Mason / Nielsen / Mendl | Assessing Animal Welfare | Buch | 978-1-394-18219-0 | www.sack.de

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 252 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

Mason / Nielsen / Mendl

Assessing Animal Welfare

A Guide to the Valid Use of Indicators of Affective States
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-394-18219-0
Verlag: Wiley

A Guide to the Valid Use of Indicators of Affective States

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 252 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

ISBN: 978-1-394-18219-0
Verlag: Wiley


A clear, practical guide on how to use validated indicators of affective states

Assessing Animal Welfare is a guide on how to use accurate indicators to assess the welfare of animals. The basis for this book is construct validity: how we can validate different indicators that are commonly used to assess animal welfare and apply this knowledge when using these indicators.

Starting with two chapters on the challenges of assessing emotions and moods in animals, and the importance and basis of construct validation, the following chapters evaluate the validity of 11 indicators that range from being suitable for assessing short-term emotions to assessing cumulative negative affect over a lifetime. Each chapter further highlights the limitations of each indicator and provides clear, useful guidance on its interpretation to avoid associated pitfalls. The book also shows how different indicators can complement each other, with real-life examples showing how to put theory into practice. The final chapter concludes by discussing some of the remaining challenges.

Written by leading experts in their respective fields, Assessing Animal Welfare presents:

- Five key approaches to assessing the construct validity of a welfare indicator: using humans as models; observing how indicators change in rewarding or punishing situations, or when in the presence of threats to/promoters of ancestral fitness; taking a pharmacological approach; and assessing co-variance with already validated indicators
- Indicators of emotion, focusing on preference/avoidance, vocal signals, acute corticosteroid responses, body temperature and heart rate, ideal for assessing short-term events like handling, transport, etc.
- Indicators of cumulative welfare focusing on abnormal repetitive behaviour, cellular aging, and hippocampal plasticity
- Indicators of mood, focusing on judgement biases, play, the hormone DHEA, and measures of reward responsiveness, ideal for assessing effects of long-term situations such as housing conditions
- How each valid indicator may sometimes yield false leads (suggesting affective states that are absent) or false null results (overlooking affective states that are present), and ways to avoid these pitfalls.

Assessing Animal Welfare serves as a clear and practical guide for animal welfare researchers, veterinarians, and students of animal welfare science, helping them evaluate and use the most accurate affective state indicators for a given situation.

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Weitere Infos & Material


List of Contributors vii
Endorsements ix
Acknowledgements x

1 Animal Welfare and Affective States 1
Michael T. Mendl, Elizabeth S. Paul, and Georgia J. Mason

2 Measuring the Unmeasurable: The Construct Validation of Affective State Indicators 26
Georgia J. Mason and Michael T. Mendl

Part 1 Indicators of Emotion 55

3 Preference and Avoidance Tests 57
Marsha L. Reijgwart, Thomas Ede, and Claudia M. Vinke

4 Vocal Signals 80
Avelyne S. Villain and Elodie F. Briefer

5 Acute Glucocorticoid Responses 103
Georgia J. Mason and Michael T. Mendl

6 Body Temperature and Heart Rate 121
Dorothy E.F. McKeegan and Neil P. Evans

Part 2 Indicators of Mood 143

7 Judgement Biases 145
Elizabeth S. Paul and Vikki Neville

8 Play Behaviour 163
Suzanne D.E. Held

9 Reactivity to Rewards 188
Rebecca K. Meagher and Carole Fureix

10 Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and Glucocorticoids-to-DHEA(S) Ratio 212
Jessica C. Whitham and Lance J. Miller

Part 3 Indicators of Cumulative Affective Experience 231

11 Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours 233
Georgia J. Mason and Lindsey Kitchenham

12 Telomere Length 273
Melissa Bateson and Luise A. Seeker

13 Hippocampal Structural Plasticity 294
Colline Poirier

14 The Importance of Construct Validation, and (More) Tools for Valid Use of Indicators – What Have We Learned and What Is Still Missing? 319
Birte L. Nielsen, Georgia J. Mason, and Michael T. Mendl

Index 331


About the Editors

Professor Georgia J. Mason, Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare (CCSAW), Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Canada.

Dr Birte L. Nielsen, Research Director, Science for Animal Welfare, United Kingdom.

Professor Michael T. Mendl, Animal Welfare and Behaviour Research Group, Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford House, Langford, United Kingdom.



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