Applied Animal Behaviour Science最新文献

{"title":"Effect of turnout rugs on the behaviour of horses under mild autumn conditions in the United Kingdom","authors":"Frederick Daw,&nbsp;Charlotte Burn,&nbsp;Yu-Mei Chang,&nbsp;Christine Nicol","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of rugs (blankets) for horses is commonplace as a protective measure to keep horses warm and dry in inclement weather, or to protect them from direct sunshine or insects under warmer conditions. However, rugs can also result in thermal or general discomfort, and information on horse responses to rugs is needed to inform owner decisions. The aim of this experimental study was to assess the effect of turnout rugs on the behaviour of horses under relatively benign weather conditions, looking for indications of either positive (protective) or negative (discomfort) effects. Ten healthy horses, accustomed to wearing rugs, were recruited from two sites in southern England, and observed for 30-minute sessions (15–24 sessions/horse, 172 in total). Observations were counterbalanced to allow approximately equal numbers of observations with turnout rugs on and off, each horse experiencing both conditions. Ambient temperature varied from 1 to 15 °C, and windspeed from 6 to 15 mph and no signs of heat or cold stress were observed during the study. Generalised estimating equations (GEE) were used to estimate the parameters of the regression models and to account for correlations between repeated observations on the same individual horses. Significant interactions between Rug status and Location were found for <em>Standing, Grazing, Walking</em> and <em>Tail Swishing</em>. Rug wearing was associated with decreased <em>Walking, Tail swishing,</em> and <em>Grooming Self</em> at both study sites, decreased <em>Head Shaking</em> at one site and increased <em>Grazing</em> at one site<em>. Tail Swishing</em> increased by 1.33 counts for every 1 °C rise in temperature, and decreased by 0.84 counts for every 1mph increase in windspeed Midges (<em>Culicoides</em> spp) were informally observed at both sites and would have been more active at higher temperatures and lower windspeeds. Overall, the turnout rugs appeared to reduce this insect nuisance (as indicated by the reduced tail-swishing and head-shaking). However, the rugs were generally heavier than required for this purpose, and reduced <em>Grooming Self</em> and <em>Walking</em> could indicate restrictions imposed by rug design. In conclusion, when weather conditions are relatively mild (above 5 °C) horse welfare may be improved by the use of lightweight turnout rugs for fly protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"288 ","pages":"Article 106661"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143924149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New article types in Applied Animal Behaviour Science","authors":"Irene Camerlink,&nbsp;Péter Pongrácz","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106663","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106663","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"286 ","pages":"Article 106663"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143948629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioural complexity in fattening pigs I. Video-based validation of a novel welfare indicator according to varying intensity of housing conditions","authors":"Christina Raudies,&nbsp;Maximilian Knoll,&nbsp;Lorenz Gygax","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106605","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106605","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interest in individual animal welfare has increased in recent years. One of the reasons is a growing awareness of the importance of animals’ individual differences in their individual capability to adapt to their environment. However, animal- and individual-based welfare indicators are often time-consuming to record and it is challenging to combine several indicators into a meaningful measure for welfare assessment. Behavioural complexity, including previously proposed features (e.g. number of behaviours, Shannon diversity index) as well as new features (e.g. variances of bout durations within and between behavioural transitions), has the theoretical potential to reflect animal welfare in a valid and relatively simple way. For a first practical validation of the complexity measure, 3912 hours of continuous video data from 163 fattening pigs - recorded on 85 days in three age classes, two seasons, and four housing levels of different intensities - were analysed. Twelve complexity-features were reduced using principal component analysis and the resulting principal components (PCs) were analysed using linear mixed effects models. General complexity (PC 1) was on average higher with higher housing levels (p [housing level] = 0.007; p [global] = 0.003). This pattern was modulated by age, with older pigs having a lower general complexity and a more pronounced relationship with housing levels (p [housing level x age class] = 0.009) but not by season (main effect and interactions: p &gt; 0.422). The transition variability (PC 2) was on average also higher with higher housing levels (p [housing level] = 0.008; p [global] = 0.149) and neither age nor season had a statistically supported effect (p &gt; 0.10). The Shannon diversity index for the frequency of behaviours as possible simplified measure showed the same pattern as the general complexity Moreover, this Shannon-diversity index had a more pronounced relationship with housing level in winter than in summer (p [housing level x season] = 0.012). These results suggest, that behavioural complexity could potentially be used as an individual-based indicator to detect changes in animal welfare if measured longitudinal in order to take age and season into account. Further advances in the automated analysis of video data are needed for practical use on farms. Additionally, further studies will need to correlate individual behavioural complexity against other individual measures of welfare.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"286 ","pages":"Article 106605"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143948630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioural complexity in fattening pigs II. Accelerometer-based validation of a novel welfare indicator with potential for automation","authors":"Maximilian Knoll,&nbsp;Christina Raudies,&nbsp;Lorenz Gygax","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106606","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106606","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The interest in automated methods of continuously monitoring the behaviour of farm animals, particularly by means of accelerometers, is growing because behaviour is of specific importance for the assessment of welfare beyond health. At the same time, the need for animal-based and individual-specific welfare indicators has been theoretically recognised. Behavioural complexity could be such an indicator with the potential for automation. In this study, we investigated accelerometer data from 97 fattening pigs – recorded on 185 days in three age classes, two seasons, and four housing levels – to assess behavioural complexity. First, we used a binary classifier to automatically predict phases of low and high activity as a basis for calculating behavioural complexity from the accelerometer data. Second, we trained and validated a random forest classifier to predict eight different behavioural states. The binary classification of activity phases achieved an accuracy of 77 % and the random forest model an accuracy of 84 %. For the binary and the random forest data, five and 12 complexity-features, respectively, were reduced using PCA and the resulting PCs were analysed using mixed effects models. In the binary data, general complexity (PC 1) was higher with higher housing levels (p [housing level] = 0.01; p [global] = 0.07) and duration variability (PC 2) tended to be so (p [housing level] = 0.08; p [global] = 0.38). Additionally, there was a tendency towards higher general complexity in older pigs (p [age] = 0.06). For the random forest data, general complexity (PC1) was lower on average with higher housing levels (without statistical support: p [housing level] = 0.14; p [global] = 0.48) and there was a tendency for a higher transition rate (PC2) with higher housing levels (p [housing level] = 0.07; p [global] = 0.52). These results suggest that the higher behavioural complexity seen in more animal-friendly housing environments can also be observed in automatically recorded data classified in binary phases of low and high activity. The classifier-features calculated from accelerometer data collected from head movements could not unequivocally differentiate between the different behaviours. Therefore, the random forest model could not precisely predict the behaviours needed as the basis to calculate behavioural complexity. All observed patterns were relatively weak such that the observed sensitivity of these automatically recorded variables (PCs) in respect to the housing system is unlikely to translate easily into sufficient specificity for future assessment of welfare of individual animals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"286 ","pages":"Article 106606"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143948627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Caught in headlights: Captive white-tailed deer responses to variations in vehicle lighting during imminent collision scenarios","authors":"Carson J. Pakula ,&nbsp;Gino J. D'Angelo ,&nbsp;Adrianna Mowrer ,&nbsp;Olin E. Rhodes Jr. ,&nbsp;Travis L. DeVault","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106652","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106652","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Vehicle collisions with deer (<em>Odocoileus</em> spp.) cause billions of dollars in damages and injure thousands of drivers every year in the United States, and few mitigation methods have proven effective. However, recent research suggests that vehicle lighting might influence white-tailed deer (<em>Odocoileus virginianus</em>; hereafter, deer) responses to oncoming vehicles. Most new vehicles are manufactured with light emitting diode (LED) headlights which differ in total radiance and wavelength of light emitted compared to the previous industry standard of tungsten-halogen (halogen) headlights. Also, frontal vehicle illumination through rear-facing lighting has shown promise in enhancing deer responses to vehicles, but its effectiveness has not been tested under various headlight conditions (headlight type or intensity). As such, it remains unclear how these aspects of vehicle lighting affect deer responses to an approaching vehicle. We used 23 captive, wild-type deer to investigate how variations in vehicle lighting affect deer responses to an approaching vehicle at night, when most collisions occur. We released deer into a 95 m long, 3 m wide chute and approached them from the opposite end with an electric golf cart outfitted with two versions of stock 2017–2020 Ford Fusion headlights (LED and halogen) and a 51 cm rear-facing lightbar to test how vehicle lighting affected deer avoidance behaviors in an imminent, head-on collision scenario. Each deer received eight lighting treatments consisting of unique combinations of headlight type (LED vs. halogen), light intensity (low vs. high beam), and rear-facing lighting (lightbar off vs. on). We measured deer alert and flight behavior using infrared videography. We found that the halogen, high beam, lightbar off treatment had the greatest probability of evoking an alert response. Furthermore, when the lightbar was off, high beams appeared to increase alert probability for halogen headlights. Also, we found evidence that high beam, halogen headlights tend to increase alert probability over high beam, LED headlights, when the lighbar was off. We found no effect of our lighting treatments on deer alert distance, flight probability, or flight initiation distance. Across all behavioral responses, the random effect deer ID explained 0.86–9.19 × more variation than our lighting treatments, reflecting large differences in responses among deer. Overall, we found that vehicle lighting can impact deer behavior during an imminent, head-on collision scenario, although lighting was ineffective at increasing favorable flight behaviors. Future research should investigate how vehicle lighting treatments affect free-ranging, wild deer in a variety of real-world scenarios and at longer approach distances.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106652"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143902362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavior and activity of commensal roof rats around rodenticide bait stations in southern California, USA","authors":"Miles Abram Bosarge ,&nbsp;Paul Stapp ,&nbsp;Niamh Quinn","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106653","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106653","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The roof rat (<em>Rattus rattus</em>) is a highly invasive rat that poses a threat to humans and native species. In urban settings they are typically managed with bait stations containing chemical rodenticides, however, their behavior around bait stations is not well understood. We conducted field studies in 36 residential yards in Orange County, California, to determine whether different bait station designs or baiting approaches influence roof rat behavior around stations. Specifically, we tested whether the bait station’s design, the presence of supplemental bait, and the addition of a scent lure in the station influenced rat behavior over three separate trials. Using digital game cameras, we monitored stations containing non-toxic bait for three weeks during each trial to estimate the time to discovery, entry, bait consumption, and nightly activity of rats around stations. We also determined whether landscape characteristics associated with each yard (presence of rodent management, pets/livestock, or fruits/vegetables) influenced rat behavior. Rats were detected in most yards (75 – 91 % of yards), and they discovered stations in most of these yards (59 – 89 % stations discovered). However, they did not enter many stations (24 – 63 % stations entered). Neither the station’s design nor the addition of a scent lure in the station affected any of the measured response variables. Supplemental bait around stations decreased the time to entry and increased the nightly activity of rats at two types of stations, and increased bait consumption in all station designs. The presence of fruits and vegetables in the yard decreased the time to discovery of stations, but did not affect any other response variables. Rats in yards that were currently or recently (within last six months) managed for rodents were just as active as in unmanaged yards but were less likely to consume bait, indicating that neophobia is not the only factor contributing to bait avoidance -- previous exposure to management may also lead to bait avoidance by commensal rats. This underscores that new approaches may be needed to effectively control commensal rats with the tools currently available.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106653"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143903361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring individual variation in gestating sows’ feeding patterns: applying self-organising maps to reveal behavioural types","authors":"Iris J.M.M. Boumans ,&nbsp;Jacinta D. Bus ,&nbsp;Ron Wehrens ,&nbsp;Dennis E. te Beest ,&nbsp;Jasper Engel ,&nbsp;Eddie A.M. Bokkers","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106655","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106655","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Large behavioural variation within and among gestating sows hampers distinguishing normal from deviating feeding behaviour. Identifying different behavioural types in sows can contribute to understanding variation and improving the use of electronic sow feeders (ESFs) data for monitoring sow performance and welfare. The aim of this study is to explore the existence of behavioural types in sows’ feeding patterns during the gestation period, focussing on frequency and timing-related feeding traits. For this, self-organising maps (SOMs) were used. A SOM is an unsupervised machine learning method providing ample visualisation support. Data were obtained from in total 1519 sow gestations on two farms (1080 conventional and 439 organic) and were processed and cleaned. Six feeding traits on feed cycle (24 h) level were analysed: 1) sum of nutritive (N-)visits (with feed allowance), 2) sum of non-nutritive (NN-)visits (without feed allowance), 3) hour of the first N-visit (N-start), 4) hour of the first NN-visit (NN-start), 5) interquartile range in hours between NN-visits in one feed cycle (NN-IQR), 6) interval in hours between the last N-visit and first NN-visit (N-NN-range). These traits were analysed separately per farm, thus in total 12 SOMs were trained. Sow gestation patterns were grouped into three clusters per SOM to represent different behavioural patterns during gestation. For three of the traits (N-visits, NN-visits and NN-IQR), one pattern was dominant, with only occasional deviations in individual sows. In contrast, the other three (timing-related) traits N-start, NN-start and N-NN-range showed no clear dominant pattern, suggesting the presence of coexisting patterns. These cluster patterns differed in level, trends and regularity. Depending on the feeding trait, gestation phase and farm, patterns in clusters could mostly differ in average expression of a behaviour, but also could show different increasing, decreasing and changing trends during gestation. Especially feeding traits related to NN-visits showed clusters with more pattern variation, which could reflect behavioural types. Differences in feeding patterns were also observed between farms, gestation phases and sow parities, indicating those factors are important for understanding variation in feeding traits. SOMs proved useful as a tool for first insights. Further analysis to understand the meaning of patterns and to quantify the most relevant aspects of patterns would be valuable in future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106655"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143895443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Whole lactation feeding behaviour of Simmental cows in commercial dairy farms","authors":"Eleonora Florit,&nbsp;Alberto Romanzin,&nbsp;Matteo Braidot,&nbsp;Mauro Spanghero","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106657","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106657","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding the changes that occur in dairy cows during lactation may be important to better manage the herd and optimise production. Nowadays, thanks to the spread of new technologies in commercial dairy farms, it is possible to obtain numerous individual data throughout its productive career. Using daily data collected with sensors available in commercial farms, we investigate the relation between feeding behaviour, parity, and performance in Italian Simmental dairy cows. The main aim was to better understand how lactation affects cows feeding behaviour. Individual data on milk performance, eating time (ET), rumination time (RT), and body weight (BW) from 80 dairy cows during the whole lactation were collected for 12 months. Animals were divided into two groups considering parity (primiparous, PP, and multiparous, MP) and three feeding behaviour classes from low to high values (eating time classes, ETC; rumination time classes, RTC). Data was statistically analysed with a factorial design with animals as repeated measurements. ETC is positively related to milk composition, as animals in the higher ETC are more productive, especially at the two ends of the lactation curve (p &lt; 0.01). An interesting relation between ET and RT was found. Milk production is also positively related to RTC, but surprisingly, no effect was found on milk fat (p &gt; 0.05). As expected, a positive relation between parity and milk production was found (p = 0.002), but no differences were found in milk composition or somatic cell count between the two parity groups. PP cows have greater eating activity but lower estimated dry matter intake than MP cows (21.85 vs. 23.43 kg/d, p &lt; 0.001), which meet their requirements with an increased eating rate (105 vs. 89 g/min, p = 0.002) and a tendentially higher RT (525 vs. 506 min/d, p = 0.015). All this information can be combined and integrated to provide valuable support to the farmer in managing the herd.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106657"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143899706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating the relationship between canine training classes and post-adoption return rates in North American shelters","authors":"Duaa Ahmed,&nbsp;Brittany Watson,&nbsp;Chelsea L. Reinhard,&nbsp;Lauren Powell","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106654","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106654","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although millions of pets are adopted from shelters each year, a significant portion are returned after adoption which can have negative implications for pets and animal shelters. Previous studies indicate a strong correlation between behavioral issues and returned shelter dogs. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between attending post-adoption training classes and return rates. The study also looked at the distribution of return reasons between dogs who attended training and dogs who did not. Retrospective data between April 1st 2023 and March 31st 2024 was collected from three different shelters in North America (Seattle, WA; DeKalb, IL; Edmonton, AB). Of all the adopted dogs (n = 3325), we looked at which dogs attended training (n = 204) and used propensity score matching to generate a matched control group of dogs who did not attend training. The control group was matched based on age, sex, breed, shelter and intake type. The results showed no significant difference in return rates between dogs who attended training (8.3 %) and dogs who did not attend training (9.3 %) as analyzed by Pearson Chi Squared test (<em>X</em>²(1) = 0.122, p = 0.727). However, of all the returned dogs, those who attended training were more likely to be returned for owner-related reasons (58.8 %), whereas dogs who did not attend training were more likely to be returned for animal-related reasons (78.9 %, <em>X</em>²(1) = 5.386, p = 0.020). While attending training classes at animal shelters may help to reduce behavioral returns, as shown by the shift in return reasons, they do not appear to reduce return rates significantly for the general shelter population. This finding provides valuable insight for shelters to improve their resource allocation. Shelters can have a more targeted approach by providing behavioral support for dogs that are at high-risk of return, thus setting those dogs up for a greater likelihood of permanent adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106654"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143892093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Opportunities and challenges to enhance the welfare of livestock through positive human-animal relationships","authors":"Paul H. Hemsworth,&nbsp;Grahame J. Coleman","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A negative human-animal relationship from the farm animal’s perspective can, mainly through fear and stress, compromise the animal’s welfare, health and productivity. Studies particularly in the dairy and pig industries demonstrate a causal link between stockperson attitudes, stockperson behaviour, animal fear and stress and animal welfare. Equally, a positive relationship can improve these outcomes for the animal. Furthermore, since stockperson attitudes and behaviour are amenable to change, they can be improved by appropriate training. Indeed, cognitive behavioural training has been shown to improve stockperson attitudes and behaviour towards animals, with consequent reductions in animal fear and improvements in animal productivity. While our understanding of the implications of the human-animal relationship in other livestock industries is relatively poor, there is limited evidence of relationships between stockperson attitudes, stockperson behaviour and animal fear responses in other livestock industries, such as the goat, poultry and sheep industries. There is a clear need for the livestock industries to train their personnel to care for and handle their animals effectively and humanely.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"287 ","pages":"Article 106656"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143899634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}