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Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare • Silvana Mattiello Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare Edited by Silvana Mattiello Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Animals www.mdpi.com/journal/animals Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare Special Issue Editor Silvana Mattiello MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin Special Issue Editor Silvana Mattiello University of Milan Italy Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals/special issues/ Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03928-532-7 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03928-533-4 (PDF) c 2020 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editor ...................................... vii Preface to ”Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare” ........................... ix Belinda Vigors and Alistair Lawrence What Are the Positives? Exploring Positive Welfare Indicators in a Qualitative Interview Study with Livestock Farmers Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 694, doi:10.3390/ani9090694 .................... 1 Monica Battini, Anna Agostini and Silvana Mattiello Understanding Cows’ Emotions on Farm: Are Eye White and Ear Posture Reliable Indicators? Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 477, doi:10.3390/ani9080477 .................... 31 Marta Brscic, Nina Dam Otten, Barbara Contiero and Marlene Katharina Kirchner Investigation of a Standardized Qualitative Behaviour Assessment and Exploration of Potential Influencing Factors on the Emotional State of Dairy Calves Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 757, doi:10.3390/ani9100757 .................... 43 Katrin Spiesberger, Stephanie Lurzel, ¨ Martina Patzl, Andreas Futschik and Susanne Waiblinger The Effects of Play Behavior, Feeding, and Time of Day on Salivary Concentrations of sIgA in Calves Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 657, doi:10.3390/ani9090657 .................... 55 Sofia Diaz-Lundahl, Selina Hellestveit, Solveig Marie Stubsjøen, Clare J. Phythian, Randi Oppermann Moe and Karianne Muri Intra- and Inter-Observer Reliability of Qualitative Behaviour Assessments of Housed Sheep in Norway Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 569, doi:10.3390/ani9080569 .................... 71 Katrin Portele, Katharina Scheck, Susanne Siegmann, Romana Feitsch, Kristina Maschat, Jean-Loup Rault and Irene Camerlink Sow-Piglet Nose Contacts in Free-Farrowing Pens Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 513, doi:10.3390/ani9080513 .................... 85 Jaciana Luzia Fermo, Maria Alice Schnaider, Adelaide Herc´ılia Pescatori Silva and Carla Forte Maiolino Molento Only When It Feels Good: Specific Cat Vocalizations Other Than Meowing Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 878, doi:10.3390/ani9110878 .................... 97 Alistair B. Lawrence, Belinda Vigors and Peter Sandøe What Is so Positive about Positive Animal Welfare?—A Critical Review of the Literature Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 783, doi:10.3390/ani9100783 ....................103 Silvana Mattiello, Monica Battini, Giuseppe De Rosa, Fabio Napolitano and Cathy Dwyer How Can We Assess Positive Welfare in Ruminants? Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 758, doi:10.3390/ani9100758 ....................123 Dorota Gody ´n,Jacek Nowicki and Piotr Herbut Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Pig Welfare—A Review Reprinted from: Animals 2019, 9, 383, doi:10.3390/ani9060383 ....................151 v About the Special Issue Editor Silvana Mattiello is Associate Professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Milan. In 2017, she obtained national qualification as Full Professor. Her main research interest is animal management and welfare in domestic and wild ruminants. She was Principal Investigator of the ◦ 7 FP Collaborative Project “Development, Integration and Dissemination of Animal-Based Welfare Indicators, Including Pain, in Commercially Important Husbandry Species, with Special Emphasis on Small Ruminants, Equidae and Turkeys (AWIN)” and coordinated the project “What’s in a Meow: Investigating Cat–Human Communication”. She is currently coordinating the projects DEMOCAPRA (Development and Dissemination of Innovative Sustainable Farming Systems for Dairy Goats) and VOCAPRA (Automatic Recognition of Dairy Goat Vocalisations). She is presently acting as contact person for the University of Milan in the UFAW/HSA University LINK Scheme. She has published 70 papers in international journals, two books on deer management, and several book chapters on animal behaviour and welfare. vii Preface to ”Positive Aspects of Animal Welfare” During recent decades, the interest in animal welfare has been greatly increasing among scientists, veterinarians, farmers, consumers, the general public, and pet owners. As a consequence, several indicators have been developed and used under experimental conditions, at farm level or in the home environment, to assess animal welfare, and specific protocols have been proposed for welfare evaluation of various species in different contexts. Most of the indicators developed so far have focused on negative aspects of animal welfare (e.g., lameness, lesions, diseases, presence of abnormal behaviours, high levels of stress hormones, and many more), and only a few indicators are presently available that highlight the positive aspects of animal welfare. However, the lack of negative welfare conditions represents just a minimum standard that should be guaranteed to animals, and does not necessarily mean that animals are experiencing good welfare conditions nor have a good quality of life. To guarantee high welfare standards, animals should experience positive conditions that allow them to live a life that is really worth living. For these reasons, the new frontiers of animal welfare should aim to reach this high quality of life, and research should now focus on the development and validation of behavioural, physiological, immunological, and productive indicators of positive welfare. Special attention is being paid to animal emotions that can be interpret from facial expressions, body postures, or vocalisations. This Special Issue focuses on the development and validation of indicators of positive welfare or on the refinement of the existing ones, as well as on the identification of suitable living conditions for providing positive welfare to farmed and companion animals. Silvana Mattiello Special Issue Editor ix animals Article What Are the Positives? Exploring Positive Welfare Indicators in a Qualitative Interview Study with Livestock Farmers Belinda Vigors 1,* and Alistair Lawrence 1,2 1 Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3RG, UK; [email protected] 2 Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Penicuik, EH25 9RG, UK * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 6 August 2019; Accepted: 12 September 2019; Published: 17 September 2019 Simple Summary: Positive animal welfare is a relatively new concept which promotes the welfare benefits of providing animals with greater opportunities for positive experiences, in addition to minimising negative experiences. However, little is known about farmers’ attitudes towards this, and their knowledge of positive welfare. This presents a significant hurdle for the promotion of positive welfare indicators on-farm, where their effective implementation may depend on their acceptance by farmers. In response, this study uses qualitative interviews to explore farmers’ positive welfare perspectives. It finds that several aspects, reflective of the literature on positive welfare indicators, are evident in farmers’ positive welfare-related discussions. These include animal autonomy, play, positive affect, positive human–animal relationships, social interaction and appropriate genetic selection. Such findings provide insights into what farmers consider are relevant to, and indicative of, positive welfare. In addition, this paper explores how farmers see their role in the provision of positive welfare. It finds that farmers largely consider their inputs should be focused on making sure their animals’ needs (e.g., resources) are met and negative experiences are reduced, and that positive welfare will arise naturally, or indirectly, out of this. The implications of these findings and their overlaps with the positive welfare literature are discussed. Abstract: To support the furtherance of positive animal welfare, there is a need to develop meaningful and practical positive welfare indicators for on-farm welfare assessment. Considering the perspectives of farmers is arguably critical in this regard. Doing so helps ensure positive welfare indicators reflect farmers’ existing welfare norms and attitudes and, are thus, of practical relevance to them. However, a key issue for such development is the dearth of knowledge on farmers’
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