Do lambs perceive regular human stroking as pleasant? Behavior and heart rate variability analyses

Stroking by humans is beneficial to the human-animal relationship and improves welfare in many species that express intraspecific allogrooming, but very few studies have looked at species like sheep that do not express such contact except around parturition. This study investigated the way lambs perceive regular human tactile contact using behavioral and physiological responses. Twenty-four lambs were reared and bucket-fed in groups of four. All were stroked daily by their familiar caregiver. At 8 weeks of age, the lambs were individually tested in their home pen but in a 1×1m open-barred pen after a 15h period of habituation to physical separation from peers while remaining in visual and auditory contact. Half of the lambs received stroking by their caregiver for 8min and half were exposed to their caregiver’s immobile presence. Heart rate and heart rate variability were recorded and analyzed by 2-min slots over the same interval based on three measures: mean heart rate value (HR), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and standard deviation of all intervals measured between consecutive sinus beats (SDNN). Behavioral responses (ear postures of the lamb and time spent in contact with the familiar caregiver, on the knees of the familiar caregiver, and moving) were recorded throughout the test. Lamb HR decreased continuously while in the presence of their caregiver. Lambs being stroked showed slower HR and higher RMSSD which reflected positive emotional states compared to lambs left unstroked. All behavioral variables were highly correlated with the main component axis of the PCA analyses: the more the animals stayed in contact with their caregiver, the less they moved and the more their ears were hanging. This first component clearly differentiates lambs being stroked or not. Behavioral and physiological observations support the hypothesis that gentle physical contact with the caregiver is perceived positively by lambs

Effects of long-term exposure to an electronic containment system on the behaviour and welfare of domestic cats

Free-roaming cats are exposed to a variety of risks, including involvement in road traffic accidents. One way of mitigating these risks is to contain cats, for example using an electronic boundary fence system that delivers an electric ‘correction’ via a collar if a cat ignores a warning cue and attempts to cross the boundary. However, concerns have been expressed over the welfare impact of such systems. Our aim was to determine if long-term exposure to an electronic containment system was associated with reduced cat welfare. We compared 46 owned domestic cats: 23 cats that had been contained by an electronic containment system for more than 12 months (AF group); and 23 cats with no containment system that were able to roam more widely (C group). We assessed the cats’ behavioural responses and welfare via four behavioural tests (unfamiliar person test; novel object test; sudden noise test; cognitive bias test) and an owner questionnaire. In the unfamiliar person test, C group lip-licked more than the AF group, whilst the AF group looked at, explored and interacted more with the unfamiliar person than C group. In the novel object test, the AF group looked at and explored the object more than C group. No significant differences were found between AF and C groups for the sudden noise or cognitive bias tests. Regarding the questionnaire, C group owners thought their cats showed more irritable behaviour and AF owners thought that their cats toileted inappropriately more often than C owners. Overall, AF cats were less neophobic than C cats and there was no evidence of significant differences between the populations in general affective state. These findings indicate that an electronic boundary fence with clear pre-warning cues does not impair the long term quality of life of cat

Effects of degree and timing of social housing on reversal learning and response to novel objects in dairy calves

Rodents and primates deprived of early social contact exhibit deficits in learning and behavioural flexibility. They often also exhibit apparent signs of elevated anxiety, although the relationship between these effects has not been studied. To investigate whether dairy calves are similarly affected, we first compared calves housed in standard individual pens (n = 7) to those housed in a dynamic group with access to their mothers (n = 8). All calves learned to approach the correct stimulus in a visual discrimination task. Only one individually housed calf was able to re-learn the task when the stimuli were reversed, compared to all but one calf from the group. A second experiment investigated whether this effect might be explained by anxiety in individually housed animals interfering with their learning, and tested varying degrees of social contact in addition to the complex group: pair housing beginning early (approximately 6 days old) and late (6 weeks old). Again, fewer individually reared calves learned the reversal task (2 of 10 or 20%) compared to early paired and grouped calves (16 of 21 or 76% of calves). Late paired calves had intermediate success. Individually housed calves were slower to touch novel objects, but the magnitude of the fear response did not correlate with reversal performance. We conclude that individually housed calves have learning deficits, but these deficits were not likely associated with increased anxiety

AIM (Artery in microgravity): Design and development of an ice cubes mission

The Artery In Microgravity (AIM) project is the first experiment to be selected for the “Orbit Your Thesis!” programme of ESA Academy. It is a 2U experiment cube designed for the ICE Cubes facility on board of the International Space Station. The experiment is expected to be launched on SpaceX-20 in early 2020. The project is being developed by an international group of students from ISAE-SUPAERO and Politecnico di Torino, under the supervision of the ISAE-SUPAERO and Politecnico di Torino staff. The experiment is a test-bench for investigating haemodynamics in microgravity focusing on coronary heart disease, the most common form of cardiovascular disease and the cause of approximately 9 million deaths every year. Coronary heart disease is caused by stenosis of the coronary artery due to the build-up of plaque. While the development of atherosclerosis is not fully understood, the primary event seems to be subtle and repeated injury to the artery walls through various mechanisms including physical stresses from flow disturbances as well as from systemic and biological risk factors. In the presence of severe stenosis, patients are treated with the implantation of one or more coronary stents, which are tubular scaffolds devoted to restore and maintain myocardial perfusion. The coronary stenting procedure is largely applied (e.g., 1.8 million stents per year implanted in USA) In view of the impact that coronary artery disease has on humans, as well as of the increasing number of people that will be involved in space flights in the future, the way astronauts in space coronary hemodynamics is affected by the absence of gravity in the presence of stenosis or of stenting needs to be investigated in depth. In addition, as most stents are metallic objects, the radiation exposure in space might interact with their surface, altering blood flow, inducing particles release and ultimately leading to stent failure. Therefore, the aim of AIM is to start studying the vascular haemodynamics in a stented and a stenosed coronary artery on Earth and in microgravity and the stent-radiation coupling. This will allow to learn about the effect gravity plays on coronary artery haemodynamics, the effects of microgravity and radiation on the performance of implantable devices and ultimately the risks of myocardial infarction to astronauts on long-distance spaceflight. The experimental setup consists of a closed hydraulic loop containing two models of a coronary artery in series. An electric pump and reservoir will control the flow of a blood-mimicking fluid through the system. One model of the coronary artery will contain a coronary stent. The pressure of the fluid will be studied along its path using a series of pressure sensors and a camera will visualise the flow. The same experiments will be repeated on the ground with the same conditions as the in-flight model for comparison. The paper will outline in detail the design and development of the AIM experiment cube and the results of testing. The full data and results will be available after the completion of the mission which is expected to be between March and June 2020

Dairy calves' personality traits predict social proximity and response to an emotional challenge

Abstract The assessment of individual traits requires that tests are reliable (i.e. consistency over time) and externally valid, meaning that they predict future responses in similar contexts (i.e. convergent validity) but do not predict responses to unrelated situations (i.e. discriminant validity). The aim of this study was to determine if dairy calf personality traits (Fearfulness, Sociability and Pessimism), derived from behaviours expressed in standardized tests, predict individuals’ responses in related situations. The first experiment tested if the trait ‘Sociability’ was related to the expression of social behaviour in the home-pen, with calves assigned individual proximity scores (based on proximity to other calves) while they were in their home-pen at approximately 113 and 118 d of age. The second experiment aimed at exploring whether traits ‘Fearfulness’ and ‘Pessimism’ were related to the calves’ emotional response to transportation. All calves were subjected to two 10-min transportation challenges done on two consecutive days. Emotional response was assessed using the maximum eye temperature (measured using infrared thermography) and the number of vocalizations emitted. Social proximity scores (Experiment 1), vocalizations emitted and maximum eye temperature after loading (Experiment 2) were consistent over time. In addition, the results showed good convergent validity with calves scoring higher in Sociability also having higher proximity scores in the home-pen, and animals scoring higher in Fearfulness and Pessimism showing a more intense emotional response to transportation. The results also showed good discriminant validity, as neither Fearfulness nor Pessimism were associated with the expression of social behaviours (Experiment 1) and Sociability was not associated with the animal’s emotional response to transportation (Experiment 2). We conclude that the methodology used to measure personality traits shows good reliability and external validity

High-starch diets alter equine faecal microbiota and increase behavioural reactivity

Gut microbiota have been associated with health, disease and behaviour in several species and are an important link in gut-brain axis communication. Diet plays a key role in affecting the composition of gut microbiota. In horses, high-starch diets alter the hindgut microbiota. High-starch diets are also associated with increased behavioural reactivity in horses. These changes in microbiota and behaviour may be associated. This study compares the faecal microbiota and behaviour of 10 naïve ponies. A cross-over design was used with experimental groups fed high-starch (HS) or high-fibre (HF) diets. Results showed that ponies were more reactive and less settled when being fed the HS diet compared to the HF diet. Irrespective of diet, the bacterial profile was dominated by two main phyla, Firmicutes, closely followed by Bacteroidetes. However, at lower taxonomic levels multivariate analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing data showed diet affected faecal microbial community structure. The abundance of 85 OTUs differed significantly related to diet. Correlative relationships exist between dietary induced alterations to faecal microbiota and behaviour. Results demonstrate a clear link between diet, faecal microbial community composition and behaviour. Dietary induced alterations to gut microbiota play a role in affecting the behaviour of the host

Thermal contribution to the side-tuning of the lasing mode in multielectrode DBR lasers: influence on modulation bandwidth and laser linewidth

International audienc

Threshold analysis of semiconductor lasers: novel parameter extraction method

Semiconductor laser evolution throughout threshold is continuous in both power and linewidth showing a phase transition like behaviour. It is not correct to consider the below threshold behaviour as that of a light emitting diode and the above one as a fully coherent laser. The two regions obey to different mechanisms such as cavity filtered amplified spontaneous emission and carrier recombination below threshold and gain, photon lifetimes and linewidth enhancement above threshold. Few measurements of coherence behaviour have been made in the threshold region. We have previously developed a method using the Schawlow-Townes slopes below and above threshold in order to extract the linewidth enhancement factor α. [1]. Coherence evolution at threshold has been studied for classical detuned lasers based on analysis of the Fokker-Planck equation [2] but no useful expression adapted to semiconductor lasers has been given so far. We use here an analytical model enabling us, by fitting, to extract all major internal parameters of a semiconductor laser.</jats:p