Vocalisations in farm animals: A step towards positive welfare assessment
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Vocalisations in farm animals : A step towards positive welfare assessment. / Laurijs, Karin A.; Briefer, Elodie F.; Reimert, Inonge; Webb, Laura E.
In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Vol. 236, 105264, 2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Vocalisations in farm animals
T2 - A step towards positive welfare assessment
AU - Laurijs, Karin A.
AU - Briefer, Elodie F.
AU - Reimert, Inonge
AU - Webb, Laura E.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Public concern for farm animal welfare is increasing. Animal welfare is defined as the balance of positive and negative emotions, where positive emotions are key to a good animal life. Emotion is defined as an experience that varies in valence and arousal. Many methods developed to identify positive emotions in animals involve disadvantages. For example, they require training the animals, are age specific or invasive. Vocalisations are a promising indicator of positive emotions. We aimed to review current knowledge on farm animal vocalisations putatively associated with positive emotions and discuss the potential of vocalisations as an on-farm tool to assess positive emotions in farm animals. Vocalisation types and acoustic structures that can potentially be used to identify positive emotions depend upon species. In pigs, lower frequency vocalisations are produced more in positive situations, however, within grunts, higher frequencies reflect positive situations. In horses, more snorts and shorter, lower frequency whinnies could be linked to positive situations. In cows, closed-mouth vocalisations (lower in frequency) might be more common in positive emotions. Food calls and fast clucks may be linked to positive emotions in chickens. In goats, the fundamental frequency shows less fluctuations during positive compared to negative situations. A link between vocalisations and positive emotions has not been shown yet in sheep. Overall, a combination of vocalisations and other measures of emotions could be a promising on-farm tool to monitor positive emotions.
AB - Public concern for farm animal welfare is increasing. Animal welfare is defined as the balance of positive and negative emotions, where positive emotions are key to a good animal life. Emotion is defined as an experience that varies in valence and arousal. Many methods developed to identify positive emotions in animals involve disadvantages. For example, they require training the animals, are age specific or invasive. Vocalisations are a promising indicator of positive emotions. We aimed to review current knowledge on farm animal vocalisations putatively associated with positive emotions and discuss the potential of vocalisations as an on-farm tool to assess positive emotions in farm animals. Vocalisation types and acoustic structures that can potentially be used to identify positive emotions depend upon species. In pigs, lower frequency vocalisations are produced more in positive situations, however, within grunts, higher frequencies reflect positive situations. In horses, more snorts and shorter, lower frequency whinnies could be linked to positive situations. In cows, closed-mouth vocalisations (lower in frequency) might be more common in positive emotions. Food calls and fast clucks may be linked to positive emotions in chickens. In goats, the fundamental frequency shows less fluctuations during positive compared to negative situations. A link between vocalisations and positive emotions has not been shown yet in sheep. Overall, a combination of vocalisations and other measures of emotions could be a promising on-farm tool to monitor positive emotions.
KW - Emotions
KW - Farm animals
KW - Positive welfare
KW - Vocalisations
U2 - 10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105264
DO - 10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105264
M3 - Review
AN - SCOPUS:85101369627
VL - 236
JO - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
JF - Applied Animal Behaviour Science
SN - 0168-1591
M1 - 105264
ER -
ID: 260355405