Exposure to humans after weaning does not reduce the behavioural reactivity of extensively reared Merino lambs

Atkinson, Leigh; Doyle, Rebecca; Woodward, Andrew; Jongman, Ellen C.

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104709

Cited by 4 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, this activity (brushing) would compete for the farmers’ time with other activities they could be doing to enhance the sheep’s welfare. Moreover, it has been recently demonstrated that additional exposure of lambs to humans in extensive, outdoor settings did not alter their fear of humans [ 86 ]. Nevertheless, intervention strategies such as the use of automatic brushing enhance positive behaviors in equines, as indicated by increased positive facial expressions (half-closed eyes, ears turned backward, neck moderately raised) [ 87 ], and such interventions can be promoted in sheep when housed.…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Muhammad

Stokes

Manning

2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of positive welfare is an expansion of the traditional understanding that animal welfare is defined by minimizing stress, pain, suffering, and disease. Positive welfare shifts the animal welfare narrative from a focus on reducing negative experiences to proactively providing animals with opportunities to have positive experiences and feelings. The concept, although around for several decades, is in its infancy in terms of developing ways of assessing positive welfare on farms, especially in extensive systems, and there are challenges in the adoption of positive welfare practices and the monitoring of continuous improvement at the farm level. Using an iterative approach, this critical review aims to explore the extent to which positive welfare interventions and indicators are positioned and have been developed within the animal welfare literature for sheep. This paper critiques existing positive welfare indicators, such as choices in food and the physical environment, conspecific social synchronization, maternal bonds, intergenerational knowledge transfer, positive human–animal relationships, etc., as currently assessed by the ‘good life framework’. It also reviews the characteristics of scientific measures for (positive) affective states in the current sheep literature and their potential contribution to understanding positive welfare states in sheep. In conclusion, this paper provides recommendations for future research regarding sheep welfare.

show abstract

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Positive Aspects of Welfare in Sheep: Current Debates and Future Opportunities

Muhammad

Stokes

Manning

2022

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Finally, Atkinson et al (2022) adapted the method to assess attention to a human threat, by swapping the dog for a human, but otherwise following the protocol outlined by Monk et al (2018a). Prior to testing, they applied two different treatments involving different types of humananimal interactions over a period of 7 weeks, with the aim to reduce human-directed fear in weaned lambs through either habituation (low intensity, predictable human behaviour) or stress inoculation (moderate intensity, active, unpredictable human behaviour).…”

Section: Positive Affectmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The repeatability of the food method has been assessed in sheep (Monk et al 2023). The food method has also been adapted to present a human as the threatening stimulus instead of a dog (Atkinson et al 2022). Variations of the methodology have also been applied to cattle (Lee et al 2018;Kremer et al 2021), pigs (Luo et al 2019;Verbeek et al 2021), goats (Neave and Zobel 2020) and chickens (Campbell et al 2019a(Campbell et al , 2019b(Campbell et al , 2022Anderson et al 2021), although this review will primarily B www.publish.csiro.au/an…”

Section: Attention Bias In Livestockmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, a human could be used as a threatening stimulus in sheep that are not accustomed to human handling. Atkinson et al (2022) applied an attention-bias test to sheep using a human as the threat. The test was unable to differentiate sheep that had undergone different levels of human exposure to induce habituation or stressinoculation, although it remains unclear whether this was due to a lack of sensitivity of the attention-bias test or the treatments not having the desired outcome on humandirected fear.…”

Section: Choosing the Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To be able to categorise how the individuals in the test arena divide their attention, an alternative positive attractant can be used alongside the threatening stimulus. Most attention-bias tests in sheep have used food as the positive stimulus (Table 1, Atkinson et al 2022), where measures such as duration eating and latency to eat are used to indicate attention. Other studies have used conspecific photographs (Table 1), videos of conspecifics (Vögeli et al 2015;Raoult and Gygax 2018) or audio of sheep bleating (Raoult and Gygax 2019), where attention is measured through behaviours such as looking, vigilance and ear postures.…”

Section: Choosing a Positive Stimulusmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Future application of an attention bias test to assess affective states in sheep

Monk

Campbell

2023

Anim. Prod. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The affective states of animals comprise a key aspect of welfare that can be difficult to assess. An attention-bias test was developed for sheep, which assessed allocation of attention between a predator threat and a food reward, as a potential measure of affective state. The method was pharmacologically validated as a measure of anxiety-like states, finding that 'anxious' sheep were more vigilant, less likely to feed and spent more time looking towards the previous location of a dog than did 'calm' sheep. Across six further validation studies, the method was modified and explored as a measure of other types of affective states. This perspective article aims to provide guidance on what the method can tell us about affective state and make recommendations for further research by using this approach. Evidence was strongest across the studies for the test as a measure of anxiety-like states, but it is clear that there are other factors affecting animal behaviour during testing that need to be further investigated. One study showed potential for a modified method to assess depression-like states in sheep, while the impact of chronic stress on affect and attention bias remains unclear. It is likely that the test cannot be used to measure positive affect in sheep without further modification, due to the fear-eliciting nature of the test. Versions of the method using food as a positive stimulus allow for a clearer interpretation of attention than do versions using a conspecific photograph, and are recommended for use in future studies where appetite is not expected to be a confounding factor. In this context, vigilance behaviour may indicate trait anxiety or fearfulness, while other measures of attention may be more sensitive to transient changes in affect. Modifications to the method are suggested to allow for a clearer characterisation of attention in livestock species and to improve the practical application of the test. Overall, the attention-bias test shows promise as a measure of negative affective states, but the method is still very new and further research is needed to better determine its potential use as a welfare-assessment tool.

show abstract