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This study examined the relationships between a number of stockperson and cow variables at 66 commercial dairy farms. Variables such as the attitudes and behavior of stockpeople toward their cows and the behavioral response to humans and productivity of cows were studied over one lactation. There were consistent and significant correlations between some of these stockperson and cow variables. For example, a positive attitude by stockpeople toward the behavior of dairy cows was negatively correlated with the number of forceful, negative, tactile interactions used by stockpeople in handling cows (r = -0.27, df = 127, P < 0.01). Furthermore, based on farm averages, the number of forceful, negative, tactile interactions used by stockpeople was negatively correlated with the percentage of cows approaching within 1 m of an experimenter in a standard test (r = -0.27, df= 64, P< 0.05). Although not confirming a fear-productivity relationship, a moderate but nonsignificant correlation was found between flight distance of cows to an experimenter in a standard test and milk yield (r = -0.27, df = 33, P > 0.05). Support for the existence of a negative fear-productivity relationship was the finding that the use of negative interactions by stockpeople was significantly and negatively correlated with milk yield, protein, and fat at the farm (r = -0.36, -0.35 and -0.33, respectively, df = 64, P < 0.01) and was significantly and positively correlated with milk cortisol concentrations at the farm (r = 0.34, df= 64, P < 0.01). Furthermore, the percentage of cows approaching within 3 m of an experimenter in a standard test was positively correlated with conception rate to the first insemination (r = 0.38, df = 46, P < 0.01). The significant correlations found in the present study between stockperson attitudes and behavior and cow behavior and productivity, although not evidence of causal relationships, indicate the possibility of targeting these human characteristics to reduce fear responses of dairy cows to humans and improve the cows' productivity.

Two experiments, one involving 29 commercial farms and the other involving 94 commercial farms, were conducted to examine the effects of a training program targeting a number of attitudinal and behavioral variables in stockpeople. These stockperson variables had been previously shown to be related to fear of humans and productivity of commercial cows. In both experiments, two treatments were imposed: an Intervention treatment, consisting of a cognitive-behavioral intervention procedure designed to improve the attitude and behavior of stockpeople toward cows, and a Control treatment, in which no intervention was attempted. In Exp. 1, an analysis of covariance, using previous lactation variables as the covariate, revealed effects of the Intervention treatment on the attitude and behavior of the stockpeople and the behavior of cows. Stockpeople at Intervention farms showed more (P < 0.01) positive beliefs about handling cows and used a lower (P < 0.05) number and percentage of negative tactile interactions in handling cows than stockpeople at the Control farms. Cows at the Intervention farms showed a shorter (P < 0.05) flight distance to humans, indicating a lower level of fear of humans by these cows. However, 36% of the Intervention farms failed to show a reduction in average flight distance over the two lactations. Although there was no significant treatment effect on milk yield, the Intervention farms in which fear levels declined following the intervention had a higher (P < 0.05) milk yield than the other farms. In Exp. 2, a significant (P < 0.05) increase was found in the milk yield of cows following the Intervention treatment. Similar treatment effects were observed on both milk protein and milk fat. These results indicate that cognitive-behavioral interventions that successfully target the key attitudes and behavior of stockpeople that regulate the cow's fear of humans offer the industry good opportunities to improve the productivity of cows.

Temporary confinement during parturition and early postpartum may provide an intermediary step preceding loose housing that offers improvement in sow and piglet welfare. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the implications of replacing farrowing crates (FCs) with an alternative housing system from 3 days postpartum until weaning. In each experiment sows farrowed in FCs and were randomly allocated at day 3 of lactation to either a FC or a pen with increased floor space (lactation pen (LP)) until weaning. In experiment 1, piglet growth and sow and piglet skin injuries were recorded for 32 sows and 128 focal piglets in these litters. Behaviour around nursing and piglet behavioural time budgets were also recorded for 24 of these litters (96 focal piglets for time budgets). In experiment 2, measures of skin injury and behavioural time budgets were conducted on 28 sows and 112 focal piglets. The behavioural response of sows to piglet vocalisation (maternal responsiveness test (MRT)) was also assessed. In experiment 3, piglet mortality from day 3 of lactation until weaning was recorded in 672 litters over 12 months. While housing did not affect piglet weight gain in experiment 1, or piglet skin injuries in experiments 1 or 2, sows in both experiments sustained more injuries in LP than FC (experiment 1, 2.9 v. 1.4; experiment 2, 2.5 v. 0.8 lesions/sow; P<0.05). Sow–piglet interactions were more frequent in LP than FC at days 11 and 18 postpartum in both experiment 1 (day 11, 1.4% v. 1.2%; day 18, 1.7% v. 1.0% of observations; P=0.05) and 2 (day 11, 1.0% v. 0.3%; and at day 18 were 1.0% v. 0.6% of observations; P<0.01), and LP sows were more responsive in the MRT in experiment 2 (2 v. 0 median number of tests in which sows react, P<0.01). In experiment 1 piglets played more (0.7% v. 0.3% of observations, P=0.05) and manipulated others less (0.3% v. 0.7% of observations, P=0.04) in LP, but more piglets missed nursing bouts (0.2 v. 0.1 piglets/bout, P<0.01) compared with FC. There was no effect of housing on piglet mortality from day 3 of lactation until weaning in experiment 3 (0.63 and 0.64 deaths/litter for LP and FC, respectively, P>0.05). Thus, housing sows and litters in LP from day 3 of lactation minimises piglet mortality while improving maternal behaviour in sows and social behaviour in piglets.

Factors that have been shown to impact the welfare of group-housed sows are discussed in this review. Floor space allowance markedly affects sow welfare. In addition to quantity of floor space, the quality of space is important: spatial separation between sows can be provided with visual or physical barriers and stalls. Whereas 1.4 m/sow is insufficient, further research is required to examine space effects in the range of 1.8 to 2.4 m/sow in more detail. The period immediately after mixing has the most pronounced effects on aggression and stress, and therefore, well-designed mixing pens offer the opportunity to reduce aggression, injury, and stress while allowing the social hierarchy to quickly form. Because hunger is likely to lead to competition for feed or access to feeding areas, strategies to reduce hunger between meals through higher feeding levels, dietary fiber, or foraging substrate should be examined. However, feeding systems, such as full-body feeding stalls, can also affect aggression and stress by providing protection at feeding, but deriving conclusions on this topic is difficult because research directly comparing floor feeding, feeding stalls, and electronic sow feeder systems has not been conducted. Familiar sows engage in less aggression, so mixing sows that have been housed together in the previous gestation may reduce aggression. Although there is evidence in other species that early experience may affect social skills later in life, there are few studies on the effects of early \"socialization\" on aggressive behavior of adult sows. Genetic selection has the potential to reduce aggression, and therefore, continued research on the opportunity to genetically select against aggressiveness and its broader implications is required. Most research to date has examined mixing sows after insemination and knowledge on grouping after weaning is limited.

Little is known about the implications of accessing an outdoor range for broiler chicken welfare, particularly in relation to the distance ranged from the shed. Therefore, we monitored individual ranging behaviour of commercial free-range broiler chickens and identified relationships with welfare indicators. The individual ranging behaviour of 305 mixed-sex Ross 308 broiler chickens was tracked on a commercial farm from the second day of range access to slaughter age (from 16 to 42 days of age) by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The radio frequency identification antennas were placed at pop-holes and on the range at 2.7 and 11.2 m from the home shed to determine the total number of range visits and the distance ranged from the shed. Chickens were categorised into close-ranging (CR) or distant-ranging (DR) categories based on the frequency of visits less than or greater than 2.7 m from the home shed, respectively. Half of the tracked chickens (n=153) were weighed at 7 days of age, and from 14 days of age their body weight, foot pad dermatitis (FPD), hock burn (HB) and gait scores were assessed weekly. The remaining tracked chickens (n=152) were assessed for fear and stress responses before (12 days of age) and after range access was provided (45 days of age) by quantifying their plasma corticosterone response to capture and 12 min confinement in a transport crate followed by behavioural fear responses to a tonic immobility (TI) test. Distant-ranging chickens could be predicted based on lighter BW at 7 and 14 days of age (P=0.05), that is before range access was first provided. After range access was provided, DR chickens weighed less every week (P=0.001), had better gait scores (P=0.01) and reduced corticosterone response to handling and confinement (P<0.05) compared to CR chickens. Longer and more frequent range visits were correlated with the number of visits further from the shed (P<0.01); hence distant ranging was correlated with the amount of range access, and consequently the relationships between ranging frequency, duration and distance were strong. These relationships indicate that longer, more frequent and greater ranging from the home shed was associated with improved welfare. Further research is required to identify whether these relationships between ranging behaviour and welfare are causal.

Laying hens housed in free-range systems have access to an outdoor range, and individual hens within a flock differ in their ranging behaviour. Whether there is a link between ranging and laying hen welfare remains unclear. We analysed the relationships between ranging by individual hens on a commercial free-range layer farm and behavioural, physiological and health measures of animal welfare. We hypothesised that hens that access the range more will be (1) less fearful in general and in response to novelty and humans, (2) have better health in terms of physical body condition and (3) have a reduced physiological stress response to behavioural tests of fear and health assessments than hens that use the range less. Using radio frequency identification tracking across two flocks, we recorded individual hens’ frequency, duration and consistency of ranging. We also assessed how far hens ventured into the range based on three zones: 0 to 2.4, 2.4 to 11.4 or >11.4 m from the shed. We assessed hen welfare using a variety of measures including: tonic immobility, open field, novel object, human approach, and human avoidance (HAV) behavioural tests; stress-induced plasma corticosterone response and faecal glucocorticoid metabolites; live weight, comb colour, and beak, plumage, footpad, and keel bone condition. Range use was positively correlated with plasma corticosterone response, faecal glucocorticoid metabolites, and greater flight distance during HAV. Hens that used the range more, moved towards rather than away from the novel object more often than hens that ranged less. Distance ranged from the shed was significantly associated with comb colour and beak condition, in that hens with darker combs and more intact beaks ranged further. Overall the findings suggest that there is no strong link between outdoor range usage and laying hen welfare. Alternatively, it may be that hens that differed in their ranging behaviour showed few differences in measures of welfare because free-range systems provide hens with adequate choice to cope with their environment. Further research into the relationship between individual range access and welfare is needed to test this possibility.

This project compared the effects of grouping sows after weaning or within 2 d after insemination on sexual behavior, aggression, injuries, stress, and mating success. At weaning (d 0), 360 sows were housed in groups of 10 sows at 4.4 m2 per sow (group weaned [GpW]) or individual stalls (stall weaned [StW]), with 18 groups per treatment. Six days after weaning (d 6), 7 inseminated GpW sows were moved to pens at 2.1 m2 per sow and keeping acquainted sows, and simultaneously, groups of 7 inseminated StW sows were mixed at 2.1 m2 per sow. Group-weaned sows showed greater variation in the onset of estrus (P = 0.02) but not in the length of estrus compared to StW sows (P = 0.21), with 7% fewer GpW sows inseminated within 5 d of weaning (P = 0.05). Group-weaned sows showed lower sexual receptivity scores, showing less spontaneous standing during boar exposure and partly compensating by a greater response to the back-pressure test (both P < 0.01). The GpW treatment also showed greater variability in sows inseminated twice within 6 d of weaning, with 3 out of 18 pens having only 5 mated sows out of 10. Mixing after weaning resulted in higher levels of stress than mixing after insemination, with GpW sows having higher plasma cortisol concentration than StW sows on d 1 (P < 0.001) but no treatment differences on d 7 in cortisol concentration or aggression at feeding (P = 0.48). Group-weaned sows experienced greater weight loss during the first week postweaning (P = 0.05). Anogenital sniffing in GpW sows was frequently observed from d 2 to 5, but mounting and flank nosing increased on d 4 and 5. Frequency of sexual behavior initiated by GpW sows tended to correlate with weight loss (P = 0.08), and sexual behavior received correlated positively with cortisol concentration at d 1 (P = 0.005). In conclusion, sows housed in groups at weaning and regrouped after insemination experienced higher stress than sows housed in individual stalls at weaning and mixed in groups after insemination. This resulted in lower mating success within 5 d of weaning, which in turn increased between-week variability. The lower sexual receptivity in sows grouped at weaning may be due to suppressed estrus-related behaviour, with ovulation occurring, or delayed ovulation beyond d 6. Further research is needed to identify underlying mechanisms to reduce variability, manage aggression and sexual behavior, and optimize estrus detection in group-housed weaning systems.

Severe feather-pecking (SFP), a particularly injurious behaviour in laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus), is thought to be negatively correlated with range use in free-range systems. In turn, range use is thought to be inversely associated with fearfulness, where fearful birds may be less likely to venture outside. However, very few experiments have investigated the proposed association between range use and fearfulness. This experiment investigated associations between range use (time spent outside), fearfulness, plumage damage, and BW. Two pens of 50 ISA Brown laying hens (n=100) were fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders (contained within silicone leg rings) at 26 weeks of age. Data were then collected over 13 days. A total of 95% of birds accessed the outdoor run more than once per day. Birds spent an average duration of 6.1 h outside each day over 11 visits per bird per day (51.5 min per visit). The top 15 and bottom 15 range users (n=30), as determined by the total time spent on the range over 13 days, were selected for study. These birds were tonic immobility (TI) tested at the end of the trial and were feather-scored and weighed after TI testing. Birds with longer TI durations spent less time outside (P=0.01). Plumage damage was not associated with range use (P=0.68). The small group sizes used in this experiment may have been conducive to the high numbers of birds utilising the outdoor range area. The RFID technology collected a large amount of data on range access in the tagged birds, and provides a potential means for quantitatively assessing range access in laying hens. The present findings indicate a negative association between fearfulness and range use. However, the proposed negative association between plumage damage and range use was not supported. The relationships between range use, fearfulness, and SFP warrant further research.

This study examined the relationships between individual sow aggressive behavior and sow welfare, based on aggression, skin injuries, and stress, in a total of 275 pregnant domestic sows. Over 4 time replicates, sows were randomly mixed into groups of 10 (floor space of 1.8 m/sow) within 7 d of insemination in both their first and second gestations (200 sows per gestation with 126 sows observed in both gestations). Measurements were taken on aggression (both delivered and received) at feeding, skin injuries, and plasma cortisol concentrations at d 2, 9, and 51 after mixing. Live weight gain, nonreproductive removals, litter size (born alive, total born, and stillborn piglets), and farrowing rate were also recorded. In both the first and the second gestations, sows were classified at d 2 after mixing as \"submissive\" (delivered little or no aggression at feeding relative to aggression received), \"subdominant\" (received more aggression at feeding than delivered), and \"dominant\" (delivered more aggression at feeding than received). In both gestations, sows classified as dominant at d 2 subsequently delivered more (gestation 1, < 0.01; gestation 2, < 0.01) and received less (gestation 1, < 0.01; gestation 2, < 0.01) aggression and gained the most weight (gestation 1, < 0.01; gestation 2, < 0.01). Dominant sows had the least skin injuries throughout gestation 1 ( = 0.04), and although submissive sows sustained the most skin injuries at d 9 and 51 of gestation 2, at d 2 the classifications did not differ in skin injuries ( < 0.01). Subdominant sows had the highest cortisol concentrations at d 2 of gestation 2, but there were no differences between classifications at d 9 and 51 in either gestation (gestation 1, > 0.05; gestation 2, = 0.02). There were no significant relationships between aggression classification and reproduction and nonreproductive removals ( > 0.05). In conclusion, sows classified as dominant at feeding at d 2 subsequently received less aggression at feeding, sustained fewer skin injuries, and had higher live weight gain. Submissive and subdominant sows in groups are likely to benefit from the provision of increased resources such as space and access to feed.

A total of 3,120 sows, in 4 time replicates, were used to determine the effects of group size and floor space on sow welfare using behavioral, physiological, health, and fitness variables. Within 1 to 7 d postinsemination, sows were assigned randomly to treatments of a 3 by 6 factorial arrangement, with 3 group sizes (10, 30, or 80 sows/pen) and 6 floor space allowances (1.4, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, or 3.0 m(2)/sow). Sows were housed on partially slatted concrete floors, and overhead feeders delivered 4 times/day to provide a total of 2.5 kg of feed/sow. As pen space increased from 1.4 to 3.0 m(2)/sow, aggression at feeding decreased from about 9 to 7 bouts/sow (linear, P = 0.029) and plasma cortisol concentrations decreased from about 28 to 21 ng/mL (linear, P = 0.0089) at 2 d. Although the results are in accord with a linear decline from 1.4 to 3 m(2)/sow, the results are also in accord with a decline in these measurements from 1.4 to 1.8 m(2)/sow and no further decline greater than 1.8 m(2)/sow. Farrowing rate (percentage of inseminated sows that farrowed) also increased from about 60 to 75% as space increased from 1.4 to 3.0 m(2)/sow (linear, P = 0.012). Group size was related to skin injuries on d 9 (P = 0.0017), 23 (P = 0.0046), and 51 (P = 0.0006), with groups of 10 consistently having the lowest number of total injuries over this period. Based on the aggression and cortisol results, it is credible to judge that, within the range of floor space allowances studied, sow welfare improves with increased space. However, from a sow welfare perspective, the experiment had insufficient precision to determine what is an adequate space allowance for sows. Thus, although the results definitely support a space allowance of 1.4 m(2)/sow being too small, it is not possible to give guidance on an actual space allowance at mixing that is adequate.