The impact of behavioural disorders on animal welfare in modern animal husbandry has been much debated. While other abnormal behaviours have been explored at length, there are a paucity of studies on tail-biting in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). In the present study, severe tail lesions were observed in group-reared rabbit does on a commercial rabbit farm. In the subsequent investigations, the occurrence of tail lesions in 219 rabbit does from nine batches was compared between group- or singlehousing and a scoring system recording the severity of tail lesions was developed and verified. This five-grade scoring system was applied to evaluate the progression of prevalence and severity of tail lesions in 21 groups during rearing in two batches. The results revealed a significant difference in the score level between housing types with a higher prevalence of injured tails in group- (60.4%) compared to single-reared (4.0%) does. An increase in severity and frequency of tail lesions was observed in groups during the course of a rearing period. Furthermore, the established scoring system was characterised by adequate observer reliability. Overall, tail injuries occurred on a regular basis in the investigated rearing groups, indicating tail-biting to be a prevalent problem. This could be considered relevant in terms of animal welfare, both for the animal doing the biting and the individual being bitten. The findings draw attention to an inadequately described problem in rabbit husbandry. However, the search for preventive measures needs to scrutinise the role of single-housing, without failing to consider the gregarious nature of rabbits.

The confined environment of the dog shelter, particularly over extensive time-periods can impact severely on welfare. Surveillance and assessment are therefore essential components of the welfare protocol. The aim of this study was to generate a descriptive analysis of a sample of Italian long-term shelters and identify potential hazards regarding the welfare of shelter dogs. This was achieved through application of the Shelter Quality Protocol (SQP) to link income/outcome variables and the inclusion of sixty-four long-term shelters in Italy. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Key findings showed feeding regime, type of diet and access to outdoor area to be significantly associated with inadequate body condition score (BCS). The probability of observing skin lesions was shown to be influenced by bedding inadequacy and bedding type. Limiting beds to one per dog and utilising clean bedding materials was significantly associated with a reduced probability of observing dirty/wet dogs. Protection from adverse weather conditions and inadequate bedding were significantly associated with the manifestation of polypnea. Non-existent dog training facilities, outdoor access or leash walking were all found to significantly increase the likelihood of fearful or aggressive attitudes to people. Outdoor access also, in conjunction with feeding regime, was associated with the presence of diarrhoea. The SQP proved useful in identifying welfare hazards, both as regards shelter environment and shelter management. Identification of these hazards creates the opportunity for interventions to be applied, minimising the risks and improving the welfare of long-term shelter dogs.

Harm-benefit analysis (HBA) underpins the ethical framework of the regulation of animal experiments. This process involves a qualitative, and generally subjective, assessment of the potential benefits weighed against likely harms to be caused to animals. However, there is scope to prospectively quantify this process. A systematic and empirical assessment of historical data can give insights into why benefits are not realised and the magnitude of harm that animals experience. There is substantial scholarly evidence that risks to the 3Vs, the three core aspects of experimental validity in animal experiments (internal, external and construct validity) and low statistical power are limiting the reliability and reproducibility of research. Assessment of the 3Rs (reduction, refinement and replacement) is embedded in HBA and specifically seeks to minimise harm to the animals. However, no formal structure is in place to assess the likelihood of benefit, and we champion the 3Vs as a scale with which this may be achieved. Ethical approval procedures that consider the 3Vs and 3Rs using meta-research may be an approach to facilitate HBA. In ethical considerations related to animal research, there are value judgements that are integral to HBA, which cannot be measured directly. However, a quantitative and systematic approach is likely to be of added value. The perspective and examples described in this paper relate to laboratory animal research, but the approaches may lend themselves to different settings involving animals to ensure that decision-making and changes introduced, for example, to improve animal welfare, are evidence-based.

In this study we investigated the robustness of the WelFur welfare assessment system for farmed mink (Neovison vison) to date of assessment in the winter and growth assessment periods. The prevalence of occurrences of certain measurements was hypothesised to increase with date of assessment (too thin, fur-chewing and stereotypic behaviour in the winter period and injuries, diarrhoea and exploratory mink in the growth period). The welfare was assessed on eight Danish mink farms according to the WelFur-Mink protocol. Each farm was assessed once in the nursing period (to be able to calculate WelFur-Mink scores), four times in the growth period and three times in the winter period. WelFur scores were calculated based on the assessments in the three periods: one calculation for each assessment in the winter and growth periods. The odds of fur-chewing increased with date of assessment in the winter period, and the odds of injuries, diarrhoea and exploratory mink increased with date of assessment in the growth period. The odds of too thin mink in the winter period decreased, ie the change was in the opposite direction to what was expected. The effect of these changes on the aggregated WelFur scores on the higher levels was limited, but could potentially lead to changes in the overall welfare categorisation of farms if the principle scores were close to a threshold between two categories. A potential way to eliminate the effect of date of assessment could be to develop a correction factor for the measurements that can be expected to change within each assessment period.

Although cats’ popularity as pets rivals that of dogs, cats are little studied, and people's abilities to read this apparently ‘inscrutable’ species have attracted negligible research. To determine whether people can identify feline emotions from cats’ faces, participants (n = 6,329) each viewed 20 video clips of cats in carefully operationalised positively (n =10) or negatively valenced states (n = 10) (cross-factored with low and high activity levels). Obvious cues (eg open mouths or fully retracted ears) were eliminated. Participants’ average scores were low (11.85/20 correct), but overall above chance; furthermore, 13% of participants were individually significantly successful at identifying the valence of cats’ states (scoring ≥ 15/20 correct). Women were more successful at this task than men, and younger participants more successful than older, as were participants with professional feline (eg veterinary) experience. In contrast, personal contact with cats (eg pet-owning) had little effect. Cats in positive states were most likely to be correctly identified, particularly if active rather than inactive. People can thus infer cats’ affective states from subtle aspects of their facial expressions (although most find this challenging); and some individuals are very good at doing so. Understanding where such abilities come from, and precisely how cats’ expressions change with affective state, could potentially help pet owners, animal care staff and veterinarians optimise feline care and welfare.

Australia has a significant live animal export trade — during 2018 over 2 million live cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo were exported by air or sea for either breeding purposes or slaughter. However, although live animal export generates substantial revenue for the Australian economy, the export trade is controversial due to a number of tragic animal welfare incidents that have happened over previous years.

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) represents more than 200,000 veterinarians across 105 associations. The mission of the WSAVA is: “To advance the health and welfare of companion animals worldwide through an educated, committed and collaborative global community of veterinary peers.”