Reported livestock guarding dog-wildlife interactions: Implications for conservation and animal welfare
Livestock depredation by carnivores is a key cause of detrimental human-wildlife interactions around the world. Recently, the use of livestock-guarding dogs (LGDs) to reduce livestock depredation has been challenged in terms of their impact on wild animal welfare and survival, but the prevalence of LGD-wildlife interactions is poorly understood. Using data for 225 LGDs on […]
Integrating Conservation and Agricultural Production: A Case Study in the United Kingdom
none
The sciences of animal welfare
none
The Welfare of Young Polish Konik Horses Subjected to Agricultural Workload
Every year a new group of young Polish Konik colts are separated from the forest herds to be trained in the stable breeding system. The aim of this study was to evaluate how the young Polish Konik horses who had been born in a forest reserve adapt to and tolerate draft work. Two groups of […]
Perception is reality : processing
Understanding consumers’ perceptions of animal welfare is becoming increasingly important to livestock industries as they try to communicate their products. Many questions arise within livestock agriculture when trying to implement production systems that are acceptable socially and financially.
The Contribution of Broiler Chicken Welfare Certification at Farm Level to Enhancing Overall Animal Welfare: The Case of Brazil
The intensification of farm animal welfare debate has led to an increasing number of certification schemes covering this issue; however, there are concerns about the contribution of these schemes in improving welfare. The aims of this study were to identify certification schemes for broiler chicken welfare at farm level in Brazil, to investigate the extent […]
Closer to Nature? A Critical Discussion of the Marketing of “Ethical” Animal Products
As public awareness of environmental issues and animal welfare has risen, catering to public concerns and views on these issues has become a potentially profitable strategy for marketing a number of product types, of which animal products such as dairy and meat are obvious examples. Our analysis suggests that specific marketing instruments are used to […]
Invited review: Cessation of lactation: Effects on animal welfare
The forced cessation of milk production, or dry-off, is a routine management practice in dairy cattle, sheep, and goats. This practice initiates a dry period, during which the animal is not milked. Milking begins again after parturition. Most of the literature on the dry period has focused on how various drying-off strategies affect milk production […]
The effect of conspecific removal on behavioral and physiological responses of dairy cattle
Adverse social and welfare implications of mixing dairy cows or separating calves from their mothers have been documented previously. Here we investigated the behavioral and physiological responses of individuals remaining after conspecifics were removed. We conducted a series of 4 experiments incorporating a range of types of different dairy cattle groupings [experiment 1 (E1), 126 […]
Development of automatic surveillance of animal behaviour and welfare using image analysis and machine learned segmentation technique
In this paper the feasibility to extract the proportion of pigs located in different areas of a pig pen by advanced image analysis technique is explored and discussed for possible applications. For example, pigs generally locate themselves in the wet dunging area at high ambient temperatures in order to avoid heat stress, as wetting the […]