UniversitiesFederation forAnimal WelfareScience in the service of animal welfare Spring 2017

In October last year, UFAW launched an award for up to £50,000 to supportinnovative research in animal welfare

science. The award is to be used to supportresearch activities anywhere in the worldwhich are aimed at advancing animalwelfare or improving our understanding ofanimal welfare challenges.

The award could be used to supportresearch into welfare of any animal species,including farm, zoo, companion, laboratoryand wild or feral animals, where this isaffected by human activities.

UFAW is delighted to announce thatProfessor Michael Mendl, Professor of AnimalBehaviour & Welfare at the University ofBristol, has been awarded a grant for hisproject “Developing new thermographicmethods to assess emotional valence bymeasuring thermal lateralization”.

A key determinant of an animal’s welfare isits emotional valence, that is, its currentexperience of positive or negative affectivestates. While we cannot be certain aboutnon-human animals conscious experiences,an important goal of animal welfare scienceis to develop better proxy measures ofaffective states. In addition, there is a needfor scientific assessment of animal welfareunder field conditions. For example on-farmwelfare assessment often relies on time-consuming animal- based measures thatmay or may not reflect affective states,and/or monitoring the resources provided tolivestock rather than the animals themselves.Quick, accurate, practicable and cost-effective methods for measuring emotionalvalence in situ are needed but, at present,such methods are few and far between.

This year-long project aims to confirm theuse of thermography as an indicator ofemotional wellbeing and will study cattleand hens to develop a prompt, accurate and cost-effective welfare measurementmethod that can be implemented under lab and field conditions, and generalised toother animal species. 8

UFAW LAUNCHES NEWRESEARCH AWARD

Awarm welcome to the Springnewsletter. As the recentlyelected Chairman of Council

I am delighted to introduce ournewsletter and highlight a sample ofthe breadth of work of UFAW. I wouldalso like to extend my sincere thanksto my predecessor, Professor RichardBennett, for his guidance andcontribution to the Association overthe past three years. Education and training has been at

the forefront of activity over the pastsix months, with senior members ofstaff presenting at a number ofevents, see page 7. Indeed as wewent to press UFAW’s Chief Executive& Scientific Director is en route toChina to give a presentation there.Major meetings being run by UFAWthis year are an internationalsymposium in June and a scientificmeeting to discuss the latestevidence regarding the humanenessof controlled atmosphere stunningmethods which are used to killmillions of animals every year. Youcan read more about both of theseevents on pages 3 and 2.The University LINK Scheme

continues to develop and buildcapacity around the globe with LINKSin Australia, Hungary, Canada andChile. It is a scheme that is havingreal impact. This Spring, we areappealing for funds to support UFAWextend the reach of LINKSthroughout the world. See page 8 forfurther information on the appeal. The work highlighted in this

newsletter is only possible due to yourgenerosity and kindness in continuingto support UFAW and its work – forwhich we are extremely grateful.Enjoy the read.

Professor Andrea Nolan OBE, Chair

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UFAW’s Animal WelfareConference – Recentadvances in animalwelfare science VIn 2016, in York’s packed medieval Merchant Adventurers’Hall, delegates listened to talks on a wide range of subjectsfrom the psychological harm to adult breeder dogs and theirpuppies caused by conditions in some large-scale commercial

breeding practices to developing apractical screeningtool for chronic stressin farm livestock. Thegrowing interest andengagement inanimal welfare isdemonstrated by thefact that delegatestravelled from 19 countries –including Nigeria,Australia, Chile,Canada, Lithuania,

Germany and Pakistan – to attend this one day meeting,which featured more talks and poster presentations than inany previous year. 8

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Annual RSPCA/UFAWRodent and Rabbit WelfareMeetingThe 2016 RSPCA/UFAWRodent and Rabbitwelfare meeting washeld at the University ofEdinburgh. The meetingis an opportunity foranimal technologists,researchers, students,vets, regulators andothers who care forrodents and rabbits,primarily in a researchsetting, to share thelatest developments inthe ‘3Rs’ of replacement, reduction and refinement. Two talkspresented the outcomes of UFAW funded studies – the use ofthermography to assess pain in laboratory rabbits and the useof mixed-strain housing to reduce the number of animals usedin scientific studies. Other topics covered included how to avoidusing restraint when sampling blood from rodents used indiabetes and obesity research and a summary of the effects of lighting conditions in laboratories on the welfare of laboratory mice. 8

UFAW joins forces with the Humane SlaughterAssociation to look at the welfare impacts of controlledatmosphere methods for stunning or killing animalsMillions of animals are killed every year using controlled atmosphere stunningmethods – for instance many chickens and pigs are slaughtered for food byexposing them to carbon dioxide gas mixtures. Most laboratory rats and miceare euthanased with carbon dioxide at the end of studies too. There isongoing debate about whether these methods are humane or whether somedifferent methods may offer better welfare for animals. One alternative beingconsidered is Low Atmospheric Pressure Stunning (LAPS), which involves theuse of low pressures to cause unconsciousness. UFAW and the HumaneSlaughter Association are co-organising a two-day scientific meeting later thisyear to discuss the latest evidence regarding the humane qualities of thesetechniques. The meeting will bring together scientists, engineers, governmentregulators and representatives of the meat and laboratory animal industries todiscuss which methods are most humane, share latest advances and how theymight be improved, and consider how to overcome practical barriers to theadoption of the most humane methods. 8

Further information can be found on UFAW’s website –www.ufaw.org.uk/cas2017

PROMOTING AND SUPPORTING ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE

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Measuring animal welfare andapplying scientific advances –Why is it still so difficult? UFAW is hosting an international symposium from the 27th-29th June 2017 at Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey, UK as part of its on-goingcommitment to advancing our knowledge of what matters to animals, how toassess their welfare and how to improve the quality of their lives. This symposiumaims to develop new ideas, promote higher quality and better-focused animalwelfare science, and will consider whether and how animal welfare scientists canmake progress in these and other areas.

Further details on the symposium, including keynote speakers, can befound at www.ufaw.org.uk/symposium2017

Checking the welfare of animalsused in research – LASA/UFAWMeeting ‘How are YOU doing?’

It is recommendedpractice, and in manycountries a legalrequirement, thatanimals used in researchshould be checked atleast daily to ensure thatsigns of distress arepicked up early and thathumane endpoints canbe implemented whennecessary. The practicealso provides information

on the actual harmscaused to animals for any retrospective assessment of the research. InSeptember, UFAW, with the Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA), co-organised a meeting for veterinarians, named animal care and welfare officersand scientists to share information and develop their knowledge on recentadvances and good practice on assessing the welfare of animals in their care.Issues covered included rodent, primate and dog welfare, the use of animals’facial expressions as indicators of pain, and how to assess the welfare of zebrafish (a species that is increasingly being used in research). 8

Support forscientific meetings

In addition to organising its own scientificmeetings UFAW often supports otherscientific animal welfare meetings. A recentexample was the First South and EastEurope Regional Environmental EnrichmentConference, which promoted advances inenvironmental enrichment and training forzoo animals. UFAW also helps scientists andothers attend meetings to gain knowledgeto further the cause of animal welfare. Forinstance, the charity recently funded alaboratory animal veterinarian from SriLanka to attend a training course on therecognition and alleviation of pain anddistress in lab animals at NewcastleUniversity in the UK. 8

Wild animalwelfare: Challengesand opportunities UFAW has longworked on wildanimal welfareissues, supportingmany initiativesover the years tobetter understandthe challengesfacing wildanimals, howhuman activityimpacts on theirwelfare and ways to mitigate any harms.Recently, UFAW funded Professor DavidFraser, University of British ColumbiaCanada – an internationally recognisedexpert on the welfare of wild animals – togive the keynote speech at the Wild AnimalWelfare Committee (WAWC) conference inEdinburgh to identify priorities for policydevelopment and government action for wildlife. 8

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GRANTS AND AWARDS

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UFAW has recently funded several new research projects including:

Understanding andImproving the Welfare ofCattle in Indian Shelters

There are more cattle in India than in any other country. As alargely Hindu country there are legal and religious restrictionson the slaughter of cattle and therefore there is a largepopulation of stray cattle. There are over 4000 cattle shelters(called gaushalas) which attempt to care for stray cattle, andthey are believed to house up to a million animals. UFAWrecently supported a project that will investigate the welfare ofcattle in gaushalas. Simply taking a cow into a shelter does notguarantee its welfare so Professor Clive Phillips and colleaguesfrom the University of Queensland are developing measures ofwelfare of cattle in shelters which will then be used to create anassessment tool for veterinarians, shelter operators andgovernment regulators. 8

Validating theApplication of Low-Cost,Non-Invasive TemperatureMeasuring DevicesUFAW has funded a project by Dr Nuno Franco at theUniversity of Porto – (a former winner of the UFAW YoungAnimal Welfare Scientist of the Year award) to test whethervery low cost thermal cameras can be used to non-invasively measure animals’ body temperature. Bodytemperature is an important clinical sign of health andwelfare in animals and is typically measured by taking arectal temperature from a restrained animal, which can bestressful. The stress of restraint can also cause abnormaltemperature readings.

An alternative approach is to measure body temperatureremotely using a thermal imaging camera. Recently somevery cheap thermal imaging cameras, which can beattached to a smartphone have become available but it isnot known if they are accurate enough to measure bodytemperature reliably. Dr Franco and colleagues will compareresults from the low-cost devices with a highly accurate butmuch more expensive thermal imaging system, hopefullyvalidating and developing a protocol for routine use of thelow-cost system.

Dr Franco said “This grant will definitely make a difference,especially for the two young students that will be doing thiswork with me… This is one of the reasons why UFAW andits funding schemes are so important for animal welfareresearch worldwide”. 8

Animal Welfare Student Scholarships(including the Ruth Harrison Student Scholarship)

In October, UFAW invited applications for student project awards of up to£2000, aimed at enabling students to pursue their interests in animalwelfare and to provide them with the opportunity to conduct relevant

research or other (eg educational) projects.

Projects are normally carried out during the summer vacation and may be carriedout within the UK or overseas at institutions where there is a UFAW UniversityLINK. In order to secure UFAW funding, projects must be relevant to improving orbetter understanding the welfare of farm, companion, laboratory, zoo or free-living wild animals whose welfare is compromised by human factors. UFAW iscurrently reviewing and assessing applications for these awards and will beannouncing the successful recipients shortly. 8

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Developing interest andengagement in thescience of animal

welfare, and bringing throughthe next generation ofscientists and educators, is acore UFAW initiative. The UFAWLINK scheme is key to achievingthis aim and is used to buildanimal welfare capacity incountries around the world.

UFAW has continued to expandthe LINK network of academicsat universities and researchinstitutions in the UK andelsewhere and these individualshave ensured that staff andstudents at their institutions arekept informed of UFAW activitiesand the different grants, awards, meetings and otheropportunities that they canaccess. The success of this hasbeen reflected in the increasing

number and range of newapplications, submissions andinquiries we have received fromparticipating countries andinstitutions.

Recent additions to the LINKscheme include: MurdochUniversity, Australia,Universidad de Las Americas,Chile, Texas A&M, USA, UCDavis, California USA, Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversitätMünich, Germany and theUniversity of Montreal, Canada.UFAW is also in on-goingconversations with a number of others about joining thescheme.

A full list of LINK institutionsand reports on their activitiescan be found on the UFAWwebsite, but a recent exampleis given below. 8

In October, UFAW supported through its LINK scheme aseminar at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciencesorganised by Anna Lundberg and Jan Hultgren in

response to demand from students and staff. The seminarconsidered ethical and animal welfare related aspects ofhorse management and handling, an area where views seemto differ regarding good practice. Invited speakers gavepresentations on: Ethics in horse management and handling;Dominance and leadership and whether these are usefulconcepts in human-horse interactions, and horse welfare –how do we measure and understand it?

This was followed by group discussions on selected sub-themesand the day finished with a plenary discussion on the mainissues. For those who were unable to get to Uppsala the seminarwas live streamed to other interested SLU campuses and arecording subsequently made available for the following 30 days.

Response to the seminar was good, with the majority ofdelegates indicating that it would have a positive impact ontheir future behaviour when dealing with horses. Dr Hultgrenand the other organisers have indicated that they hope to runsimilar events in the future. 8

LINKS UPDATE

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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences(LINK: Dr Jan Hultgren)Ethics and welfare in human-horse relationships

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IN BRIEFResource ondomestic dogwelfareUFAW staff, both past and present, havecollaborated on a chapter on the majorwelfare issues that affect dogs and howsome of these can be addressed in arevised edition of The Domestic Dogedited by Professor James Serpell. Thisbook covers all aspects of the domesticdog’s biology and behaviour. The chapterauthored by UFAW staff includesinformation on: inadvertent selection forgenetic diseases in some breeds (see alsothe UFAW website), separation anxiety,problems that can lead to relinquishment,best practice for dog housing and otherissues.

Notification forelection to Councilat the 2017 AGMIn accordance with Article 46 of theConstitution, members’ nominations forelection to Council at the 2017 AGM must reach the UFAW office between 9th August and 6th September 2017.Further information is available from theUFAW Secretary.

2017 AnnualGeneral MeetingThis year’s AGM will be held in theafternoon of Wednesday 18th October2017 at the UFAW office (The Old School,Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts).Full details of the time and business of themeeting will be sent to members in duecourse.

Council changes atthe 2016 AnnualGeneral MeetingWe welcomed Dr Anna Olsson from theUniversity of Porto. Professor RichardBennett and Mr Alick Simmons were re-elected to Council.

Fighting for feralsDid you know that UFAW

helped pave the way forthe humane treatment

of feral cats? Or that it firstbecame involved in humanemethods of controlling feral catpopulations in 1974 and helpeddevelop the concept of “trap,neuter, release” within wellmanaged and monitored feralcat population managementprogrammes?

In the October edition of CatWorld, UFAW’s role washighlighted – alongside that ofother pioneers such as Ruth Plantand Celia Hammond. 8

The full article can be found on UFAW’s website

ChinaAs we went to press, UFAW’s Chief Executive & Scientific Director Dr RobertHubrecht and Dr Huw Golledge, Senior Scientific Programme Manager,travelled to Shanghai to give lectures on animal welfare at a symposiumjointly organised with the UK Government, the Chinese Association forLaboratory Animal Science, and the American Association for theAccreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. 8

New sections added to website

UFAW is continuing toexpand the contentavailable on its

website and the latestinformation to be added is anew section entitled ‘WhyUFAW’s work is soimportant’. It is easy toforget that there is still somuch to learn about theanimals that we share ourlives with – whether that isin our homes, on farms,within zoos, in the wild, or kept in laboratories – and continuing to supportand learn about animals is a key part of being able to improve their welfare.

The new section gives examples of areas where there are still welfare concerns,and shows how UFAW has helped to tackle these. So far sections have beenadded on the welfare of farmed animals and of animals used in scientific testingand research. Sections currently under construction will cover animal welfare forcompanion, zoo and wild animals. 8

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This year the Psychology Departmentof the University of Stirling kindlyplayed host to the 18th annual

meeting at which those students whohave been awarded an animal welfarestudent scholarship present the results oftheir studies.

Whilst the range and quality of thepresentations has remained a constant atthese meetings, one of the evolvingfeatures has been the increasing presenceof scholars from overseas, reflectingUFAW’s efforts to build world-wide capacityin animal welfare science through its grantschemes.

We would like to thank all the studentscholars who presented their work, everyonewho attended and the staff at Stirling fortheir hospitality and support. 8

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EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Reducing pain and distress inlaboratory animals

Aspecial edition of the journal Laboratory Animals onScore Sheets and Postoperative Analgesia has been co-edited by UFAW’s Senior Scientific Programme

Manager, Huw Golledge, (alongside Dr Paulin Jirkof of theUniversity Hospital Zurich). The special edition comprised ninereviews of current best practice for identifying and reducingpain and distress in laboratory animals.

Dr Golledge also published a research paper on the effect ofanaesthetics on the use of facial expressions to identify pain inlaboratory rats and a report on a meeting he organised onhumane techniques for the euthanasia of laboratory animals. 8

Further details on this publication can be found here:http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/lana/50/6

UFAW’s Senior Scientific ProgrammeManager Huw Golledge gave a keynote lecture entitled ‘Animal

Welfare Science in a Laboratory Setting’ at the European Society of Lab AnimalVeterinarians and European College ofLaboratory Animal Medicine annual meeting in Lyon, France. Dr Golledge outlined thechallenges and opportunities for measuringand improving the welfare of animals used inscientific research.

Dr Golledge has also spoken at several otherscientific meetings including the Institute ofAnimal Technology’s Winter Symposium andthe Laboratory Animal Science Association 3Rs meeting. 8

Animal WelfareScience in aLaboratory Setting

Further details on the presentations can be found on the UFAW website www.ufaw.org.uk/scholarsmeeting2017

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18th Animal Welfare Student Scholars MeetingUniversity of Stirling, 25th January 2017

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Established 1926

HOW YOU CAN HELP – SPRING APPEAL

UFAW giftsThe updated range of UFAW gifts and cards hasproved extremely popular with bags, brollies, pensand pads selling like the proverbial hot cakes. Thankyou to everyone who has supported UFAW and itswork by purchasing from the gift collection – eachpurchase helps to promote and support the work ofthe charity. The current giftcatalogue is enclosed withthis newsletter for thosewishing to makefirst time oradditionalpurchases. 8

Fougasse – the man behind thedrawings

First World War aficionados will befamiliar with a fougasse – an unstableFrench landmine whose “effectiveness

was not always reliable and its aim wasuncertain” but Fougasse was also thepseudonym of one of Britain’s most popularcartoonists, Cyril Kenneth Bird, whosedistinctive style was instantly recognisable.

Bird had his first drawing accepted by Punchmagazine in 1916 and subsequently became aregular contributor, with his sharp observations and innovative stylequickly becoming popular. By the outbreak of the Second World War, he was already an established cartoonist, illustrator and commercialdesigner but it was the war which brought Fougasse to the attention of a much wider public. His “Careless Talk Costs Lives” series ofposters became some of the most effective and memorableimages of the Second World War.

What is less widely known about Fougasse, however, was that hewas also a passionate advocate for animal welfare. In 1949, hebecame UFAW’s Chairman, holding the post until shortly beforehis death in 1965. Many of his humorous simple illustrations are still a feature of UFAW publications today, as can be seen inthis newsletter. 8

Universities Federation for Animal WelfareThe Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8ANt: 01582 831818 • e: ufaw@ufaw.org.ukRegistered Charity in England and Wales No 207996 : Company Limited by Guarantee no 579991 ISSN 0566-8700

The UFAW 2017 Spring Appeal is for funds to assistwith building international university links. The aimsof the University LINK scheme are to promote animal

welfare science and the objectives of UFAW while providinga forum for the involvement of members and supporters,thus building worldwide capacity to improve animalwelfare.

The LINKS form a vital part of UFAW’s outreach work andbuild capacity around the world and, over the next twelvemonths, we would like to be able to add another ten links tothe scheme. Each LINK, once accepted, can request funds ofup to £500 per academic year to support animal welfareactivities in line with UFAW’s objects. Our preference whendeciding whether to support an activity is that it is based onanimal welfare science and that it helps promote thisreasoned approach to improving animal welfare as widely as possible.

If you would like to support this appeal, please send adonation to the Spring 2017 appeal at the UFAW officeaddress. Should funds exceed the amount required for thisproject, UFAW will apply funds to other projects. Thank you. 8 C

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