<p dir="ltr">Due to increasing legislative and societal demand for humane egg production, an increased production of cage-free eggs is inevitable. Past research has focused on the impact of cage-free housing systems (CFS) on laying hens' performance, health, and space use; however, limited studies have examined the impacts of CFS on the behavioral activities of laying hens, particularly in single-tier floor systems in the U.S. Broadly, this research examined the influence of two housing systems on the behavior of laying hens as they age. Specifically, the study aimed to provide information on how dissimilar cage-free systems meet the behavioral needs of laying hens. </p><p dir="ltr">Two hundred pullets were randomly assigned to either a single-tier floor room (SFR) or a modified multi-tier aviary room (MAR) at 17 weeks of age (WOA), where they remained until 85 WOA. Starting at 55 WOA, thirty focal birds were marked with non-toxic markers for individual identification in each room. The behavior of the birds was recorded continuously over two consecutive days during the mid-laying (55 WOA) and late-laying (85 WOA) phases. The behavioral expressions of the focal birds were annotated using 10-min continuous sampling at 5 time points (10 minutes after lights-on (TOD 1), 4 hr after lights-on (TOD 2), 8hr after lights-on (TOD 3), 12 hr after lights-on (TOD 4), and 10 minutes before lights-off (TOD 5)). At each of these 5 time points, 4 birds were randomly selected for observation. Behavior duration and frequency data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX in SAS 9.4, with the main effects of housing system (HS), age, and time of day (TOD). Descriptive statistics were used to present the behavioral time budgets of marked and unmarked birds in MAR and SFR. Further, the behaviors performed in different spatial zones (areas within each room) were presented as the percentage of observed time laying hens spent engaged in a specific behavior over the total time at a particular spatial zone. </p><p dir="ltr">Birds in MAR and SFR spent most of the observed time perching at all ages. The birds (marked and unmarked) performed environmental pecking and foraging for the highest percentage of time in the litter area of SFR and MAR. Similarly, the percentage of time the birds (marked and unmarked) spent preening and performing OCB (wing flapping, stretching, and feather-ruffling) was highest when they occupied the litter zone of MAR and SFR. Housing system influenced the time that both marked and unmarked birds spent performing foraging and environmental pecking (EP) such that marked and unmarked birds in SFR spent more time engaged in these behaviors than marked and unmarked birds in MAR (Marked: SFR vs. MAR, P = 0.043; Unmarked: SFR vs. MAR, P = 0.002). Further, marked and unmarked birds in SFR exhibited a higher frequency of EP than birds in MAR (Marked: SFR vs. MAR, P = 0.02; Unmarked: SFR vs. MAR, P < 0.001). The frequency of locomotion (standing and walking) activity differed between SFR and MAR birds. Birds (marked and unmarked) stood more frequently in SFR than in MAR (Marked: SFR vs. MAR, P = 0.046; Unmarked: SFR vs. MAR, P < 0.001). Further, SFR birds had a higher walking frequency than MAR birds (Marked: P = 0.003; Unmarked: P = 0.02). Birds (marked and unmarked) in MAR perched more frequently than SFR birds (Marked: SFR vs. MAR, P < 0.001; Unmarked: SFR vs. MAR, P = 0.01); however, unmarked birds preened more frequently in SFR than in MAR (P < 0.001). Regarding time of day, both marked and unmarked birds exhibited higher preening frequency 10 mins after lights-on (TOD 1) than at other times of day (P < 0.001). Similarly, marked birds perched for a longer duration early in the morning (TOD 1) and late at night (TOD 5), than at TOD 2 and TOD 3 (P < 0.001). </p><p dir="ltr">This study revealed that MAR and SFR may differ in how they accommodate the behavioral needs of laying hens, with hen activity levels varying between the two types of housing systems. Further research is needed to understand the implications of behavioral outcomes for the welfare of laying hens in different types of CFS.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Pekin duck, a major poultry product, is an important livestock species that requires further study to understand their physiological needs and welfare. Welfare improvements can be obtainable by measuring a duck’s response to its environment and developing management practices that allow ducks to explore positive natural behaviors and minimize negative affective states. Assessing welfare includes measuring physical and mental states of an animal and how it copes with its environment. This thesis sets out to use established indicators for mental state, such as serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA), to validate methods of measuring duck affective state applied to environment changes. Affective states can be assessed using neurotransmitter concentrations inserted into turnover equations to understand serotonergic and dopaminergic activity within the synapse. Similarly, gene expression can be linked to affective state by investigating the rate-limiting enzyme in 5-HT and DA synthesis. Developing neuroendocrine profiles for the Pekin duck can elucidate how environmental changes affect physiology and welfare. </p><p dir="ltr">Preening cups are a semi open water source placed within duck barns to improve welfare and allow for positive natural behaviors. Since ducks are waterfowl, many believe these birds need access to open water to develop naturally and have positive welfare. Our lab designed an experiment, referenced in Chapter 3, to compare ducks raised with preening cups to ducks raised with only water nipple lines. At Purdue Animal Science Research and Education Center (ASREC), 260 grow-out Pekin ducks were raised to the industry standard. There were 2 pens that had access to preening cups on day 18 and 2 pens had access to only nipple lines. We collected duck brains on day 18 before preening cup placement (PRE, n = 6). On day 43, we collected duck brains from pens with preening cups (PC, n = 6) and from pens without preening cups (CON, n = 6). Then, brains were hemisected and further dissected into caudal mesencephalon (CM), rostral mesencephalon (RM), diencephalon (DI), and forebrain (FB). The right portions of each brain were used to investigate neurotransmitter concentrations and turnover using mass spectrometry. While the left portions were used to investigate gene expression of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH1, TPH2) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Our results found no significant differences in 5-HT turnover or 5-HT static levels associated with preening cups across collection days. In the CM, we found a decrease in DA turnovers for PC and CON (p = 0.0067) when compared to PRE. Also, we found a decrease in DA turnover for PC when compared to PRE and CON (p = 0.003) in the RM. In the CM, we found increases in TPH1 expression (p = 0.022) for PC and CON when compared to PRE and in TH expression (p = 0.022) for CON when compared to PRE. There were no significant differences found in the RM and DI brain areas for gene expression. In the FB, we found a decrease in TH gene expression (p = 0.031). Overall, our data highlights an increase in dopaminergic activity within the midbrain. This increase in DA can be correlated with aggressive behavior witnessed from ducks housed with preening cups. Elevated DA is associated with addiction and resource guarding. In this experimental study, we concluded that preening cups placed with a small number of ducks (n = 65 ducks per preening cup) may elicit aggressive behavior and decrease welfare. </p><p dir="ltr">The results of this initial study led us to the question of how a duck affective state is altered by preening cups in a large commercial setting. A commercial Pekin duck barn will place one preening cup for approximately 1,000-1,500 ducks, which means a barn will carry about 3-5 preening cups. Similar methodology was used in Chapter 4 to investigate the ducks affective state using mass spectrometry and qRT-PCR to assess 5-HT and DA activity within the brain. We visited four commercial duck barns with an average of 7,500 ducks on day (d)21 prior to preening cup placement, d28 one week after preening cup placement, and d35 one day prior to processing. We collected litter samples to test moisture content (n = 3/barn/day) and found no differences before or after preening cup placement. We performed a transect walk by moving systematically through each barn and recording the frequency of welfare concerns. All barns showed low percentages of welfare concerns while differences were likely due to natural aging of ducks in a production system. Brains were collected from two locations in the barn including ducks actively using the preening cup (PC) and ducks across the barn not actively performing any behaviors other than standing or sitting (CON). Brains were divided into CM, RM, and DI brain areas and each half was assessed with 5-HT and DA turnover along with TPH1, TPH2, and TH gene expression. No differences were found for 5-HT turnover or static levels. This suggests that preening cups are not altering affective state. DA turnover was decreased in the CM (p < 0.05) and DI (p < 0.001) due to age, but no differences were found between collection location (PC vs CON). We link this increase in dopaminergic activity to natural aging and preparation for puberty as no aggressive behavior was witnessed in commercial barns. Aggression and resource guarding of commercial preening cups is unlikely due to the increased number of ducks per water source and the large space the ducks can access. There was increased TPH1 expression within the RM brain area for d35 ducks when compared to d28 and d21. We conclude that affective state is not variable within the barn based on collection locations. Overall, 5-HT was not affected by preening cups and DA was affected by age. This means that preening cups may not improve affective state and welfare, but they also do not cause determinantal effects either. </p><p dir="ltr">Another major welfare concern associated with environment is transportation for Pekin ducks. To assess how affective state is altered by crating and transportation of hens and drakes, Chapter 5 used similar methodology as the previous studies. Transportation may cause an acutely stressful event while activating a physiological stress response. Chapter 5 measured several central and peripheral physiological parameters to assess responses to transportation. Thirty-six, 23-week-old breeder ducks from a commercial facility were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. The control group (CON) was caught and immediate euthanized in the pen, the crate group (CRA) was caught and crated for 90 minutes before euthanasia, and the transport group (TRA) was caught, crated, and loaded into the back of a truck to be driven on country roads at 55 mph for 90 minutes before immediate euthanasia. Blood was collected for corticosterone ELISA analysis and blood smear heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (HLR) analysis. We found that hens showed an increase in HLR (p = 0.035) and serum corticosterone (p = 0.01) due to CRA. Drakes and hens showed an increase in HLR (p = 0.035) and serum corticosterone (p = 0.0084) for TRA. These results suggest that transportation is a stressor that elicits a sex dependent response where hens increase corticosterone and HLR under CRA unlike drakes who only showed a stress response under TRA. Likewise, a sex difference was shown for 5-HT turnover where hens show a stepwise increase from CON to CRA (p = 0.01) and from CRA to TRA (p = 0.016) in the CM and RM. There were no differences for DA turnover while TPH1 gene expression was decreased (p = 0.03) for TRA hens when compared to CON and CRA hens. Our results suggest that transportation negatively shifts affective state by increasing stress responses in ducks and reducing serotonergic activity in hens. In the future, care should be taken to evaluate stress between sexes and minimize transportation time. </p><p dir="ltr">In conclusion, preening cups and transportation are important aspects of a Pekin ducks’ life that alter affective state and physiology. We recommend proper management of preening cups to ensure positive welfare by placing water sources over open pits to prevent excess accumulation of water in the barn. We recommend that while evaluating stressors, researchers need to assess different sexes and collection time from the onset of the stressor. Future studies can include determining affective state for other enrichments such as environmental enrichment devices or investigating commercial barns without preening cups during the production cycle. Continued research could measure affective state following shorter transportation stress or chronic stress to resolve what timeframes alter 5-HT and DA turnover. Transportation may be minimized by installing on-site processing facilities to stun and process animals without transportation to reduce negative affective states. In an academic setting, pharmaceutical intervention may be interesting to investigate to improve affective state during stressful events.</p>

This thesis is a study of architecture on how to improve the life of homeless animals through strengthening the relationship between us, humans and the animals we live among. There are millions of shelter animals being killed every year which is both dreadful and expensive. This number can be decreased greatly if people acted more responsibly towards the creatures they have domesticated. It is true that most people enjoy taking care of animals, they usually feel a strong emotional connection with them, specially those who share their homes with their pets. The problem is that many find the animal shelters a depressing place filled with sick unwanted animals. How can we, design professionals, encourage people to interact more with animal shelters? How can the design affect both physical and emotional health of these animals? Can architecture raise awareness about the creatures in our urban civilization? This project explores a few design approaches that can teach people about shelters and urban animals and how physically different we are from them. The building is also a study of an animal shelter as a system that can improve their day-to-day life to become healthier and happier. It is proposed that these architectural changes would aid the adoption rate as well as creating a happier pet and owner. / Master of Architecture / Each year millions of adoptable animals are killed in shelters simply because people are not responsible enough to take action. People have always loved animals and have domesticated them from thousands of years ago. This makes us responsible for their lives and their well being. The general understanding is that animal shelters are very sad depressing places filled with sick unwanted animals. This keeps people away from animal shelters. People usually show affection to animals when they are interacting with them. How can the housing for these unwanted animals be a desirable place where people want to visit? How can it be the place where our physical differences are celebrated so we learn about their different needs? This project explores different ways to encourage interaction between humans and animals as well as to create a wholesome place for the animals to live. Through the beautiful experience of the shelter, these design approaches would motivate people to adopt healthy and happy animals.

Standard measures used in animal welfare assessments include animal-based measures obtained by observing animals, resource-based measures obtained by observing facilities, and management-based measures obtained by interviewing farmers and checking records. Animal welfare assessments are composed of a variety of measures and can be very different from each other. The objectives of the research presented in this thesis were to investigate inter-observer reliability of three swine welfare assessment programs (ACA™, PQA Plus®, and Welfare Quality®), and to determine the concordance of rankings across the 3 assessments. All assessments and all types of measures were found to be highly reliable. Moderate concordance was found for the rankings of farms across all three assessments. The lowest ranked farms were correlated, indicating that all assessments identified the farms with the lowest levels of animal welfare. Results of this study can be used to identify the best measures and revise current on-farm animal welfare assessments. / Canadian Swine Research and Development Cluster, a Growing Canadian Agri-Innovation Program – Canadian Agri-Science Cluster Initiative of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC); and the Ontario Pork Council

This thesis moves beyond the traditional approaches of how we ought to treat animals, and instead concentrates on the best strategy for preventing animal suffering in the farming industry. Chapter 1 considers the question of how we can know that animals feel pain, and concludes not only that it is rational to believe that they can, but also that this is a significant fact. Chapter 2 then analyses one possible strategy for helping to prevent animal suffering, namely demi-vegetarianism. For a number of reasons, however, this strategy is found to be flawed, therefore Chapter 3 analyses a second possible strategy, namely vegetarianism, and concludes that this is, in fact, the best strategy for helping to prevent animal suffering in the farming industry.

<p dir="ltr">To meet the growing demands for pork products, lactating sows are often housed in farrowing crates to reduce piglet crushing. However, the public has raised welfare concerns about farrowing crate systems due to the confinement and barren environment, which can impair social interactions between sow and piglets, change their activity levels, and alter how sows and piglets satisfy their motivated behaviors to chew and explore by oral manipulation of pen and pen mates. Barren and confined environments can result in skin abrasions caused by oral manipulations and fighting, physiological stress, inactivity, and abnormal behaviors, which can have an impact on sows’ and piglets’ welfare, productivity, and behavior. Previous work on environmental enrichments has shown promise to improve average daily gain, activity levels, stress, and behavioral repertoire. However, the majority of studies on pig environmental enrichments take place after weaning and research investigating the impact enrichments have during lactation is limited. In addition, research on maximizing the use of environmental enrichments based on the location inside the farrowing crate systems has not been conducted. To address the knowledge gaps concerning the impact of the location of environmental enrichments on the welfare, behavior, and productivity of sows and piglets in farrowing crate systems and to provide educational material on pig enrichment, this dissertation consists of two parts: Chapters 2 and 3 examine the effects of the location of environmental enrichments in farrowing crate systems on sows’ and piglet’s welfare, productivity, and behavior. Chapter 5 is an extension article on the different types of environmental enrichments and the best strategies for implementing enrichment in swine operations.</p><p dir="ltr">In Chapter 2, sows (n = 37) and focal piglets (n = 148) were assigned to three treatment groups: SPE (both sows and piglets had access to enrichment objects), PE (only piglets had access to enrichment objects), and CON (control group with no enrichment) blocked by sow parity and genetics. Sow posture and piglet behavior during the lactation and nursery phases were observed at various times after birth and weaning. Environmental enrichments significantly influenced the behaviors of suckling piglets, reducing pig-directed and agonistic behaviors. Piglets with enrichments tended to explore the pen less and engage in more social behaviors. The location of enrichments also impacted behaviors, with higher nursing behavior observed during mid-lactation for piglets with access to enrichments (PE) and increased interaction with enrichments when they were accessible to both sows and piglets (SPE). Treatment did not affect sow postural changes or most nursery behaviors, except for walking, which increased in SPE nursery piglets compared to CON piglets. Overall, the study demonstrated positive effects of environmental enrichments on suckling piglets in farrowing crate systems, highlighting the importance of enrichment placement on nursing behaviors and enrichment interaction.</p><p dir="ltr">In Chapter 3, the same sows and piglets were used to investigate the effects of enrichment location on the welfare (skin lesions, pressure sores, salivary cortisol, and tear stains) and performance (average daily gain and piglet crushing) of the sows and piglets. This study used the same animals that were assigned the treatment group, housing, and management practices from Chapter 2. Salivary cortisol samples were collected from sows at four time points: 24 hours after moving into farrowing crates, 24 hours after treatment group assignment, midway between moving into crates and weaning, and on the day of weaning. Pressure sores of sows were scored on days 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, and 17 after farrowing. For suckling piglets, tear stains and skin lesions were assessed on the same days, and their average daily gain (ADG) was analyzed weekly during lactation. In the nursery phase, salivary cortisol was collected from piglets on the day of weaning and days 1, 7, and 14 post-weaning, with tear stains and skin lesions measured on those days as well. Nursery ADG was analyzed from weaning to day 14 post-weaning. Results indicated that control (CON) sows were less likely to have no pressure sores compared to sows with shared (SPE) enrichments, while piglets in the enriched treatment groups (PE and SPE) had smaller tear stain areas than those in the CON group. Treatment influenced skin lesions in suckling piglets, with enriched piglets having fewer lesions in the ear and front body regions. There was no treatment effect on salivary cortisol for both sows and nursery piglets, nor did treatment affect ADG, piglet crushing, or nursery skin lesions. The provision of environmental enrichments in farrowing crates reduced pressure sores of sows, skin lesions of suckling piglets and tear stains of suckling and nursery piglets.</p><p dir="ltr">Overall, providing environmental enrichments to suckling piglets reduced aggression, as evidenced by fewer agonistic and pig-directed behaviors, and resulted in fewer skin lesions compared to piglets without enrichments. This suggests potentially reduced stress levels in enriched piglets, indicated by smaller tear stain areas. While most behaviors and skin lesion scores showed no significant differences during the nursery phase, enriched piglets continued to have smaller tear stains. Enrichment location influenced the following: sows had fewer pressure sores, and suckling piglets interacted more with enrichments and exhibited fewer pig-directed behaviors when enrichments were accessible to both sows and piglets compared to the only piglet enriched treatment group. Piglets with access only to enrichments also performed more nursing behaviors during mid-lactation compared to the control group. Overall, the study highlights the benefits of environmental enrichments in farrowing crate systems, particularly the positive impact of enrichment location on the welfare and behavior of sows and piglets.</p><p dir="ltr">Lastly, in Chapter 5, the extension article discusses the definition of environmental enrichment and its impact on pigs’ welfare. The article also delves into the five types of environmental enrichments (nutritional, occupational, physical, sensory, and social), providing examples of each. Additionally, the article offers five practical tips for efficiently and successfully implementing environmental enrichments in swine herds.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

Welfare for captive animals in laboratory, farm, companion and zoo settings is difficult to assess and subject to interpretation. The perceived needs of animals change over time and according to budget, fashion and policy. The assessment of the value of environmental enrichment for captive animals is hampered by the lack of consistent, quantitative, objective and methodical research. Enrichment devices and other welfare improvement strategies lack long-term assessment or implementation. The concept of cognitive enrichment, or enabling captive animals to use their cognitive abilities to solve problems and meet challenges in their environment, is in the initial stages of development. Preliminary findings indicate that cognitive enrichment seems to be an effective method of improving captive animal welfare. In the research described in this thesis, several welfare measurement techniques including changes in activity budget, stereotypic behaviour and cognitive bias were compared and used to measure the effects of cognitive enrichment upon captive pigeons and dogs in order to obtain a useable cognitive enrichment paradigm that can be extrapolated to many types of captive animals. Key findings were that cognitive enrichment improved captive group-housed pigeon welfare and individually-kennelled dog welfare, indicated by significant changes in activity budget, increases in ‘optimism’, and reduction of stereotypic behaviour in subjects. Subjects used both low-tech and high-tech cognitive enrichments as intended and showed no sign of habituation. It is hoped that these findings will be used to improve captive animal welfare, and that the cognitive enrichment and cognitive bias paradigms developed will add to this field of research.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Richard J. Harris / Previous research has indicated that many factors influence the likelihood of using the central or peripheral routes of processing during exposure to a persuasive message, including involvement in the message. Previous research has generally focused on response involvement, which is based on outcome, while the focus of the present study is involvement based on personal investment. In the present study, 229 undergraduates were assessed on their trait empathy toward animals, and attitudes toward animals. They read a strong or weak persuasive message presented by either an attractive or less attractive writer. This design replicated previous findings by Bae (2008) on empathy and attitude change, and extended them by examining them experimentally, with a focus on issue-based involvement, which relies on moral or ego involvement. Participants were tested on several distinct DVs designed to indicate their change in attitude and behavior. Results varied for each DV, with source attractiveness predicting willingness to wear a button and display a bumper sticker, but with trait empathy predicting willingness to adopt a pet and vote to support a petition. The results imply that participants relied on different routes of processing depending on the DV, and that the role of emotion in issue involvement may inform advertisers in ways to effectively increase the likelihood of paying attention to a message.