There is a need to assess the benefits of government policy to improve the welfare of food animals. We present a holistic, animal-centred welfare assessment method using an expert panel of independent animal welfare scientists linked to a survey of food shoppers’ willingness to pay (WTP) to improve welfare levels, using a 0–100 animal welfare scale. We apply this method to six food animal types in the UK and 15 different topical policy scenarios. We find that several current production systems have welfare scores below 50 but that some of the policy initiatives analysed could increase welfare scores substantially if implemented. We provide valuation tables of people’s WTP to increase welfare scores for each of the six animal types. Marginal WTP was found to diminish as welfare scores increased. WTP values are fully transferable across any policies affecting the animals involved and are not tied to specific production practices or contexts. The UK government has been using the method to evaluate a range of policy options to improve welfare. The method can be applied in other countries. The method enables government policy makers to better make the case for policies to improve the welfare of food animals and its application should lead to an increased likelihood of such policies being implemented. The outputs can also be used to inform consumers regarding the animal welfare provenance of the food they purchase.

Skill is the ability to do a challenging behaviour well. We examined how contest skill influences contest success, costs and whether skilful behaviour enhances welfare. We measured skill across three domains: accuracy, appropriateness (selecting suitable agonistic tactics when the optimal choice varies) and efficiency, alongside vigour, sex and body weight. Skill was weakly correlated across domains. Winners were heavier relative to their opponent, displayed greater vigour and were more skilful at blocking, but other skill measures did not predict contest win/loss outcome. Appropriate blocking by winners reduced the number of lesions received by reducing exposure to attacks, suggesting it can both reduce costs and improve competitive success, with potential welfare benefits. Losers received more lesions when they adopted appropriate postures after submission; however, this unambiguous submission may have resulted from more costly contests. For winners, being heavy relative to the opponent tended to reduce skin lesions received, but otherwise, having a weight advantage did not reduce contest costs. Fighting with increased vigour led to a considerable increase in contest costs, particularly in losers. Compared to other resource-holding potential traits, skill has moderate effects on winning and injuries but nevertheless modulated energetic costs of fighting.

The ornamental fish trade is one of the major pathways for freshwater fish invasions, with their co-occurrence increasingly common due to rising numbers of non-native species. This co-occurrence can yield ecological surprises through non-additive trophic effects, which can influence levels of predatory impacts. In freshwaters, biotic interactions are heavily mediated by waterborne chemical cues, which could potentially alter the intensity of impacts from multiple invaders. We adopted the comparative functional response approach to quantify and predict the potential ecological impacts under the exposure of undisturbed conspecific and interspecific odours of two commonly traded exotic ornamental fish species: the convict cichlid Amatitlania nigrofasciata, a species with substantial invasion history worldwide, and the T-bar cichlid Amatitlania sajica, a tropically analogous congener with no invasion history thus far. Both species exhibited a potentially prey population destabilising Type II FR under all cue treatments. However, differential ecological impacts from the two species were mediated by olfactory cues. Specifically, there was no difference in FR between the two species in the conspecific water treatment, while the invasive convict cichlid demonstrated a significantly greater prey consumption rate and shorter handling time in the interspecific condition. These results suggest that the invasive convict cichlid may have an advantage in interspecific exploitative competition over the non-invasive T-bar cichlid, which could lead to greater impact potential on food web dynamics and native species. Nonetheless, the potential ecological impacts of T-bar cichlids should not be underestimated, and their release into non-native habitats alongside other exotic fishes should be strictly prevented. The influence of chemical cues on invader ecological impacts should be increasingly considered in predictive efforts.

Freshwater biota are highly threatened by global stressors, among which fragmentation by artificial barriers has gained increasing attention in recent years. Barriers limit the movements of native species, notably the migrations of keystone fish, such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), with ecological and socio-economic consequences. The severity of barrier impacts on salmon smolt and adult migratory stages has widely overshadowed the effects on juvenile river-resident stages, despite the importance of habitat availability during these years. We present the first study of crossing behaviours displayed by salmon parr traversing obstacles while considering trophic context-dependencies. Using semi-natural flume tanks and a multifactorial design, we examined two of the most common weir designs (vertical and v-notch) and simulated risk-reward conditions (model predator and chemosensory food resource cues), with approaching, assessing, attempting and crossing behaviours analysed. We found that fish movements throughout the tank were significantly impeded by both barrier designs compared to barrier-free controls, of which the v-notch presented a moderately greater challenge. These effects were further mediated by perceived predatory threat, with the presence of a potential predator significantly reducing the probability and latency of fish approaching, reducing the probability of assessing the barrier, as well as shortening the average duration of barrier crossings. Resource presence had minimal effects on the behaviours investigated, except for a significant interaction with predator presence influencing assessment duration. Our study demonstrates that barriers, regardless of their design, place significant limitations on habitats available to parr by reducing overall movement in the system. However, the behaviour of salmon parr around artificial barriers is context-dependent, highlighting the complexity of fish-barrier interactions and raising important questions about the potential benefits and unknown consequences of barrier removals within existing ecological networks.

Sentience defined narrowly is the capacity to experience feelings (i.e. consciously experienced affect) whereas emotion refers to functional affective states with no assumptions about how these might be experienced. Although broader definitions of sentience encompass awareness as well as feelings, the capacity of non-human animals to feel is one of the most important questions we can ask. First, from an applied welfare perspective, if it seems plausible that an animal can experience feelings such as pleasure or pain this should inform how we treat them. Second, by asking this question we might learn about the functions of feelings and why they evolved. Here we outline how the study of sentience in animals relates to different parts of the inductive-deductive scientific cycle. We discuss how plausible inferences about narrowly defined animal sentience are derived from inductive reasoning, meaning they can be thought of as untested hypotheses rather than robust conclusions. We then discuss how we can generate hypotheses and use deductive reasoning to derive testable predictions to reach stronger conclusions when sentience is defined more broadly, to include awareness. A third approach, abductive reasoning, may allow progress in our understanding of animal sentience where hypotheses remain untestable. Clarifying these distinctions may help ensure that discussions with stakeholders and policymakers are grounded in a clear understanding of the nature and limits of the available evidence regarding animal sentience.

Voluntary movement of cows through the milking robot of an automatic milking system (AMS) is essential to its productivity. However, challenges remain regarding optimising visit frequency, particularly for systems aiming to combine pasture-based grazing and AMS. Here we explore an approach to enhance visit frequency through associative learning of an audio and tactile cue to encourage cows to voluntarily visit the milking robot. The current study aimed to assess 1) training stage reached and response to cue, 2) the effects of training upon milking frequency, 3) the effects of feed choice upon training stage reached and response to cue, and 4) the effects of cow location, light conditions and weather conditions upon the cows' response to the cue. Twenty-eight cows from a larger herd of forty-four were trained in two batches (early and late). Cows were feed choice tested during week four of the study. The early group was trained to respond to the cue (move to the milking robot in response to an audio and tactile cue) during weeks 11-12 and tested in week 13, and the late group was trained during weeks 14-15 and tested in week 16. Descriptive statistics and GLMMs were utilised to answer the study questions. Four of the cows did not progress from the lowest level of the predefined five-step training plan. None of the cows completed the training plan, but most cows reached steps three (nine cows) or four (thirteen cows). Twenty cows correctly responded to the cue (trafficked to the milking robot) once or more, but none responded to the cue more than five times (of a possible 10). Milking frequency was higher in both groups during training periods compared to testing periods. There were significant associations between feed consumption during the feed choice test and response to the cue, where cows with the feed they consumed the most of (during the feed choice test) offered in the robot achieving an improved response to the cue. Finally, cows were more likely to correctly respond to the cue during dark hours. Training cows to approach the robot in response to an audio and tactile cue is a promising intervention to increase productivity in AMS. However, our study was unsuccessful in achieving this, and further development of training protocols and research on factors influencing training and cue response is needed to improve success.

Social network analysis (SNA) provides a means of understanding animals' agonistic behaviour in a group. The aim of this study was to use SNA to characterise how individual cognitive performance affects agonistic behaviour. Using 175 pigs, we hypothesised that their choice of opponents would be affected by their ability to discriminate spatial information and to adapt their behaviour when cues were reversed. A spatial discrimination test was conducted; left and right locations were assigned as positive (food reward) and negative (fan) and each pig's learning speed was recorded. The cues were then reversed, and we tested whether pigs adjusted their behaviour. At age 14 weeks, pigs were regrouped into 14 groups, and their behaviour recorded for 5h, from which weighted and unweighted networks were constructed. Skin lesions were counted after 24h, 1 week and 2 weeks. Males delivered more aggression, and heavier pigs were involved in more aggression. Betweenness centrality (a network position linking otherwise unconnected individuals) increased with network size and decreased with body weight. Passing the reversal learning test predicted more involvement in unilateral aggression. The current study therefore shows links between cognitive performance and aggression and advances the understanding of social network analysis in the context of animal welfare.

Voluntary visits to the milking robot are the basis of automatic milking system functionality. Therefore, problems arise when cows are undermotivated to visit the robot. Cows with reduced competitive abilities, specifically those that are lame or low-ranking (or both), are at risk of lower visit frequencies. These cows typically have reduced autonomy as they must conform to the schedules of more dominant herd-mates. Solutions seeking to ameliorate these access issues may thus improve welfare and productivity. We evaluated the effects of providing lame or low-ranking cows with increased access to the milking robot via a priority lane, which provided an additional entrance to the robot for this group only. We aimed to understand the effects of the priority lane upon training duration, milking robot visit behavior, lying behavior, and hair cortisol. We further aimed to understand how losing and gaining access to the priority lane would affect milking robot visit behavior. We hypothesized that priority access would increase total milking robot visits and lying time, decrease milking interval variability and hair cortisol concentrations, and would not affect training duration. Twenty-four lame (mobility score ≥2) or low-ranking (lowest third of herd) cows were matched into 12 pairs of equal mobility, social ranking, or both. Each pair was split over treatments (i.e., priority lane and control). An additional 18 cows were included in the herd to increase competition but could not access the priority lane. Data were collected in 4 phases (pretreatment phase, training phase, treatment phase 1, and treatment phase 2) over a 15-wk period. New priority and control groups were created for treatment phase 2. Training time and hair cortisol concentrations were compared using linear regression, and generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze milking and lying behavior during treatment phase 1. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare values between pre- and postregrouping in treatment phase 2. During the training phase and treatment phase 1, priority cows had more lying bouts, and successful, unsuccessful, and total robot visits. No treatment differences in training time, hair cortisol concentrations, lying time, or milking interval variability were observed. During treatment phase 2, cows granted access to the priority lane increased their successful milking visits, whereas cows removed from the priority lane did not decrease their visits. In conclusion, priority access had no effect on welfare indicators or training time. However, it did increase milking robot visit frequency. We suggest that the productivity and welfare benefits of a priority lane may be greater under conditions of greater competition.

Appropriate and adequate feeding is essential to maintaining good health, productivity and welfare of dairy cows. Within automatic milking systems, concentrate feed is offered inside the milking robot, and is thought to play a key role in motivating cows to visit the robot for milking. As concentrate feed delivery takes place during milking, the amount of concentrate a cow can consume is limited by milking duration and consumption rate. Thus, some cows may require supplementary feeding, but concerns exist regarding the potential negative effects of allocating concentrate outside of the milking robot on motivation to visit the robot for milking. The study’s primary aims were to assess the effects of providing 80% of the cows’ concentrate allocation inside the robot or inside an out-of-parlour feeder (OOPF) on (1) milking frequency, refused milkings, and OOPF visit frequency, (2) lying time, (3) milk yield, and (4) partial mixed ration (PMR) intake and amount of daily concentrate allocation not consumed by the cows, and (5) time spent in the robot and OOPF. Forty-eight mid-late lactation dairy cows were split into two treatment groups, one of which received 80% of their concentrate ration inside the milking robot and 20% inside the OOPF (robot high), whereas the other received 20% of their concentrate inside the milking robot and 80% via the OOPF (robot low). The study took place over a 4-week period. GLMMs assessed the effects of treatment and time on the dependent variables milking frequency, refused milkings, OOPF visit frequency, lying time, milk yield, PMR intake, and amount of concentrate feed left unconsumed. No effects of treatment on milking frequency, refused milkings, milking time, or lying time were found. As expected, ‘robot low’ cows visited more frequently and spent more time in the OOPF than ‘robot high’ cows. Finally, ‘robot high’ cows left more of their allocated concentrate ration unconsumed, which suggests that feed consumption may be limited by milking duration and may result in cows not meeting their energy targets. In conclusion, allocating a portion of concentrate feed outside of the milking robot does not affect motivation to visit the robot or time spent resting, only briefly affects PMR intake and milk yield, and may enable cows to better meet their concentrate feed targets, all of which may positively affect health, productivity and welfare.

In animal contests, the decision to flee or to remain in a contest is crucial to the individual's fitness because a wrong decision can dramatically change the costs individuals accrue over their lifetime. Empirical evaluations of the rules that individuals adopt to remain on a contest often provide support for two major possibilities: self-assessment strategies, in which each individual remain in the contest until reaching its own cost threshold, and a mutual-assessment strategy, in which individuals assess the rival's capacity to sustain or to impose costs during the contest and decide to flee when they consider that the rival is stronger. However, it is unclear what drives the evolution of different assessment strategies among species. A factor that may be key to understanding such variation is contest cost. If contests provide a fast and/or large cost accrual, mutual assessment strategies may be favoured because they avoid contests in which individuals always reach their own cost threshold. On the other hand, in species in which cost accrual during the contest is slow and/or small, self-assessment may prevail. Here, we performed a meta-analysis using information on the way individuals engage in contests in different species. Our goal is to test the hypothesis that contests involving high-cost accrual, such as contests in species in which rivals use weapons, can favour the evolution of mutual assessment strategies, while contests with lower costs, such as contests without physical contact, should favour the evolution of self-assessment strategies. We obtained 80 effect sizes spanning 36 species. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that species with high-cost contests consistently adopted self-assessment strategies, while species with low-cost contests did not present a consistent assessment strategy. We suggest that high-cost contests may evolve in species in which individuals experiencing defeat or opting to flee from a contest have a significant decrease in their reproductive success. Consequently, individuals would be compelled to engage in contests regardless of their opponent. In low-cost contests, however, we suggest that any potential selective pressure for a specific assessment strategy is relaxed, which could explain the diversity of assessment strategies observed in this category.

Global biodiversity is in rapid decline, with invasive alien species playing a major role. Predicting which is most damaging and under what conditions is key to proactive management. We investigated whether behavioural traits, specifically boldness and exploration, predict ecological impact in the invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans). Despite the modest sample size of adults (n = 8) and juvenile (n = 8) lionfish, using repeated behavioural assays, we found strong personality consistency: 93% of juveniles and 56% of adults used shelter, with traits like latency to interact with novel objects showing high repeatability. Bold individuals spent less time in shelter and interacted more with novel stimuli. However, in groups of eight, personality expression shifted, with only 7% of juveniles and 44% of adults using shelter, indicating that social context alters behaviour. Functional response experiments revealed Type II feeding curves across three prey species, reflecting a saturating, hyperbolic relationship in which predators rapidly consume prey at low densities but are increasingly constrained by handling time as prey density rises. Neither adult nor juvenile lionfish reduced feeding effort when prey became scarce, allowing them to exert strong predation pressure even at low prey densities. Adults displayed significantly higher attack rates and shorter handling times on Artemia salina, whereas juveniles showed these patterns towards Gammarus oceanicus, underscoring the greater per capita feeding impact of adults. Contrary to expectations, boldness did not correlate with feeding impact but was linked to slower reaction times in shy individuals. These findings highlight the complex, context-dependent relationship between personality and ecological impact during invasions.

Elevated frequencies of repeated injuries are identified in the proximo-middle caudal region of hadrosaurid dinosaur tails. The affected vertebrae show healing injuries in the distal region of the vertebral neural spines, but the causes are yet indeterminate. A finite element analysis was performed on a modeled caudal vertebral series to test if such injuries were caused by loading weight. Our results indicate that the deforming stress resulted from the same dorsal force pressing upon a large area of the tail. We scrutinized all possible biological scenarios that could cause the pathological deformation of the bones. The affected area corresponds to the putative position of the cloacal opening, indicating the possibility that the dorsal force might correspond to the action of a mounting male. As such, these potential mating injuries may represent the first indirect evidence of sexual behavior in non-avian dinosaurs, and a novel approach to recognize female individuals.

Automatic milking systems (AMSs) require cows to perform relatively complicated behaviours: visiting the milking robot voluntarily at appropriate intervals and at a high enough frequency to maintain production. Failure to correctly learn this behaviour can lead to prolonged training for the affected cows, which in turn can result in increased labour, reduced milk yields, and reduced animal welfare. There is currently considerable individual variation between cows in the number of voluntary milking visits achieved per day which may be due to variation in learning ability, amongst other factors. A better understanding of factors influencing dairy cows during conditioning to use an AMS may ensure better adaptation to these systems. To that end, this study investigated the hypothesis that social ranking and measures of personality will influence the ability of cows learning to use AMS. Data were obtained from 30 cows newly transferred to an AMS. The personality attributes of all cows were assayed using two validated tests (human approach, novel object). Principal component analysis revealed two distinct attributes: Boldness and Sociality. In addition, agonistic interactions at the feed face and milking robot were collected over a 3-week period and used to construct a social ranking of the herd using the Elo method. Social ranking and the two personality attributes were used as independent variables in further analysis. Learning was assessed by the following variables, which were included in four separate GLMs as dependent variables; (1) Average voluntary visit frequency weeks zero to two, (2) Average voluntary visit frequency weeks zero to four, (3) Days until the cows' first voluntary milking, (4) Days until last necessary training session. Cows with higher social rankings had a higher average voluntary visit rate in weeks zero to two and zero to four and a lower latency until their first voluntary milking. Cows that combined a low boldness score with a lower sociality score tended towards a longer latency until their first voluntary milking. We propose that social ranking could play a role in learning success in an AMS context and suggest developing specific training strategies targeting low-ranking cows. Further research is required to fully elucidate the effects of personality attributes on learning success; however, based on the outcomes of the current study, we suggest that investigating strategies for less bold and less social cows may be an important area for future research into improving learning efficacy, productivity, and welfare in this setting. (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The animal Consortium. This is an open access

Lateralised motor behaviour can contribute to the study of animal welfare, with links to emotional processing, stress responses and personality. Lateral bias in the domestic pig, a species prone to poor welfare, has been subject to little scientific attention. This study therefore aimed to assess laterality in the form of side preferences in a population of farmed pigs, exploring for differences between the sexes and consistency in side preferences, both between measures and over time. Observations of side preference were recorded in fifty pigs across five measures: a snout use task, step-up task, detour task, tail curling and lying side. Snout use, step-up and detour side preferences were observed twice (3 and 6 weeks-of-age) to evaluate test-retest reliability. Pigs were significantly more likely to be ambilateral than side-preferent for both lying side and snout use at 6 weeks of age. By contrast, animals showed significant side-preferences at the level of the individual on the detour task at 6 weeks of age. Directional laterality index (LI) scores for snout use were positively correlated with those of the step-up task at 6 weeks of age, while strength of laterality index (ABSLI) scores for snout use at 4 weeks of age were positively correlated with the step-up task scores at 6 weeks of age. No other LI or ABSLI scores were significantly correlated. Findings pointed to good test-retest reliability, with animals demonstrating a significant positive correlation in the direction, although not strength, of their lateral biases for the snout use, step-up and detour tasks. A cluster analysis, employed to explore for individual lateralisation patterns across motor functions, revealed a leaning towards left-side preferences on animals' combined step-up and detour laterality scores. Male and female animals showed no significant difference in either the strength or direction of their side preferences for any of the tasks. Overall, the results from this study point to individual-level lateralised behaviour in the domestic pig for one measure. Findings reveal a lack of sex differences and consistency between tasks, but show stability in pigs' side preferences over time, at least in the short-term.

Introductions of non-native species (NNS) are major drivers of biodiversity loss. Gammarids (Crustacea, Gammaroidea) have been particularly successful in establishing and spreading in their non-native range, especially in Europe. While their impacts are wide-ranging, interference competition with native species has received limited study to date. Here, we assessed the competitive abilities of the successful North American NNS Gammarus tigrinus relative to the European native Gammarus duebeni, over a chironomid larva as a single food resource. We staged four types of dyadic contest encounters, with individuals of the native or NNS added to the experimental arena containing the food resource, and inter- or intraspecific competitor individuals added upon the first individual taking possession of the resource, or after 20 minutes. Gammarus tigrinus were more likely to take hold of the bloodworm in the opening 20 minutes, and did so more quickly than G. duebeni. During this period, they were also less thigmotactic than the native, being more explorative and spending a smaller proportion of time in the outer zone of the arena. They exhibited more aggressive interactions and activity with increasing size and mass, whereas larger G. duebeni were shown to be less aggressive and less active. Gammarus tigrinus were found to be significantly less likely to lose possession to G. duebeni than they were to conspecifics, whereas G. duebeni were similarly likely to lose possession to G. tigrinus as to conspecifics. Overall, our findings indicate that the behaviour and competitive ability of G. tigrinus demonstrated here add to a list of traits that facilitate its invasion success. In addition, our method offers potential as an effective, standardisable means of assessing the competitive abilities of gammarid NNS. We encourage future studies to develop it further, incorporating alternative resources, such as habitat, and to assess the role of ecologically relevant abiotic stressors in determining contest outcomes.

The benefits of environmental enrichment for kennelled dog welfare have been widely demonstrated. Research in rodents shows that provision of maternal environmental enrichment during gestation can also influence the behavioural development of the offspring. However, the effects of prenatal enrichment on puppy behavioural development remains to be explored in domestic dogs. The current study investigated the effect of maternal enrichment during gestation on the behaviour of puppies bred at a commercial dog breeding establishment (CBE). During the last four weeks of gestation, mothers were exposed to either baseline management conditions (control: N = 5) or additionally subjected to an enrichment protocol based on positive human interaction (enriched: N = 5). Mother-puppy interactions were recorded throughout the first three weeks postpartum to determine the amount of maternal care provided to each litter. Subsequently, the behavioural responses of puppies (control: N = 29, enriched: N = 30) were assessed in an isolation test, a human greeting test, and a novel object test when puppies were similar to 8 weeks old. Results showed that prenatal enrichment affected puppies' behaviour in a sex-dependent manner. In the isolation test, prenatal enrichment significantly reduced 'Exploration' levels in male puppies but not in females and tended to reduce 'Activity' levels in male puppies. Furthermore, as mother-puppy interactions increased, vocalisations decreased in male puppies compared to females during the isolation test. In the novel object test, maternal enrichment was linked to higher 'Confidence' scores in female puppies but lower in male puppies. Furthermore, 'Exploration' levels were significantly reduced in male puppies from enriched mothers but not in females. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between the amount of maternal care provided and puppies' explorative behaviour. Similarly, in the human greeting test, puppies' affiliative behaviour towards a person increased with increasing maternal care. This is the first study to provide evidence in dogs that maternal enrichment during gestation influences offspring behaviour. Results suggest that prenatal enrichment may modulate stress coping strategies in a sex-dependent manner. However, other factors such as the amount of maternal care provided, breed and litter size should also be considered.