In New Zealand there is a long history of research studies working with wild free-living brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) where euthanasia of large numbers of animals is frequently required. The most commonly used method for euthanising trapped possums is by blunt-force trauma. If possums being euthanised are potentially infected with bovine tuberculosis (TB), however, the blunt-force trauma method is associated with risks of researcher exposure to TB infection (eg risk of being scratched, bitten or blood-splattered). Here, we trial the use of a close-range shot to the head with a high-velocity air rifle as an alternative method for the euthanasia of cage-trapped possums. Our trial revealed that the air rifle method reduced the potential disease exposure risks to researchers by minimising blood-spatter area, and by completely avoiding the likelihood of both accidents due to animal handling and animal escapes. While both methods induced immediate unconsciousness leading to death, the air rifle method was quicker (ie shorter conscious handling and total time) and arguably had better animal welfare performance by significantly reducing the time to unconsciousness. Thus, we conclude that the air rifle method is suitably humane for possum euthanasia and should be considered when dealing with potentially TB-infected cage-trapped possums.

Contemporary animal welfare thinking is increasingly emphasising the promotion of positive states. There is a need for existing assessment frameworks to accommodate this shift in emphasis. This paper describes extensions to the Five Domains model, originally devised to assess welfare compromise, that facilitate consideration of positive experiences that may enhance welfare. As originally configured, the model provided a systematic method for identifying compromise in four physical/functional domains (nutrition, environment, health, behaviour) and in one mental domain that reflects the animal's overall welfare state understood in terms of its affective experiences. The specific modifications described here now facilitate additional identification in each domain of experiences animals have which may be accompanied by positive affects that would enhance welfare. It is explained why the grading scale and indices for evaluating welfare compromise necessarily differ from those for assessing welfare enhancement. Also, it is shown that the compromise and enhancement grades can be combined to provide a single informative symbol, the scaled use of which covers the range from severe welfare compromise and no enhancement to no compromise and high-level enhancement. Adapted thus, the Five Domains model facilitates systematic and structured assessment of positive as well as negative welfare-related affects, the circumstances that give rise to them and potential interactions between both types of affect, all of which extend the utility of the model. Moreover, clarification of the extended conceptual framework of the model itself contributes to the growing contextual shift in animal welfare science towards the promotion of positive states whilst continuing to minimise negative states.

In Australia, several macropod species are subjected to commercial harvesting, recreational hunting and population management, using both lethal and non-lethal measures. Some techniques for killing macropods can cause prolonged and/or severe suffering, and of particular concern is the welfare of remaining pouch young or young-at-foot, when females with dependent young are killed. Non-lethal methods are more widely supported by the general public and include reproductive control and relocation. These methods, however, also have significant associated welfare challenges. This review outlines the welfare concerns for each current method, and concludes that an accurate head-shot by an experienced shooter is least likely to inflict suffering. However, this assumes best practice shooting, which may not be representative of field conditions. Furthermore, many aspects of macropod control and killing still require significant research. These include, but are not limited to: accurate statistics for pouch young and young-at-foot mortality and morbidity in Australian states; data on field-based compliance with National Codes of Practice; safe and remote administration of reproductive control measures; and the impact of using dogs and trapping in wallaby destruction and hunting.

The field of welfare science and public concern for animal welfare is growing, with the focus broadening from animals on farms to those in zoos and aquaria. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are the most common captive cetaceans, and relevant regulatory standards are principally resource-based and regarded as minimum requirements. In this study, the farm animal Welfare Quality® assessment was adapted to measure the welfare of bottlenose dolphins, with a similar proportion of animal-based measures (58.3%). The ‘C-Well® ‘ assessment included eleven criterion and 36 species-specific measures developed in situ at three marine mammal zoological facilities, tested for feasibility and accuracy, and substantiated by published literature on wild and captive dolphins and veterinary and professional expertise. C-Well® scores can be calculated for each measure or combined to achieve an overall score, which allows for the comparison of welfare among individuals, demographics, and facilities. This work represents a first step in quantifying and systematically measuring welfare among captive cetaceans and can be used as a model for future development in zoos and aquaria, as well as a means to support benchmarking, industry best practices, and certification.

In modern zoos, training should be an integral component of the animal care and management. The benefits of training include the opportunity for positive interactions with caretakers. This study was carried out with a group of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) housed at the Garda Zoological Park, Italy. Using focal animal sampling, we observed the behaviour performed by all group members from December 2007 to August 2008. The group took part in a training programme to be isolated in a familiar area before the subjects were included in a cognitive study. We collected behavioural data during a pre-training period to assess the social behaviour of the colony and during the training period to investigate the effects of the training programme on the behaviour of individuals. Additionally, a second phase of the study was conducted and training sessions with individual monkeys were video-recorded to determine the behaviour of animals during each training session and to thus confirm that they were suitable for participating in the procedure. Our results suggest that the training programme enriched the daily routine of these captive primates by increasing affiliative behaviours while decreasing agonistic behaviours. Furthermore, there was behavioural response variability among the individuals under the training procedure. However, all the individuals were trained to calmly enter a familiar area and be isolated from other members of the group. In conclusion, our findings highlight the importance of using positive reinforcement training to reduce the tension directly associated with potentially stressful procedures by allowing primates to participate voluntarily in these procedures. In addition, the training was found to be an enrichment tool for vervet monkeys.

White-lipped (Tayassu pecari) and collared (Pecari tajacu) peccaries can be farmed as an alternative to subsistence hunting in Neotropical countries. The animals often show high reactivity to handling, usually involving capture with a net, which is a cause for concern because it poses risks to both animals’ and keepers’ welfare. We aimed to assess the temperament of both peccary species, evaluating animals’ reactions during handling, providing an emotional indicator and a new animal selection criterion for peccary farms. Three indicators were used to assess the temperament of 17 white-lipped and 19 collared peccaries: qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA, by using 12 behavioural adjectives); time to drive each animal through a corridor into a chute (TD, s); and flight speed (FS, m s−1). A Principal Components Analysis was performed for the QBA data to define a temperament index (TI). White-lipped peccaries showed TI scores associated with worse temperament traits than collared peccaries. White-lipped peccaries showed higher TD and FS means than collared peccaries. We found a correlation between TD and FS, but not between TD and TI, nor between FS and TI. The lack of correlation between all temperament indicators occurred, probably, because they measure different aspects of peccaries’ reactions toward humans and the farm environment during handling. A wide phenotypic variability was found among individuals within both species’ populations. The results provide an opportunity to address the role of temperament assessment, improving handling procedures and exploring the possibility of including temperament as a selection criterion in captive breeding programmes.

Veterinary visits are known to be stressful for many dogs. The aim of this study was to assess dog welfare in the waiting room of the veterinary clinic through a multi-modal, non-invasive approach. Forty-five dogs were each videoed for 3 min in the waiting room of a veterinary clinic where they went for a scheduled visit. The welfare of each dog was assessed using a thorough video analysis and two overall evaluations (low, medium and high stress); one performed by a veterinary behaviourist and one by the dog's owner. Two-thirds of dogs spent more than 20% of the time displaying at least one indicator of stress, and 53.3% showed four or more behavioural signs of stress. Assessments of stress by the behaviourist indicated that level of stress in the waiting room was high in 28.9% of cases. The agreement between owners’ and behaviourist's overall evaluations was quite low. The behaviourist's evaluations were strongly correlated with the time spent by dogs showing signs of stress and moderately correlated with the number of displayed signs, whilst owners’ evaluations were not closely correlated to those factors. Dogs rated as highly stressed by the behaviourist were more prone to display resistance (halting, refusing to budge) when moving from the waiting room to the consultation room. The results of this pilot study support the idea that the welfare of dogs in the veterinary waiting room is often impaired, and that owners are unable to accurately assess stress in their dogs in such situations.

Shooting is widely used to reduce the abundances of terrestrial wildlife populations, but there is concern about the animal welfare outcomes (‘humaneness’) of these programmes. Management agencies require methods for assessing the animal welfare outcomes of terrestrial wildlife shooting programmes. We identified four key issues in previous studies assessing the animal welfare outcomes of shooting programmes: (i) biased sampling strategies; (ii) no direct ante mortem observations; (iii) absence of quantifiable parameters for benchmarking; and (iv) no evaluation of explanatory variables that may cause adverse welfare outcomes. We used methods that address these issues to assess the welfare outcomes of a European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) shooting programme in south-eastern Australia. An independent observer collected ante mortem (distance, timing and outcome of each shot fired) and post mortem (locations of bullet wounds) data. The ante mortem data were used to estimate three critical animal welfare parameters: apparent time to death (ATTD); instantaneous death rate (IDR); and wounding rate (WR). The post mortem data were used to evaluate the location of bullet wounds relative to the Australian national standard operating procedure (SOP). For rabbits, the mean IDR was 0.60, ATTD was 12 s and WR was 0.12. A large proportion of rabbits (0.75) were shot in the cranium or thorax, as required by the SOP. Logistic regression indicated that the proportion of rabbits wounded and missed increased with shooting distance. Hence, reducing shooting distances would increase the humaneness of European rabbit shooting programmes. Our approach enables the animal welfare outcomes of terrestrial shooting programmes to be independently quantified.

Qualitative Behaviour Assessment of cattle expression using a fixed rating scale of 20 descriptors is one of the measures of the Welfare Quality® (WQ) assessment protocol for dairy cattle. As for other on-farm measures of welfare, reliability is an important issue especially if farms are to be certified. This study investigated the repeatability of QBA results across three different observation times during the day (early morning, late morning, early afternoon). For this purpose, 13 observers assessed a total of 30 video clips from ten commercial dairy farms using visual analogue scales to score the 20 QBA terms. QBA scores for ‘emotional state’ were computed according to the Welfare Quality® protocol (WQ_QBA) and, additionally, a Principal Component Analysis was carried out. The latter revealed two main dimensions which may be described as ‘mood’ and ‘activity’, the former thus corresponding to the ‘emotional state’ score of the WQ protocol. Both for scores derived from the WQ protocol and from PCA, mixed model analysis for repeated measures revealed a significant effect of observation time depending on the farm. Mixed model analysis for repeated measures revealed a significant effect of observation time for three farms out of ten on both the WQ_QBA score and the PCA ‘mood’ dimension; a similar effect was found for eight out of ten farms for the PCA ‘activity’ dimension. These results indicate that observation time potentially affects WQ (and other QBA) outcomes on a proportion of farms. However, given that outcomes for WQ_QBA and PCA ‘mood’ were consistent for the majority of farms, procedures suggested in the Welfare Quality® protocol may constitute a reasonable compromise between reliability and feasibility. If the QBA assessment should reflect the ‘mean mood’, multiple assessments throughout the day may be carried out.

Excessive breeding for brachycephaly (fore-shortened muzzle) has led to increasing problems in pugs related to brachycephalic airway syndrome (BAS). Consequently, the German Pug Club (Deutscher Mopsclub eV; DMC) established a stress test in 2009 that must be passed for breeding and requires normalised heart and respiratory rates 15 min after having covered a distance of 1 km. In this study, 42 pugs underwent the stress test under standardised conditions. Taking into account that this exercise should not be too physically demanding for any healthy dog, the results were surprising: 14 of the pugs failed, ie a failure rate of 33.3%. In addition to the stress test, the pugs were assessed according to their heart and respiratory rates at rest, which we predicted would be associated with BAS, and in this test, 21 out of 42 pugs failed. Thus, 50.0% of the pugs were in a severely compromised physical condition. A further group of seven retropugs, ie a crossbreed of pugs with a slightly longer muzzle, was included in the study to compare brachycephalic problems. All of the retropugs passed the test, even when respiratory and heart rates at rest were considered. However, the findings may not be transferable to all retropugs because of the small sample size, so further research is needed. In summary, this study has enabled the development of recommendations for future implementation of stress tests.

Leg disorders are a major cause of poor welfare in broilers. Previous studies have shown that at slaughter age at least 90% of chickens experienced some degree of gait problems and approximately 30% were seriously lame. In this study, a new and non-invasive technique was developed to automatically assess the lameness of the birds. For this purpose, video surveillance images of broilers with five different pre-defined gait scores were recorded as they walked along a test corridor. Afterwards, the image-processing algorithm was applied to detect the number of lying events (NOL) and latency to lie down (LTL) of broiler chickens. Then, the results of the algorithm were compared with visually assessed manual labelling data (reference method) and the relation between these measures and lameness was investigated. Eighty-three percent of NOL were correctly classified by the automatic monitoring system when compared to manual labelling using a data set collected from 250 broiler chickens. The results also showed a positive significant correlation between NOL and gait score and a significant negative correlation between LTL and gait-score level of broilers. Since strong correlations were found, on the one hand, between two measures and gait-score level of broiler chickens and, on the other, between the results of algorithm and manual labelling, the results suggest this automatic monitoring system may have the potential to be used as a tool for assessing lameness of broiler chickens.

Whether cattle grazing in nature reserves in temperate summers ought to be provided with artificial shelter (man-made), in addition to natural shelter (vegetation), is a topic of debate. We have investigated the effect of heat-load on the use of natural versus artificial shelter (with a roof and three walls) by cattle in eight nature reserves in Belgium. GPS collars were used to monitor use of open area, natural and artificial shelter during one or two summers (per 30 min). Cattle location data were coupled to same-time values of climatic ‘heat-stress indices’ calculated from local weather stations’ measurements of air temperature, air humidity, solar radiation and wind speed. Use of open area decreased as heat-load increased. The strength of the effect, and whether the cattle sought natural or artificial shelter, were associated with the amount and spatial distribution of natural shelter in the reserve. When natural shelter was sparse, a more scattered distribution tempered the increased use of shelter with increasing heat-load. If sufficiently available, cattle preferred natural to artificial shelter. When little natural shelter was available, cattle did use the artificial shelter and especially so with increasing heat-load. Microclimatic measurements indicated that solar radiation was blocked by vegetation at least as well as by artificial shelter, and allowed more evaporative cooling. In conclusion, we found no evidence for the added value of additional artificial shelter to protect cattle from heat-load in temperate nature reserves, as long as adequate natural shelter is available.

The UK Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC), an expert committee of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has published its Opinion on CCTV in Slaughterhouses in response to increasing pressure from lobby groups and others for the introduction of mandatory CCTV use in slaughterhouses.