ANIMAL WELFARE (Ethology II)

Question 1

Steps of stimulus process:

Answer 1

1. Stimuli
2. Sensors
3. Affective state
4. Perceptions
5. Response

Question 2

Link between affective state and stimuli perception

Answer 2

People diagnosed with clinical depression
-attention bias towards threatening stimuli
-negative biased memory
-negatively biased judgements of future events and ambiguous stimuli (ex. die/dye, week/weak)

Question 3

Negative mood state:

Answer 3

-reflects cumulative experience of threat/harm leading to reduced resilience and ‘pessimistic’ decisions under ambiguity

Question 4

Cognitive bias index:

Answer 4

-% positive response - % negative responses

Question 5

Effects of stress on cognitive bias:

Answer 5

-stressed rats are more ‘pessimistic’ even if they were optimistic under ‘normal conditions’

Question 6

Effects of cognitive bias on decision-making:

Answer 6

-‘pessimistic rats’ are more prone to stress-induced anhedonia
-when stressed they decreased how much sweat water they drank

Question 7

Anhedonia:

Answer 7

-lack of capability of enjoying a good thing/reward
-reduced motivation or ability to experience pleasure

Question 8

Judgement bias tasks:

Answer 8

-reveal differences in decision-making under ambiguity
-calves exposed white or red coloured screen
-when red=get reward
-had to keep pushing the button to change screen
*ambiguous screen (gradually change in red), still went according to the colour
-when they were debudded (chronic stress) lead to pessimistic bias

Question 9

Effect of grain on stress/speed leaving the shot:

Answer 9

-wheat=more starch=cause more acidosis=more stress=left the shoot faster
>take restraint worse then those eating barley

Question 10

Temperament:

Answer 10

-behavioural traits that are stable over time and repeatable across situations
-various temperament traits

Question 11

Animals unique temperament profile:

Answer 11

-be determined by a mixture of genetic factors and its experiences

Question 12

Temperament traits:

Answer 12

-aggressiveness
-sociability
-boldness
-activity
-exploration
*component and composite traits

Question 13

Measuring temperament examples:

Answer 13

-reactivity test
-flight speed
-chute score: accelerator (how much movement they do in the shoot=’attempts’ to escape

Question 14

Temperament score:

Answer 14

-always had about 10% of the herd be more excited

Question 15

Ways to analyze temperament: dominance status

Answer 15

-video analysis: flighting, head butting, displacement
-novel object test: see who approaches the new object first
-open field test (sheep with hay in middle and ‘dog stimulus’)

Question 16

Proactive/active: (coping style)

Answer 16

-higher behavioural activity (aggressive)
-elevated reactivity of the SNS (catecholamines: flight-flight response)
-higher sensitivity to the dopaminergic reward system

Question 17

Reactive/passive: (coping style)

Answer 17

-lower behavioural activity (freezing)
-elevated reactivity of the PNS (cardiac vagal tone)
-higher reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (cortisol)

Question 18

Coping style on immune response:

Answer 18

-humoral-mediated response to immune challenge
-cell-mediated response to immune challenge (thinner skin: passive)

Question 19

Coping style on growth performance:

Answer 19

-active: ate less when there was a barking dog
-active: increased temperature when LPS injection (immune challenge)

Question 20

Visual observation in real time:

Answer 20

-first assessment tool available when meeting an animal
-minimally intrusive
-when skilled, it’s powerful and reliable
-can be time consuming or not effective when assessing multiple behaviours or animals at once
-subjective in nature

Question 21

Video recording:

Answer 21

-versatile but time consuming
-increases versatility
-need good quality
-can have multiple people watch it

Question 22

Anthropomorphism:

Answer 22

-attribute of human characteristics and mental faculties to non-human agents
>considered a critical danger for ethology research
-easy to use human emotional states and behaviours to describe individual differences in animals
-comparisons should be carefully based on defined behavioral criteria
-avoid methodology with overt emotional connotations (ex. rating vs. coding)

Question 23

Rating vs. coding:

Answer 23

Castrating calves
-rating: no pain or a lot of pain (subjective)
-coding: urinates, defecate, leg kicks, vocalize (objective)

Question 24

Ethograms:

Answer 24

-table of all behaviours of interest to be observed in the study of one or more animals that allows quantification

Question 25

Ethogram behaviours:

Answer 25

-each must be distinct and independent from one another
-must be described explicitly with no room for interpretation

Question 26

Ethogram with too many categories:

Answer 26

-difficult to use because an animal’s behaviour may change in seconds

Question 27

Continuously sampling (ethograms):

Answer 27

-observer records all the activity that occurs while the animals are being watch
>record the behaviours for only one animal (focal approach) or for more than one at a time

Question 28

Scan sampling (ethograms):

Answer 28

-behaviour of one or more individuals in a group of animals are recorded at predetermined time intervals
-records states, rather than events

Question 29

Precision farming to phenotype animal behaviour:

Answer 29

-to measure and manage herd variability at an individual level
>early diagnostic of diseases
>improved management strategies

Question 30

Monitoring location examples:

Answer 30

-GPS
-UWB sensors
-video
>markerless video tracking (under development)
>with markers

Question 31

Tracking the location and movement of farm animals:

Answer 31

-gives insight into the behaviour, health and welfare

Question 32

Monitoring activity examples:

Answer 32

-video
-accelerometers
-accoustics

Question 33

Pattern recognition algorithm:

Answer 33

-alternative to visual observation
-based on visual data
*only in rodent models

Question 34

Accelerometers:

Answer 34

-possible alternative to visual observation
-allows researchers to measure tail motion with minimal time commitment and less subjectivity

Question 35

Accelerometers and sound recorders:

Answer 35

-attached to head harness to estimate food intake

Question 36

Other ways to do assessment:

Answer 36

-drone footage: latency between cow and calf
-automatic feeding systems
-microphones to measure vocalizations