Advances in Agricultural Animal Welfare

Science and Practice

Joy Mench

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780081012154
• eBook ISBN: 9780081012468
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Zoologie

Advances in Agricultural Animal Welfare fully explores developments in the key areas of agricultural animal welfare assessment and improvement. Analyzing current topical issues, as well as reviewing the historical welfare issues, the volume is a comprehensive review of the field.Divided into five sections, the book opens in Part One by reviewing advances in animal welfare science, examining cognitive psychology, genetics and genomics. Part Two then looks at transdisciplinary research in animal welfare, with coverage of bioethics, welfare and sustainability from both environmental and food safety perspectives. Part Three explores the process of translating science into policy and practice, followed by discussion on the global achievability of welfare standards in Part Four. Finally, Part Five highlights some emerging issues in agricultural animal welfare.This book is an essential part of the wider ranging series Advances in Farm Animal Welfare, with coverage of cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and aquaculture.With its expert editor and international team of contributors, Advances in Agricultural Animal Welfare is a key reference tool for welfare research scientists and students, practicing vets involved in welfare assessment, and indeed anyone with a professional interest in the welfare of agricultural animals.- Provides in-depth reviews of emerging topics, research and applications in agricultural animal welfare- Provides coverage of topics important to all agricultural animals and complements the wider series, Agricultural Animal Welfare, which will provide comprehensive coverage of animal welfare of the world's major farmed animals- Edited by a world leading animal welfare academic, with contributions from a writing team of both leading academics and practitioners

Part I

Advances in Animal Welfare Science

Outline

1 Cognition as a cause, consequence, and component of welfare

2 Genetics and genomics of animal welfare

1

Cognition as a cause, consequence, and component of welfare

Becca Franks^1,2, ¹Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ²New York University, New York, NY, United States

Abstract

A surge of interest in cognitive science has revealed unexpectedly impressive cognitive abilities in many species, including many farmed animals such as salmon, cows, and chickens. Along with these discoveries, animal welfare scientists have uncovered evidence suggesting that animals are motivated to exercise their cognitive skills and may suffer when prevented from doing so. Moreover, environments that tend to produce good welfare also tend to improve cognitive capacity, and yet, conversely, certain stressful experiences can actually enhance aspects of cognitive function. Beyond influencing cognitive ability, research has shown that good welfare also involves characteristic cognitive propensities—the motivation to seek out new information as well as the tendency to process ambiguous information positively (optimistically) versus negatively (pessimistically). How can we make sense of these complex patterns? This chapter covers the ways in which cognition—mental actions related to the processing of information—is simultaneously a cause, consequence, and component of welfare. Further disentangling the cognition–welfare relationship promises to lead to novel scientific discoveries and will help us to continue to improve the lives of the animals under our care.

Keywords

Cognitive psychology; cognitive enrichment; predictability; negative contrast; social cognition; cognitive bias; curiosity and exploration tests; personality

1.1 Introduction

Along with motivation and emotion, cognition is considered to be one of the three pillars of psychology (Burghardt, 1997). It has not, however, always held such an esteemed position. In the early 20th century, empirical investigation into cognitive processes was rejected by strict behaviorists, who classified mental action as outside the realm of scientific study. After a period of disfavor, The Cognitive Revolution beginning in the 1960s eventually brought about the downfall of a pure behaviorist approach and cognitive science has enjoyed an increasingly important role in many disciplines including psychology, behavioral ecology, and animal welfare. The most commonly accepted definition of cognition, provided by the evolutionary psychologist Sara Shettleworth, is the mental actions or processes that enable the acquisition, processing, storage, and use of information (Shettleworth, 2010).

One consequence of the increased attention to cognitive science is the growing realization that we have underestimated the cognitive abilities of many taxa. Fish may provide the best example. Until recently, fish were believed to be relatively simple cognitively speaking. In just the past decade, however, research on a wide variety of fish species has shown this assessment to be an error. In fact, fish can form long-term memories, learn from each other, develop mental categories, and use tools (Brown, 2015). Similar evidence of the cognitive sophistication of other farmed species has been accumulating for the past few decades (Nicol, 1996) and underpins many of the arguments for greater protection of their welfare (Broom, 2007, 2010).

This chapter will attempt to provide some structure to the complex and multifaceted association between cognition and welfare. As animal welfare scientists, we are primarily concerned with welfare as an outcome. I therefore begin by considering how cognition and cognitive processes influence welfare outcomes. The relationship between cognition and welfare is not unidirectional, however. In the following section, I briefly review the literature showing that cognitive abilities are also influenced by welfare and that the types of environments that promote or undermine welfare also tend to affect cognition. Further complicating matters, recent research suggests that cognition is an integral component of welfare—that in addition to being a cause of welfare and a consequence of welfare, how an animal seeks out and processes information is part of emotional experience and thus inseparable from most definitions of welfare (Fig. 1.1). I end with considerations for future directions, in particular the study of individual differences and the comparative approach.

Figure 1.1 The cognition–welfare relationship. Cognition has been found to influence welfare and be influenced by welfare. Cognitive processes are also part of emotional experiences and thus cognition is also a part of welfare.

1.2 Cognitive influences on welfare

Cognition and cognitive processes can influence welfare in a variety of ways. What animals know and learn about their environments as well as their basic intellectual capacity affects their ability to secure positive outcomes and prevent negative ones. Intriguingly, research has suggested that purely psychological phenomena such as the amount of cognitive stimulation and predictability in the environment can, regardless of material outcomes, also affect welfare.

1.2.1 Cognitive enrichment

One of the most exciting discoveries in animal welfare science is that welfare can be influenced by the level of cognitive stimulation in the environment. In other words, beyond the corporeal concerns of the amount of food acquired, safety secured, or energy expended, psychological engagement in the form of cognitive stimulation may be an important determinant of welfare for a range of species (Burghardt, 2013; Franks and Higgins, 2012; Meehan and Mench, 2007; Spinka and Wemelsfelder, 2011). Acquiring information, a.k.a., learning, has been found to be rewarding for its own sake and can, on its own, induce positive emotions. Many species have been found to seek out cognitive stimulation and appear to benefit when such forms of enrichment are incorporated into their husbandry routines. Accordingly, environments with low cognitive stimulation can be a welfare risk as they may induce boredom and anhedonia (Fureix and Meagher, 2015; Meagher and Mason, 2012), whereas overly challenging environments can lead to frustration and, in the extreme, learned helplessness (Maier and Seligman, 1976). Optimizing welfare necessitates attending to and calibrating the level of cognitive stimulation to which the animals are exposed. As such, cognitive enrichment seeks to find that balance point and is increasingly recognized as an important subtype of environmental enrichment.

Research in several different species—for example, pigs (Matthews and Ladewig, 1994), rats (Harris et al., 2010), monkeys (Butler, 1953), and mice (Sherwin, 2007)—has pointed toward the rewarding properties of pure information. These research programs have shown that even when information is not actionable and cannot lead to any net material benefit, animals will nevertheless work for the opportunity to access such information. More explicitly, Hagen and Broom (2004) ran a well-controlled study in which they found that cows respond to learning with a physiological pattern that is consistent with pleasure. One group of cows were provided with a learning opportunity to receive food rewards. A yoked group of cows received the same food rewards on the same schedule but without the added learning component. The material outcomes in both conditions were thus the same; the only difference was that the experimental group of cows had a learning experience, whereas the yoked control cows did not. The researchers found that the learning group showed changes in heart rate variability and behavioral activity, which could indicate an experience of pleasure. The yoked control cows showed no such changes (Hagen and Broom, 2004). More recent work has found that pigs also show evidence of experiencing positive affect when learning (Zebunke et al., 2011) and that goats will voluntarily interact with learning devices (Langbein et al., 2009). These studies provide important evidence of the added value of learning—that when the outcome is held constant, cognitive activities such as learning are sought out and may even confer benefits in the form of positive emotional experiences.

While still a relatively young body of research, cognitive enrichment studies have now been conducted with a range of species held in a range of conditions. These research programs are working toward confirming the implication of previous learning studies: that appropriate levels of cognitive stimulation are not only rewarding, but can also lead to improvements in various markers of welfare. Unsurprisingly, the majority of cognitive enrichment research has thus far been conducted with primates (e.g., Ogura, 2012; Whitehouse et al., 2013), but new evidence has revealed that pigs (Puppe et al., 2007; Zebunke et al., 2013) and goats (Oesterwind et al., 2016) may also benefit from cognitive stimulation. And while no studies have explicitly followed up on the rewarding properties of learning in cattle, investigating how cognitive enrichment may improve the lives of dairy cows in particular is recognized as a promising area for future research (Mandel et al., 2016).

If the ultimate goal of cognitive enrichment is to introduce cognitive stimulation into the life of animals, continuous learning opportunities and novel exploration elements are required, which presents a challenge for animal managers (Meehan and Mench, 2007). Introducing a learning device can provide a high level of cognitive stimulation at first, but, as was documented with rhesus macaques in the middle of the 20th century (Harlow, 1950), after the animal masters the puzzle, interest is likely to drop off rapidly. Thus, static or fixed forms of cognitive enrichment may become ineffective. While actual learning per se may not be required, the conditions should be set such that animals have the chance to engage with the possibility of learning, with the goal of stimulating and sustaining cognitive processes (i.e., the acquisition, storage, and use of information). Harnessing the inherent change of an environment, particularly an environment with social others, may be a promising solution.

Structural complexity allows animals a degree of choice and control over the stimuli to which they are exposed and also may provide an opportunity for cognitive enrichment. If the structural elements in the environment create sensory barriers between areas, animals must navigate the space to “discover” what is going on in a different part of the enclosure. It is possible that these small instances of learning are part of the reason that animals often do better in complex environments rather than barren ones (e.g., Abou-Ismail, 2011; Bell et al., 2009; Kistler et al., 2011).

Following a similar logic, it is possible that music, which has been shown to be beneficial to laboratory animals (Alworth and Buerkle, 2013), may be one way to introduce complexity in an often overlooked sensory domain. With repeating elements and variations on themes, music could prompt animals to attend to or even learn auditory patterns over time, thus providing them with a form of prolonged cognitive stimulation. While some work on musical enrichment for farm animals has shown null or inconclusive effects (e.g., Campo et al., ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: Animal welfare science and its application
• Part I: Advances in Animal Welfare Science
• Part II: Animal Welfare and Sustainability of Animal Agriculture
• Part III: Translating Science into Policy and Practice
• Part IV: Animal Welfare Standards: Are They Globally Achievable?
• Part V: Emerging Issues
• Index