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The assessment of animal welfare requires the collection of multiple indicators of welfare but quantification of their associations in different contexts is lacking. Previous studies have examined correlations between a few indicators, but not relationships between many different indicators, or between indicators taken from the same individuals in more than one environment. We housed 60 hens for six sequential 35-day phases in different pen environments. During each phase, a series of behavioural and physiological measures was taken for every bird: body and plumage condition, surface body temperature, behaviours observed in the home pens and during test periods, tonic immobility, physiological blood profiles, and faecal sample composition. Most variation in nearly all measures was not explained by either individual bird or grouping effects but varied across phases within the birds. Acknowledging this, we examined correlations between all parameters at the phase within-bird level, selecting a conservative P-value. A consistent set of correlations showed that a slow approach response and alert behaviour in the novel object test was associated with higher bodyweight, lower body temperature and lower acute phase protein, heterophil: lymphocyte ratio and blood glucose level. A cluster analysis confirmed these correlations. Other important parameters known to be linked to the hens’ environmental preference (eg comfort behaviour) were independent of the set described above. We conclude that statistical techniques can reveal patterns of independence and redundancy in the collection of behavioural and physiological measures of welfare.

Scientists have long known that certain pesticides, industrial chemicals and heavy metals have a detrimental impact on the reproductive health of a wide range of species (including humans) by disrupting the endocrine system. As exposure to, and the effects of, ‘endocrine disrupters’ are likely to be more pronounced in wild species with a short gestation period and life-cycle we have chosen to develop non-invasive tools based upon faecal steroid analysis to monitor the reproductive status of the short-tailed field vole (Microtus agrestis). This approach is hoped to eventually provide a sensitive means of detecting environmental disturbances that could adversely affect humans, livestock and wildlife by establishing the the field vole as a terrestrial biomarker. Faecal steroid hormone analysis has already been demonstrated as being a convenient and reliable means of diagnosing reproductive state in a large range of mammalian species (including gazelle, rhino, macaque and mice), however, as of yet little is known regarding the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy in M. agrestis.