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Animals
Special Issues
Minimal-Stress Handling for Welfare Improvement
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Minimal-Stress Handling for Welfare Improvement

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 10376

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Carlo Siracusa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3900 Delancey St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Interests: animal behavior; stress evaluation; animal welfare; veterinary behavior medicine

Special Issue Information

I am pleased to announce this Special Issue of Animals focused on Minimal Stress Handling, which I hope will make a significant contribution to the field of animal behavior and welfare. Most animals with which we have a close contact live in a captive state. Due to this, these animals have a very poor control of their environment and, consequently, experience distress. The interaction between animals and their human handlers/caregivers has a profound influence on the intensity of this distress and, therefore, on the welfare state of captive animals.

This condition is easy to conceptualize and understand for certain categories of captive animals, such as farm and zoo animals. A general audience would agree with welfare specialists on the fact that the conditions in which many captive farm and zoo animals live are less than ideal for their physical and mental health. This task may be, however, much more arduous when we want to discuss the welfare of companion animals like dogs, cats, and horses. People may in fact believe that animals that are given affection by humans have a good quality of life in general, but we know this is often not the case.

This Special Issue of Animals presents relevant and updated findings on the stress experienced by animals that are handled by humans. The reader will find information to help to understand what type of handling can cause distress to animals and what can be done to improve their welfare in different captive environments, including human households, laboratories, stables, and veterinary practices.

Dr. Carlo Siracusa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animals
  • handling
  • human–animal bond
  • stress
  • welfare

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 255 KiB  
Article
Welfare Benefits of Intradermal Vaccination of Piglets
by Déborah Temple, Marta Jiménez, Damián Escribano, Gerard Martín-Valls, Ivan Díaz and Xavier Manteca
Animals 2020, 10(10), 1898; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101898 - 16 Oct 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3241
Abstract
Vaccination is reported as a stressful and painful event for animals. This study investigated whether needle-free intradermal vaccination improves the welfare of weaned pigs through the reduction of stress and pain biomarkers and improvement of behavioural parameters compared to traditional intramuscular injection with [...] Read more.
Vaccination is reported as a stressful and painful event for animals. This study investigated whether needle-free intradermal vaccination improves the welfare of weaned pigs through the reduction of stress and pain biomarkers and improvement of behavioural parameters compared to traditional intramuscular injection with a needle. A total of 339 weaned piglets were allocated to 3 treatment groups: Intradermal Application of Liquids (IDAL) pigs, vaccinated against Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) by means of intradermal vaccination using a needle-free device Porcilis® PCV ID; Intramuscular (IM) pigs vaccinated against PCV2 with Porcilis® PCV intramuscularly with a needle; CONTROL pigs were managed identically but did not receive any vaccine injection. At the time of the injection, the reaction of IDAL piglets was similar to control piglets, whereas a greater percentage of piglets vaccinated intramuscularly displayed high-pitch vocalizations (7% CONTROL, 7% IDAL, 32% IM) and retreat attempts (3% CONTROL, 7% IDAL, 39% IM). The day after vaccination, IDAL piglets did not differ from the control piglets for any of the behavioural variables studied through scan samplings. IM piglets showed a lower frequency of social negative interactions (p = 0.001) and rope manipulation (p = 0.04) compared to the CONTROL group. Resting postures did not differ between treatments. At 28 h post-vaccination, IDAL piglets presented lower blood C-reactive protein levels (CONTROL = 20 μg/mL; IDAL = 39 μg/mL; IM = 83 μg/mL, p < 0.0001) and blood Haptoglobin (CONTROL = 1.8 mg/mL; IDAL = 1.9 mg/mL vs. IM = 3.1 mg/mL, p < 0.0001) compared to IM piglets. Salivary chromogranin A and alpha-amylase did not differ between treatment groups when measured 25 min post-vaccination. The method of vaccination did not affect the growth of the piglets or their rectal temperature. These results support that needle-free intradermal vaccination reduces vaccination-related pain in growing pigs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Minimal-Stress Handling for Welfare Improvement)
10 pages, 412 KiB  
Article
The Effects of Frequency and Duration of Handling on the Development of Feline Upper Respiratory Infections in a Shelter Setting
by Charlotte C. Burns, Laurel E. Redding and Brittany Watson
Animals 2020, 10(10), 1828; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101828 - 8 Oct 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2470
Abstract
Reducing stress is important to maintaining the health of shelter cats and decreasing the risk of upper respiratory disease (URD). The aim of this study was to determine if the frequency and/or duration of daily routine handling of shelter cats affects the likelihood [...] Read more.
Reducing stress is important to maintaining the health of shelter cats and decreasing the risk of upper respiratory disease (URD). The aim of this study was to determine if the frequency and/or duration of daily routine handling of shelter cats affects the likelihood of URD development. At a closed admission shelter, each cat free of URD on intake was given a cage card for recording handling data. These data included: date and times when the cat was handled, duration of handling, if and when the cat developed signs of URD, and the handler identity. Cox regression was used to determine the relationship between these factors and URD development. We found cats that did not develop URD were handled significantly more than cats that did (1.1 times per day vs. 0.7 times per day, p < 0.001). Increased frequency of handling had a borderline significant effect on the hazard of developing URD (HR 0.37; CI: 0.13–1.1; p = 0.066). No other parameters were significantly associated with the development of URD; however, small sample size may be responsible for this finding. A larger study is needed to elucidate the relationship between handling and URD development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Minimal-Stress Handling for Welfare Improvement)
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11 pages, 234 KiB  
Article
Humane Use of Cardiac Puncture for Non-Terminal Phlebotomy of Wild-Caught and Released Peromyscus spp.
by Scott C. Williams, Megan A. Linske and Kirby C. Stafford III
Animals 2020, 10(5), 826; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10050826 - 9 May 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4067
Abstract
The cardiac puncture technique for obtaining relatively large volume (50–150 µL) blood samples from sedated rodents has been used in research for nearly a century. Historically, its use to phlebotomize and then release live rodents was more common. However, recently its use in [...] Read more.
The cardiac puncture technique for obtaining relatively large volume (50–150 µL) blood samples from sedated rodents has been used in research for nearly a century. Historically, its use to phlebotomize and then release live rodents was more common. However, recently its use in a non-terminal capacity frequently imparts negative connotations in part because exsanguination of sedated animals via cardiac puncture is now an American Veterinary Medical Association-approved euthanasia technique. This association has resulted in ethical concerns by manuscript reviewers and in a few instances, outright refusal by some peer-reviewed journals to publish research that utilized the technique. To counter the perceived negative associations with its non-terminal use, we summarized nearly two decades (2001–2019) of capture and handling data throughout Connecticut, resulting in over 7000 cardiac punctures performed on nearly 5000 sedated, live-captured and released Peromyscus spp. We show that our total handling mortality rate (3.7%) was comparable, if not lower, than similar field studies that utilized other phlebotomy techniques. Many public health, integrated tick management, and vector-borne disease ecology studies require samples from individual wild-caught Peromyscus spp. over time to determine intervention efficacy and pathogen infection monitoring, and in such field studies, post-operative care is not an option. Proper execution of cardiac puncture does not increase susceptibility of individuals to predation upon release as can potential ocular abnormalities or infections that can occur as the result of use of other techniques. We posit that neither exsanguination nor resulting euthanasia are requirements of cardiac puncture and that its use is entirely appropriate for obtaining blood samples from live-captured and released Peromyscus spp. Properly performed cardiac puncture is an excellent technique to obtain blood samples from sedated, individual Peromyscus spp. on multiple appropriately-spaced occasions over single trapping seasons while keeping animal welfare a top priority. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Minimal-Stress Handling for Welfare Improvement)
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