NC1029: Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare (NCR131)
Statement of Issues and Justification
Need: To enhance food production and maintain the competitiveness of American animal agriculture in the global economy, it is imperative that the agricultural industry has access to cutting edge scientific information on animal welfare. Animal welfare is increasingly taking the stage in world trade as evidenced by the recent establishment of global animal welfare standards on transport and slaughter by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The OIE plans to continue this work by establishing standards for animal welfare on the farm.Animal welfare is also an important issue for consumer confidence in animal production. Surveys taken during the past 10 years indicate strong public concern that farm animal welfare is compromised as a result of pain and suffering. For example, 93% percent of Americans surveyed agreed that "animal pain and suffering should be reduced as much as possible, even though the animals are going to be slaughtered" (Caravan Opinion Research, 1995). The possibility that animals suffer greatly due to excessive fear during interactions with handlers, social disruptions, and exposure to transport conditions is of particular concern to the public. Management practices associated with fear and pain are also viewed very negatively by animal scientists and veterinarians (Heleski et al., 2004, 2005). As a result, several animal welfare certification programs now include assessment of fear levels in their auditing procedures.
Excessive fear is also of concern to animal producers from a production and management perspective. Fearful animals are likely to grow more slowly and less efficiently than non-fearful animals and to have reduced reproductive output (e.g. Gonyou et al., 1986, Hemsworth and Barnett, 1992). In addition, fearful animals are more difficult to handle and can be dangerous to the caretaker.
Research to assess animal fear objectively and scientifically has involved many different methods of assessment, including the Open Field Test, the Tonic Immobility Test, the Human Approach test, the Elevated Plus Maze Test, the Emergence Test, and others. A great deal of variation in response variables is found when such tests are used and their validity and reliability have been questioned (Pedersen, 1997, Marchant et al., 1997, Miller et al., submitted 2004a,b). Moreover, most of these tests were developed for use in laboratory rodents and have not been validated in food production animals. It is questionable whether results from these types of tests should be used when evaluating the impact of different housing and management systems on farm animal welfare or when conducting animal welfare audits. This causes confusion for producers who need accurate, conclusive information to improve their management systems.
Through NCR-131, we have established a national scientific committee to generate and disseminate objective scientific information on animal welfare issues. This committee is comprised of over 20 scientists working in multiple isciplines at different locations throughout North America (see list of participants below). The proposed research agenda for the NCR-131 over the next five years is to address the measurement of fear in production animals, including pigs, poultry and sheep. The protocols will be carried out in multiple locations and the outcomes will elucidate the validity of measures across different environments and genotypes of farm animals.
Importance: Our research is critical "to provide the science and technology to keep farmers and ranchers ahead of any barrier that could hinder their success." (quoted from USDA Strategic Goal 1.5). A potential barrier that lies ahead for animal producers is tighter regulation over farm animal welfare, management practices, and potential trade restrictions from countries and trading groups that desire more stringent criteria for how farm animals are raised. Such a group is the European Union. A Gallup poll also indicates that society is becoming more concerned about the welfare of animals (Moore, 2003), specifically about the level of fear and pain to which they are exposed. Currently, industry and independent non-governmental organizations are responding to animal welfare concerns by developing voluntary animal welfare auditing programs. A proliferation of animal welfare standards, guidelines and auditing procedures has occurred, due in part to a dearth of conclusive scientific evidence supporting specific standards and methods of assessment. Commodity groups in the U.S. have, nevertheless, highlighted that their policies and programs must be based on sound animal welfare science (e.g., National Pork Board, 2002). To fill this need, NCR-131 aims to generate and disseminate objective scientific information about the behavioral responses of animals under different housing and management systems and to interpret this information in terms of animal welfare. Specifically, we plan to develop, integrate, and validate behavioral tests and associated physiological measurements related to animal welfare, performance and health. Over the next five years, we propose to focus on the assessment of behavioral tests of fearfulness.
CRIS Search: To ensure that this project does not duplicate previous or ongoing research a CRIS search was conducted using the terms Novel, Startle, Test, Fear, Livestock; and their combinations. In total 20 documents were retrieved. Of these 20 documents, 4 were relevant to the current project. However, none of these four documents had the same objectives or were close to meeting the objectives of the proposed project. In addition, all four were projects of members of NCR-131 (Lay, Pajor, Mench, Friend) and were either expired or researching a tangent but not duplicate area of research as proposed by this document.
Feasibility: Successful completion of the outlined project is feasible for this group of researchers and educators. Members of NCR-131 conduct research with a variety of species and approaches, and therefore, the diversity of experience and skills is an asset. This array of expertise will also put the NCR-131 committee in a competitive advantage to compete for extramural funding. Investigation of behavioral tests of fear can be conducted on specific species by scientists at each research station location. Some members of NCR-131 are currently at the forefront of fear research in domestic animals and the introduction of new ideas and approaches from other members should yield the development of standard fear assessment methods. NCR-131 comprises the leading applied animal behavior researchers in the U.S. and their wide-ranging skills are likely to yield significant progress in this area.
Multistate Advantage: The NCR-131 Information Exchange Group has enjoyed a long and productive history. The group was originally created in 1981 and has been actively meeting every year since this time. In 2000, NCR-131 sponsored a symposium on transportation of livestock at the joint meetings of the American Society of Animal Science and the American Society of Dairy Science meetings held in Baltimore, MD. The symposium was highly successful due to the timeliness of the topic and support that animal welfare research receives from the societies.
Applied animal behavior research is a relatively new scientific discipline in the United States. This distinction creates a deficiency in both researchers and funding to support its growth within the animal and veterinary sciences. This characteristic is changing rapidly. However, it still provides a challenge. The strength of creating a Scientific Committee such as NCR-131 is that it brings scientists together to conduct collaborative research, thus consolidating resources and effort. In addition, contributing members are also involved in teaching and outreach, which will allow our work to directly impact all stakeholders of animal agriculture.
Future Impacts: The research and publications that are produced by this committee will set the standard for quality research in animal welfare science. With these objective data and the promotion of valid methods to assess subjective states of animals, the scientific base of knowledge will be created to allow American animal agriculture to play a significant role in international negotiations regarding animal welfare issues. In addition, a major outcome of the collaborative efforts derived from these meetings will be that scientific information will be generated that will prove essential in optimizing animal performance, health, and welfare. Each year's meeting of the NCR-131 Scientific Committee will be the major opportunity for researchers to discuss progress on their multi-state research project as well as to develop and establish other collaborative research projects on animal behavior. Our members are the key spokespersons on the topic of animal behavior at the local, state, and global level. NCR-131 members are working with numerous organizations that are developing animal care guidelines, assessment, certification, and third party audit programs for animal welfare. These organizations include National and State species-specific organizations (e.g., National Pork Board, United Egg Producers, National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation), scientific organizations (e.g., FASS, American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists) and retail organizations (e.g., McDonalds, Burger King, Food Marketing Institute, National Council of Chain Restaurants). Interaction and exchange of information between committee members is essential for the development of effective, standardized and scientific assurance and third party audit programs.
Our proposed projects and timeline are as follows:
| Dates | Project |
| Oct. 2006 - Sept. 2007 | · Conduct research at multistate locations to evaluate tests designed to assess fear. |
| Oct. 2007 - Sept. 2008 | · Continue to conduct research at multistate locations to evaluate tests designed to assess fear. · Write manuscripts (reviews) for peer reviewed journals. Write manuscripts for trade publications, and provide educational presentations to various commodity groups. |
| Oct. 2008 - Sept. 2009 | · Conduct research at multistate locations to evaluate tests of fear. Pending the success of the Pig, Poultry and Sheep/Goats projects attempts will be made to add dairy cattle and beef cattle protocols to assess fear. · Write research manuscripts for peer reviewed journals. Write manuscripts for trade publications, and provide educational presentations to various commodity groups. · Host a workshop with stakeholders in association with a scientific meeting to discuss research results |
| Oct. 2009 - Sept. 2010 | · Develop collaborative grant applications to investigate the impact of management practices and housing on the occurrence of fear in domestic animals · Write manuscripts for peer reviewed journals. Write manuscripts for trade publications, and provide educational presentations to various commodity groups. |
| Oct. 2010 - Sept. 2011 | · Develop future projects to assess subjective experiences in domestic animal |
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