It is likely that, under natural conditions, selection for fitness and good feelings are closely coupled. There would, under most circumstances, be no evolutionary advantage for an animal to feel good when its fitness was poor or threatened and, likewise, generally nothing to be gained by feeling bad when fit. In fact, there would be strong selection pressure against such mismatches of feelings and fitness. Pain must hurt enough to serve its purposes such as the guarding of damaged tissues and the provision of sharp lessons about things to be avoided, but not so much that it unnecessarily interferes with other body-maintenance functions such as eating and avoiding predators. Natural selection probably ‘scrutinizes’ the intensities of pleasures and pains very closely and keeps them tightly linked to health and evolutionary fitness.

The widespread use of transgenic animals in research, and especially for generating models of human disease, has given rise to calls for a careful documentation of transgenic strains with particular emphasis on characterizing phenotypes and their animal welfare aspects. Based upon several published suggestions for general health monitoring of laboratory animals and upon a questionnaire we developed for the characterization of transgenic strains, score sheets for litter-wise and individual data collection were tested in a pilot study. The documentation concept and some of the most important parameters are presented and discussed with respect to their feasibility and usefulness. The use of score sheets can help in determining the application of humane end points at the individual level, phenotype characterization and assessment of animal welfare for the whole strain, and the development of better breeding strategies - apart from being of direct scientific interest. We suggest that these score sheets, available via the Internet at: www.bzl.unizh.ch/de/database/formtransg/index2.html, should be applied for routine and comprehensive phenotype characterizations of transgenic mouse strains used and kept for animal experimentation.

The birth of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in 1997, prompted worldwide debate about the ethics of this technology. Conscious of public concerns about its welfare aspects, the UK Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food asked the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) to advise on the matter. In the foreword to this, the last report produced before his recent retirement from the FAWC Chairmanship, Professor Sir Colin Spedding reported the Council's view that no aspect of cloning was ‘intrinsically objectionable to the extent that it might be considered something not to be done at all’. However, the Report identifies a variety of potential welfare risks and proposes a number of safeguards.

The UK Government issued a requirement on 1 April 1998 that all establishments designate under the 1986 Act should have an ethical review process (ERP) satisfactorily installed by 1 April 1999. This document, which has been circulated by the Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA) to its members, is a report of a meeting held to formulate guidelines to assist establishments in the process of setting up an ERP. The document builds on the experience of participants who had already had experience of either establishing or running an ERP, and addresses the requirements of an ERP, taking into account that different establishments will have different needs and that therefore the structure of ERPs may differ. The booklet provides a number of excellent bullet points addressing the roles of those involved in an ERP, how to review an existing ERP, and concerns that people may have about such issues as confidentiality or possible delays to experiments. LASA is to be commended for producing such a useful document in a comparatively short time. Moreover, as the ERP is seen as an evolving concept, the booklet should continue to be useful for a number of years to come.

This Code sets out suggested minimum levels of care for cats and dogs kept by rescue organizations, and is written with the aim of raising standards. Touching on issues associated with animal welfare, rehoming practice, legal requirements of shelters and the setting up and administration of charities, the booklet acts as a useful starting point for anyone thinking of setting up a shelter. However, its usefulness is limited by its surprising brevity (only four pages of A5 are allocated to address all the issues associated with the care and management of animals in shelters, and only one page to rehoming practices) and its tendency (perhaps not surprisingly given the organization which compiled it) to refer to dogs in preference to other species.

The production of foie gras (fat liver) by force-feeding geese was described by Olivier de Serres in 1619 but the practice probably has very much earlier origins. In recent times most foie gras production has involved ducks rather than geese, and a hybrid of the muscovy duck, Cairina moschata, and domestic duck, Anas platyrhynchos, called a mulard, is the favoured bird. The males of these hybrids are used for foie gras production and the smaller females for meat. In 1995, 0.8 million geese and 18 million ducks were reared for foie gras in France. Smaller numbers of birds are reared in Belgium and Spain but there is also production in other parts of the world including Israel. Foie gras is eaten in many European countries and there is also a significant export market to Japan.

During 1997 a study was carried out on welfare aspects of the exotic animal trade in the Netherlands to provide data for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture in their preparation of animal health and welfare legislation. The summary and conclusions are available in English translation. In a report which provides some interesting statistics on the scale of the trade and keeping of exotic animals as pets in the Netherlands, it is estimated that about 16 million animals are kept as pets, of which some 11 million are birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. There are 2200 pet shops and through these some 1 million birds, 200 000 reptiles and amphibians, and 200 000 small mammals are sold each year. The majority of these are bred in the Netherlands but there are significant importations of wild-caught marine fish, reptiles and amphibians and birds. Welfare problems were identified at the pre-transport, transport, and subsequent stages of the chain from source to buyer. The report recommends that the selling of wild-caught animals to inexperienced pet owners should cease and suggests ways in which this could be brought about including: increasing the availability of captive-bred animals, making wild-caught animals more expensive (eg by taxing their sale), and making it a requirement that wild-caught animals can be sold only through registered outlets.

On 27 July 1998 new regulations came into force in the UK on the husbandry and welfare of calves. These implement EU Council Directive 91/629/EEC, as amended by Directive 97/2/EC, (laying down minimum standards for the protection of calves). Under the new law, calves older than 8 weeks must be kept in groups, unless isolated for veterinary reasons. Furthermore, those kept in individual stalls prior to this age must be able to have direct visual and tactile contact with at least one other calf through perforations in the walls of their stalls. To allow time for changes in housing, these rules will not apply for 5 years to accommodation that was in use on 1 January 1998. Minimum space allowances are also defined both for individual stalls and for group pens.

The Animal Care and Equine Training Organisation (ACETO) produced these workbooks to support students studying for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). The books provide materials that aim to cover the range of knowledge needed to achieve the NVQs in Animal Care at Levels 2 and 3. (NVQs are UK qualifications which were devised to give those working within an industry the opportunity to gain accreditation for the skills they were using as part of their job. The NVQs are competency-rather than exam-based, and students need to demonstrate a range of practical skills and supporting background knowledge to claim the qualification.)

The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) has produced a useful information and training booklet for drivers involved in the transport of pigs. This is aimed at supporting the Scottish Pig Industry Initiative by providing up-to-date information on transport legislation. The booklet is a spin-off from a training package developed by the SAC and can be used on its own in the training, assessment and certification of competence of professional livestock drivers (as required under the Welfare of Animals [Transport] Order 1997).

In what the UK Government are calling the ‘most radical changes to UK quarantine laws for almost a century’ the Advisory Group on Quarantine, chaired by Professor Ian Kennedy, published their review of quarantine legislation in September 1998. The Group was set up to provide the Government with an independent assessment of the risk of introducing rabies to the UK under the current policy of quarantine for pet animals, and under proposed alternative policies; the first review since the Waterhouse Committee reported back in 1971. If the recommendations are accepted, then taking pets on holiday to Europe (not to mention package deals for people and pets) will become a reality for many UK citizens.