Pharmacologically-induced stress has minimal impact on judgement and attention biases in sheep

Monk, Jessica E.; Belson, Sue; C, Lee

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47691-7

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…where affect manipulations have led to null results (e.g. sheep administered synthetic stress hormones did not show different levels of attention towards a dog compared with controls) 45 , or results were opposite to the hypothesis and negative affect manipulations led to less attention towards threats (e.g. sheep chronically stressed by lying deprivation showed reduced attention to a dog) 46 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Impact of canine epilepsy on judgement and attention biases

Hobbs

Law

Volk

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Idiopathic epilepsy (IE) is the most common chronic neurological condition in dogs, characterised by recurrent seizure activity and associated with negative behavioural and cognitive changes. We hypothesised that IE would negatively impact putative affective state, with dogs with IE exhibiting a more pessimistic judgement bias and more negative attention bias than controls. Dogs were tested in a previously-validated spatial judgement bias task, and a novel auditory attention bias task testing attention to sounds with different valence or salience (neutral, novel pre-habituated, threatening). Sixty-eight dogs (IE = 33, Control = 35) were tested, of which n = 37 acquired the spatial discrimination and responses to judgement bias probes were tested (IE = 19, Control = 18), and n = 36 were tested for responses to sounds (IE = 20, Control = 16). Study groups did not significantly differ by age, sex, breed or neuter-status (p > 0.05). Main effects of study group were not significant in judgement bias (F1,102 = 0.20, p = 0.658) or attention bias tasks (F3,102 = 1.64, p = 0.184). In contrast with our hypotheses, there was no evidence that IE altered cognitive biases in this study population; however, dogs with IE were significantly more likely to be unable to learn the spatial discrimination task (p = 0.019), which may reflect IE-related cognitive deficits. Developing methods to test affective state without excluding cognitively impaired individuals is a future challenge for animal welfare science.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Impact of canine epilepsy on judgement and attention biases

Hobbs

Law

Volk

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Such a change in variation is apparent when comparing the boxplots presented in each article, summarizing the raw data [26] (Figure 2 in both articles). Studies using feed as a positive stimulus have shown lower mean durations of vigilance in Control animals, with reported values ranging from 123 s to 165 s [20,21,23], excepting a high duration of 176 s reported by Verbeek et al [22]. Thus, the original test method, in which sheep are motivated to become non-vigilant to feed, may be better able to assess affect using vigilance behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Verbeek et al [22] used a variation of the method described by Lee et al [20] and found some unexpected evidence of an attention bias away from the threat in sheep which had been chronically stressed by lying deprivation. This finding was not replicated when sheep were chronically stressed using a pharmacological model, which had no effect on animal behavior during the attention bias test [23]. Each of these attention bias studies used food as a positive stimulus and will broadly be referred to as the original test method hereafter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention Bias Test Measures Negative But Not Positive Affect in Sheep: A Replication Study

Monk

Dickson

et al. 2020

Animals

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An attention bias test has been developed as a measure of negative affective states in sheep. The test measures an individual’s allocation of attention between a threatening (previous location of a dog) and positive (conspecific photo) stimulus over a 3 min period. This study replicated a previously inconclusive study, to determine whether the test could assess positive affective states under more controlled conditions and with a younger population of animals. Pharmacological treatments were used to induce anxious, calm, happy, and control affective states prior to entering the attention bias test arena (n = 20/treatment). We hypothesized that sheep in positive and negative affective states could be differentiated using key measures of attention during testing, including vigilance (head at or above shoulder height) and duration looking towards the valenced stimuli. Anxious sheep were more vigilant than control animals during attention bias testing as predicted (linear mixed effects model, p = 0.002), but the positive groups did not differ from controls (p > 0.05). There was no effect of treatment on looking behaviors (p > 0.05). We suggest this attention bias test paradigm can assess negative but not positive affect in sheep and that modifications to the ethogram or stimuli are needed to more clearly characterize the direction of attention during testing.

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“…The behavioral analysis consisted of a number of measures commonly used in sheep welfare analysis, including locomotor activity ( 28 ), exploratory behaviors ( 29 ), vigilance ( 30 , 31 ) and avoidance behaviors ( 9 ). Video footage was recorded by video camera (Sony Handycam HDR-XR550, Sony Electronics Inc., San Diego, CA, USA), additionally, security cameras were mounted and connected to digital video recorders and captured by IVMS4200 software (Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Predictability and Controllability on Stress Responses to the Aversive Component of a Virtual Fence

et al. 2020

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To ensure animal welfare is not compromised, virtual fencing must be predictable and controllable, and this is achieved through associative learning. To assess the influence of predictability and controllability on physiological and behavioral responses to the aversive component of a virtual fence, two methods of training animals were compared. In the first method, positive punishment training involved sheep learning that after an audio stimulus, an electrical stimulus would follow only when they did not respond by stopping or turning at the virtual fence (predictable controllability). In the second method, classical conditioning was used to associate an audio stimulus with an electrical stimulus on all occasions (predictable uncontrollability). Eighty Merino ewes received one of the following treatments: control (no training and no stimuli in testing); positive punishment training with an audio stimulus in testing (PP); classical conditioning training with only an audio stimulus in testing (CC1); and classical conditioning training with an audio stimulus followed by electrical stimulus in testing (CC2). The stimuli were applied manually with an electronic collar. Training occurred on 4 consecutive days with one session per sheep per day. Sheep were then assessed for stress responses to the cues by measuring plasma cortisol, body temperature and behaviors. Predictable controllability (PP) sheep showed no differences in behavioral and physiological responses compared with the control treatment (P < 0.05). Predictable uncontrollability of receiving the aversive stimulus (CC2) induced a higher cortisol and body temperature response compared to the control but was not different to CC1 and PP treatments. CC2 treatment sheep showed a higher number of turning behaviors (P < 0.001), and more time spent running (P < 0.001) than the control and PP treatment groups, indicating that predictability without controllability was stressful. The behavior results also indicate that predicting the event without receiving it (CC1) was less stressful than predicting the event then receiving it (CC2), suggesting that there is a cost to confirmation of uncontrollability. These results demonstrate that a situation of predictability and controllability such as experienced when an animal successfully learns to avoid the aversive component of a virtual fence, induces a comparatively minimal stress response and does not compromise animal welfare.

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Pharmacologically-induced stress has minimal impact on judgement and attention biases in sheep

Cited by 19 publications

References 85 publications

Impact of canine epilepsy on judgement and attention biases

Impact of canine epilepsy on judgement and attention biases

Attention Bias Test Measures Negative But Not Positive Affect in Sheep: A Replication Study

The Influence of Predictability and Controllability on Stress Responses to the Aversive Component of a Virtual Fence

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