates differed significantly between stages (P=0.001) with focal animals (A) having lower heart rates when separated with their preferred partner (80.2 BPM) compared to being separated with a random individual (82.6 BPM). Interestingly, the partners’ heart rates when with a random individual (79.9 BPM) were lower than the focals’ in either situation. Although the actual difference in heart rates was small, the distinction was clear and this opens up further areas requiring research with regards to threshold levels beyond which chronic stress becomes physiologically damaging. There is also potential that the presence of any familiar cow could provide some degree of support but that the distinction lay within the level of familiarity.
From these results it can be suggested that some individuals seem to benefit from having their preferred partner present during a potentially stressful situation. It could also be suggested that some individuals are more sensitive to stressful situations compared to others. When developing / assessing dairy management systems, those that support the formation of social bonding and subsequently manage animals in a way that these bonds can be maintained may in turn provide a higher welfare system by improving the coping ability of individuals.
Conclusions
Much emphasis has been placed on identifying indicators of poor welfare but the effective assessment of good welfare is an area gaining momentum both within academia and industry [10]. A wide range of behavioural methods exist that can be utilised as good welfare indicators in all animal management systems but the subtle nature of these indicators requires rigorous validation and development to create systems that can easily be employed by users on site.
References
1. Boissy A, Manteuffel G, Jensen MB, Oppermann Moe R, Spruijt B, Keeling LJ, Winckler C, Forkman B, Dimitrov I, Langbein J, Bakken M, Veissier I, Aubert A. (2007) Assessment of positive emotions in animals to improve their welfare. Physiology & Behaviour 92: 375–397
2. Spruijt BM, van den Bos R, Pijlman FT. (2001) A concept of welfare based on reward evaluating mechanisms in the brain: anticipatory behavior as an indicator for the state of reward systems. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 72:145–71.
3. Jensen P, Toates FM. (1993) Who needs “behavioral needs”? Motivational aspects of the needs of animals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 37:161–81
Natta horizontalis Karsch 1879
No full textNatta horizontalis Karsch, 1879 Natta horizontalis Karsch 1879: 362. Pochyta moschensis Caporiacco, 1947: 249, pl. 2, fig. 76 (D ♀), syn. n. For full reference list see World Spider Catalog (2021). Type material. Holotype of P. moschensis, female: TANZANIA: Moshi [Moschi in German], 3°20’S 37°20’E, Ran stream, leg. VI-VII.1906, leg. K. Kittenberger (HNHM). Remarks. The holotype of Pochyta moschensis is in good condition. There is no doubt that this specimen has been misidentified, and that in reality it is Natta horizontalis, common species in Africa. The first author knows N. horizontalis very well and redescribed it (Wesołowska 1993).Published as part of Wesołowska, Wanda & Szűts, Tamás, 2021, A revision of the genus Pochyta Simon, with descriptions of new species (Araneae: Salticidae: Thiratoscirtina), pp. 1-41 in Zootaxa 5052 (1) on page 38, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5052.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/556588
"It was more useful than I initially thought":: changes in motivational components as preservice teachers complete a meaningful academic task
No full textIn this study, I revealed changes in academic motivational components while students were completing an academic task. The sample consisted of teacher education graduate students enrolled in an educational assessment summer course. The academic task was an assessment portfolio that the students could use after the course when they applied for teaching jobs and as an aid in their teaching. The task was designed to be meaningful to the students and to enhance their intrinsic motivation. It was constructivist in nature and allowed the students to practice the skills they learned within their own fields. I measured value and expectancy components of motivation at a task-specific level while students completed this assignment over the duration of the 4-week summer course.
I measured academic motivation at a task-specific level to provide empirical support for modern expectancy-value theory. Because motivational constructs were found to have more predictive power when measured at a domain-specific measure compared to global measures, measuring the motivational constructs of expectancy and value at a task-specific level was expected to significantly predict academic performance and self-reported behavior as well. Additionally, measuring motivational constructs at a task-specific level presented a different way to examine motivational constructs.
The theorists of modern expectancy-value theory have demonstrated links that exist between the motivational constructs described in their theory and those in other academic motivational theories. In this study, I provided additional support to this effort by demonstrating that the description of intrinsic value more closely matched that of constructs from other theoretical perspectives. Intrinsic value is a component within task value in expectancy-value theory defined as the enjoyment one experiences while completing a task and the interest one has in the task. I hypothesized that interest and enjoyment, constructs used interchangeably to define intrinsic value, were distinct constructs that varied during the completion of an academic task. The results of this study supported this hypothesis. The results also showed that the constructs varied in opposite directions over time as the students completed the academic task. These findings support changes in the conceptualization of intrinsic value in order to incorporate these distinct constructs into the model.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-155)
Feed, breed, bones and bonds: the diversity of companion animal welfare research at Moulton College
No full textThe importance of pets to FE/HE students in Northamptonshire
No full textThe presentation looks at the functions of pet ownership - e.g. projection, sociability, surrogacy. It reports on a study undertaken at an FE/HE college investigating attitudes and interaction with pets of FE/HE students.
The study found that:
- the modified survey had very high internal reliability.
- There was no significant difference in score according to age group.
- There was a highly significant difference between log transformed attachment score by gender.
- There was a highly significant difference between log transformed attachment score by pet type
From Heifer so lonely to Flightless bats in New Zealand: a perspective on collaborative research approaches at a landbased college
No full textFor colleges of further education (FE) with a substantial higher education (HE) portfolio, there remains an exigent requirement to foster scholarly output. This aims to improve both the quality of the learning experience and to meet the expectations of validating partners to promote the Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) culture of ‘scholarship and research’. Yet how is this done in a vocational setting where the traditional focus has always been on teaching and learning
Market review of pet food nutraceuticals for health & behaviour
No full textThe term “nutraceutical” is becoming a popular expression for those foods which help support health. It can therefore also be used for those supplements which support mental health (i.e. relieve stress and anxiety), and in turn impact an animal’s behaviour. Many feed supplements now boast behavioural improvement as a benefit of intake, alongside those marketed to encourage health and longevity.
The equine industry is one of the largest users of “calming” nutraceuticals; however the canine and feline market is following closely. Many products aimed at behavioural assistance contain natural feed components (e.g. B-vitamins and magnesium), which support nervous system health and neural functioning. Alongside these naturally occurring dietary elements, many feed companies additionally use herbal elements in their products to improve their efficacy.
As part of ongoing PhD research at Moulton College, this presentation aims to address the growing market trend for nutraceuticals in canine diets, highlighting the most popular nutraceuticals in use and the evidence supporting the benefits of ingestion. It will go on to review current legislation regulating this side of the industry and the future considerations for nutraceutical use on the commercial market
Matern Child Health J
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to investigate the association between oral health experiences of women in the peripartum period and the risk of preterm delivery (<37\ua0weeks). We analyzed 2004-2006 data from the CDC Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a population-based surveillance system that collects data on pregnancy and postpartum experiences of mothers who have recently delivered a live infant. Ten states included in the analysis had a 6570% weighted response rate and three standard questions pertaining to oral health. White non-Hispanic (WNH), Black non-Hispanic (BNH), and Hispanic women were selected for analysis. Chi-squared analysis was performed for our bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression models were created to calculate adjusted odds ratios, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and peripartum morbidities. Weighted percentages and standard errors were used for all analyses. Among the 35,267 women studied, in the multivariate analysis, mothers who did not receive dental care during pregnancy and did not have a teeth cleaning during pregnancy were at higher risk for delivering a preterm infant (OR 1.15, CI 1.02-1.30; OR 1.23, CI 1.08-1.41). In this population-based study, women who did not receive dental care or have a teeth cleaning during pregnancy were at slightly higher risk for preterm delivery after adjustment for pertinent confounders.CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United State
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