Housing

Lagoda, M. E., O’Driscoll, K., Galli, M. C. et al. 2023. Indicators of improved gestation housing of sows. Part I: Effects on behaviour, skin lesions, locomotion, and tear staining. Animal Welfare 32, e51.

Commercial gestation housing systems for sows generally fail to cater fully for their needs in terms of comfort or the ability to perform highly motivated behaviours, which can lead to chronic stress and an impairment...

Dai, F., Costa, E. D., Minero, M. et al. 2023. Does housing system affect horse welfare? The AWIN welfare assessment protocol applied to horses kept in an outdoor group-housing system: The ‘parcours.’ Animal Welfare 32, e22.

Outdoor group housing is generally reported as being beneficial to the welfare of horses compared to single boxes, being considered to show greater similarities with the living conditions of feral horses, allowing full expression of...

Bandeli, M., Mellor, E. L., Kroshko, J. et al. 2023. The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora reflect naturally itinerant lifestyles. Royal Society Open Science 10, 230437.

Carnivora with naturally small home ranges readily adjust tothe evolutionarily new environment of captivity, but wider-ranging species seem prone to stress. Understanding why wouldadvance both collection planning and enclosure design. Wetherefore investigated which aspects of...

Ponte, G., Roumbedakis, K., Galligioni, V. et al. 2023. General and species-specific recommendations for minimal requirements for the use of cephalopods in scientific research. Laboratory Animals 57(1), 26–39.

Here we list species-specific recommendations for housing, care and management of cephalopod molluscs employed for research purposes with the aim of contributing to the standardization of minimum requirements for establishments, care and accommodation of these...

Amendola, L., Xu, N., Weary, D. M. 2023. Rats move nesting materials to create different functional areas: Short report. Laboratory Animals 57(1), 75–78.

Here we document how rats separate their living space into different functional regions. Five groups of four female Sprague Dawley rats were housed in caging systems that consisted of two standard cages connected by a...

Begum-Diamond, Z., Neuhauser, J. E., Cameron, K. E. 2022. Measuring ramp use in guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 118(2), 292-301.

To investigate the utility of ramps as enrichment and as a method for establishing demand for commodities, the latency to climb a ramp of increasing slope to obtain food was measured in four guinea pigs...

Hatcher, N. 2022. The effects of enrichment on an abnormal behaviour in naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) at Tilgate Nature Centre. RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 49(4), 15-18.

The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a relatively rare mammal in zoological collections with only nine zoos in the United Kingdom holding colonies of varying sizes at the time of study. This study aims...

Jimenez, I. A., Craney, M. C., Painter, M. C. et al. 2023. Behavioral evaluation of laboratory-housed ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) in different enclosure sizes. JAALAS 62(5), 382–394.

The domestic ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is a common research model for infectious disease and behavioral studies. Ferrets are social animals that are commonly pair-housed. The United States has no species-specific regulatory standards for housing...

Wei, H., Geng, L., Shang, X. et al. 2023. Background color preference of amphibian Rana dybowskii. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 268, 106079.

Background color may affect the welfare of the brown frog Rana dybowskii in captivity. To evaluate the perching platform color and feeding platform color preferences of brown frogs at day and night, a total of...

Titto, C. G., Ricci, G. D. 2023. Behavioral and physiological changes in sows and piglets maintained in farrowing cages or open stalls during summer. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 63, 36–41.

Containment cages are one of the main causes of chronic stress and reduced welfare during swine production as well as in hot environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate behavioral changes and physiological...

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