Evaluation of a dustbathing substrate and straw bales as environmental enrichments in commercial broiler housing

The use of straw bales as an environmental enrichment is common for broiler chickens in enriched housing systems, however relatively little information exists about their effectiveness in improving welfare. There has also been no widespread introduction of a dustbathing material for broilers. The main aim of this trial was to evaluate the use of a dustbathing substrate (in the form of oat hulls), both as an alternative to straw bales and as a supplementary enrichment. Over four replicates, four commercial houses, each containing approximately 22,000 broilers, were assigned to one of four treatments over the 6-week production cycle: (1) straw bales (B; one per 155 m2), (2) oat hulls as a dustbathing substrate (OH; provided in 1 m diameter steel rings, one per 155 m2), (3) both oat hulls and straw bales (OH + B), and (4) a control treatment with no environmental enrichment (C). Observations of broiler behaviour and leg health were taken weekly, and performance data was collected for each cycle. Broilers housed in the OH and OH + B treatments had better gait scores in week 6 than those housed in the C treatment (P &lt; 0.05), which suggests that the provision of oat hulls improved bird leg health. However, there was no associated increase in activity levels in unenriched areas of the houses. Conversely, more locomotion (P &lt; 0.001), less sitting inactive (P &lt; 0.001) and less sitting pecking (P &lt; 0.001) were observed in the C treatment than in unenriched areas of B, OH and OH + B treatments. More birds were recorded around the bales compared to the oat hulls (P &lt; 0.001), however birds performed significantly more foraging (P = 0.019) and dustbathing (P = 0.045) in oat hulls than around straw bales. Although oat hulls appear to be more suitable for stimulating active behaviours than straw bales, the high level of resting recorded around the bales suggests they may have a positive function as protective cover. The presence of an additional type of enrichment in the house did not affect the number of birds, or the type of behaviours performed in close proximity to either straw bales or oat hulls (P &gt; 0.05). Treatment did not have a significant effect on pododermatitis levels or slaughter weight, on mortality rates, or on litter quality or atmospheric ammonia levels (P &gt; 0.05). Overall, our results suggest that the oat hulls substrate was a successful enrichment in terms of promoting dustbathing and foraging, and improving bird leg health. The straw bales also appeared attractive to the birds, however, which suggests that a dustbathing substrate should be a supplementary enrichment.</p

A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being

There is a widespread belief that for their own safety and for the protection of wildlife, cats should be permanently kept indoors. Against this view, I argue that cat guardians have a duty to provide their feline companions with outdoor access. The argument is based on a sophisticated hedonistic account of animal well-being that acknowledges that the performance of species-normal ethological behavior is especially pleasurable. Territorial behavior, which requires outdoor access, is a feline-normal ethological behavior, so when a cat is permanently confined to the indoors, her ability to flourish is impaired. Since cat guardians have a duty not to impair the well-being of their cats, the impairment of cat flourishing via confinement signifies a moral failing. Although some cats assume significant risks and sometimes kill wild animals when roaming outdoors, these important considerations do not imply that all cats should be deprived of the opportunity to access the outdoors. Indeed, they do not, by themselves, imply that any cat should be permanently kept indoors

Linking appraisal to behavioral flexibility in animals: implications for stress research

In fluctuating environments, organisms require mechanisms enabling the rapid expression of context-dependent behaviors. Here, we approach behavioral flexibility from a perspective rooted in appraisal theory, aiming to provide a better understanding on how animals adjust their internal state to environmental context. Appraisal has been defined as a multi-component and interactive process between the individual and the environment, in which the individual must evaluate the significance of a stimulus to generate an adaptive response. Within this framework, we review and reframe the existing evidence for the appraisal components in animal literature, in an attempt to reveal the common ground of appraisal mechanisms between species. Furthermore, cognitive biases may occur in the appraisal of ambiguous stimuli. These biases may be interpreted either as states open to environmental modulation or as long-lasting phenotypic traits. Finally, we discuss the implications of cognitive bias for stress research.FCT Ph.D. fellowships: (SFRH/BD/79087/2011, SFRH/BD/68528/2010), FCT strategic grant: (PEst-OE/MAR/UI0331/2011)

Contrafreeloading in kea (Nestor notabilis) in comparison to Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Contrafreeloading-working to access food that could be freely obtained-is rarely exhibited and poorly understood. Based on data from Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus), researchers proposed a correlation between contrafreeloading and play: that contrafreeloading is more likely when subjects view the task as play. We tested that hypothesis by subjecting a relatively more playful parrot species, the kea (Nestor notabilis), to the same experimental tasks. Experiment 1 presented eight kea with container pairs holding more- or less-preferred free or enclosed food items, and examined three types of contrafreeloading: calculated (working to access preferred food over less-preferred, freely available food); classic (working to access food identical to freely available food); and super (working to access less-preferred food over preferred, freely available food). At the group level, the kea behaved similarly to the Greys: They significantly preferred calculated contrafreeloading, performed classic contrafreeloading at chance, and significantly failed to super contrafreeload. However, overall kea engaged in more contrafreeloading than Greys. Experiment 2 examined a potentially more ecologically relevant task, a choice between shelled and unshelled walnuts. No kea contrafreeloaded for nuts, whereas two of five Greys significantly preferred nut contrafreeloading and one chose at chance. We examine proximate and adaptive explanations for the performances of these differentially playful parrot species to further elucidate the role of play in contrafreeloading.Peer reviewe

Modelos animales de conducta desadaptativa

La conducta tiende generalmente a ser funcional. A menudo, algunas conductas desadaptativas específicas pueden entenderse en términos de contingencias de reforzamiento prevalentes que son opuestas a las contingencias de reforzamiento previamente experimentadas por el individuo o por los ancestros de ese individuo, y que tienen una persistente influencia sobre su conducta. Cuando un individuo se enfrenta a una revocación de las contingencias de reforzamiento que resulta en una conducta disfuncional, la terapia debe oponerse a la información previa para que sea posible desarrollar una conducta apropiada. Cuando un cambio en las contingencias de reforzamiento tiene lugar en contradicción a una predisposición genética hacia patrones de respuesta que evolucionaban como resultado de la evolución natural y de contingencias de reforzamiento, las terapias deben centrarse en circunvenir la predisposición genética a responder de una manera que actualmente es desadaptativa. Usando ejemplos provenientes del laboratorio animal, se revisan varios casos de conductas disfuncionales que surgen de cambios en las contingencias de reforzamiento

The Effects of Age and Type of Rearing on Contrafreeloading Behavior in Female Goats

Contrafreeloading (CFL) is the willingness of an animal to work for food. This study continues the 2022 pilot study, in which thirteen female goats from the Andrews University Sustainable Agriculture Department were tested to see if there was any correlation between age and contrafreeload in goats, and additionally investigates whether or not there is any correlation between type of rearing and contrafreeloading behavior in female goats. The pilot study found no direct correlation between age and contrafreeloading, therefore early life feeding techniques were also considered for this study. Eighteen female goats representing three different age groups and three types of rearing were put in a testing area containing a bin of freely-available hay and a contrafreeloading apparatus which would require work to access the hay. The two food sources were equidistant from each other and from the starting point for each goat for every trial. Each goat was tested individually for a five-minute period to see whether or not they exhibited contrafreeloading. Data was collected once a week over four weeks and the positioning of the freely available hay and apparatus were swapped between weeks 2 and 3 to address spatial learning. The results show that type of rearing does make a difference in levels of contrafreeloading, with bottle-raised goats being the most likely to contrafreeload even after changes are made in the environment

Factors affecting foraging motivation in the domestic pig

The welfare of farm animals is currently a topic of both scientific investigation and public concern. The aim of this thesis was to investigate motivational factors affecting the expression of foraging behaviour in domestic pigs. This topic was chosen because a number of recent scientific investigations have implicated commercial feeding regimes as being causal in reducing pig welfare.Most of the experiments reported in this thesis used operant methodology in which pigs had to learn to perform a behavioural response to receive food reinforcement. The main aspects investigated were: the effects of social constraints on feeding behaviour; the effect of information associated with reinforcer delivery on contrafreeloading (where the same food is simultaneously offered free and contingent on an operant response); the effect of operant design on food intake and on operant choice; the effect of food level and a foraging device (The Edinburgh Foodball’) on pigs’ time budget; and the effect of reinforcement rate from the Foodball on the time budget.The results showed that: pigs are highly adaptable and flexible foragers able to overcome social constraints associated with feeding by altering the expression and temporal patterning of feeding variables (e.g., feeding rate); that information associated with reinforcer delivery had little effect on contrafreeloading and that pigs at least under these experimental conditions preferred free food over operant contingent food; that the design of an operant device can significantly influence the level of operant responding and the level of food intake; that given the opportunity food motivated pigs express their feeding motivation as complex and variable foraging behaviour; and that pigs respond to a decrease in the rate of food reinforcement by increasing both the proportion of time they forage for, and the frequency of their foraging responses.This thesis has shown the effects of a number of factors on the expression of foraging and feeding behaviour in domestic pigs. Although it remains unclear whether or not being able to forage affects the welfare of pigs, the species-specific operant methodology developed in this thesis I believe will allow the welfare requirements of pigs to be more accurately assessed

Potential welfare issues of the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) at the retailer and in the hobbyist aquarium

Betta splendens is an extremely popular ornamental fish among hobby aquarists. It has an interesting behavioral repertoire, particularly where male aggression and territoriality are concerned. The lack of scientific studies investigating optimal housing conditions in combination with the wide variety of commercially available husbandry products, raises questions about the welfare status of these fish in captivity. In this article, an overview of the available literature on the biology of the betta and general considerations of ornamental fish keeping is given, and environment- and animal-related factors with potential impact on the welfare of Betta splendens are examined. Although more research using biological and physiological indicators is needed, the following factors constituting welfare problems have been identified: an aquarium of limited dimensions, prevalence of Mycobacterium spp. infection, aggression to and from conspecifics or other species in the same aquarium and the limited ability to escape, potential for stress due to prolonged visual contact between males in shops and during shows, and the lack of environmental enrichment in the form of sheltering vegetation