This issue of Animal Welfare takes the journal into its eighth year. It has a gratifyingly high Science Citation Index impact factor (the index of how frequently papers published in scientific journals are cited which is widely taken as an index of quality) of 0.909, which places it very well up the ranks of both veterinary and zoology journals. This, and the relatively short mean interval from acceptance to publication (c 9 months), make the journal increasingly attractive to authors and the number of manuscripts submitted continues to grow. It is pleasing also that the journal has a worldwide uptake and readership and that subscriptions continue to increase.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the incidence of travel sickness in pigs, specific hormone concentrations at exsanguination and subsequent meat quality. Fifty, 80kg slaughter pigs were transported on a lorry for 4.5h. During the journey, behavioural observations of the individually marked pigs were made by scanning every 8min to establish whether the pigs exhibited certain symptoms of travel sickness (foaming at the mouth and chomping) and incidences of retching and vomiting were noted as they occurred. Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, pigs were unloaded, slaughtered immediately and a blood sample was taken at exsanguination for analysis of plasma Cortisol, beta-endorphin and lysine vasopressin concentrations. On the day following slaughter, the chilled carcase of each pig was assessed for meat quality (using pH, Fibre Optic Probe, and Tecpro Pork Quality Meter measurements) in the longissimus dorsi, semimembranosus and adductor muscles to determine the incidence of PSE (pale, soft, exudative) or DFD (dark, firm, dry) meat quality. Twenty-six per cent of the pigs (a total of 13 individuals) vomited or retched during the journey. There was no relationship between the incidence of travel sickness and either the concentrations of the hormones analysed at exsanguination or subsequent meat quality. Correlations revealed no significant relationship between concentrations of the hormones and meat quality measurements.

Single- and group-housing conditions for cats in animal shelters represent spatially and socially very different housing types. This study investigated whether the socialization of the cat towards conspecifics and people influences adaptation to these two housing types. Socialization towards conspecifics and people was determined in 169 rescued cats by means of two behavioural tests and a socialization questionnaire. Stress levels of the cats in the single- and group-housing condition were recorded by the non-invasive Cat-Stress-Score. Cats which were non-socialized towards conspecifics (n-SC) were more stressed than cats socialized towards conspecifics (SC) in the group enclosure. During the first hour and on days 6 and 7 in the observation cage, the n-SC were significantly less stressed under the single-than under the group-housing condition. The other members of the group had a higher stress level when a n-SC entered the group than if the new cat was a SC. Among the SC, there was no detectable difference in stress levels between the single-and group-housing condition. Cats which were non-socialized towards people (n-SP) were more stressed than cats socialized towards people (SP) during the whole stay under both single- and group-housing conditions.

It was concluded that n-SC should be held under single-housing conditions in animal shelters. For SC both the single- and group-housing condition are equally recommended for stays of a few weeks. For n-SP, stays in animal shelters should be avoided because of their high stress levels.

Deep body temperature was measured in four wethers and four ewes surgically implanted with biotelemetry devices. Records were taken over several days in the home pen (baseline data) and also in response to three potentially stressful procedures: transport, exposure to a sheepdog, and forced exercise. Loading the animals into a vehicle and transporting them for 2.5h produced a rise in core temperature that, in males, persisted for several hours. Moving the sheep into an outside pen and subsequent exposure to the dog appeared to produce transient increases in body temperature, although these changes were not statistically significant. By contrast, exercise for 30min resulted in a rapid and pronounced (approximately 2°C) temperature rise that was followed by an equally abrupt return to baseline. Sustained increases in deep body temperature or changes in circadian temperature rhythms in healthy sheep may be a response to psychological distress and, therefore, indicative of poor welfare.

Twin infant black and white ruffed lemurs, male and female, were fostered on a part-time basis, in conjunction with hand-rearing, with an adult pair who were highly related to them. The adult female showed allomaternal behaviour towards the twins, although she did not attempt to suckle them. The adult male ignored the twins for the first few weeks but as they became more mobile and playful he frequently initiated play with one or both. Growth rates showed a significant trend when compared with parentally raised and hand-reared infants, with the fostered twins growing at rates intermediate between those found under the two other rearing methods. Fostering of rejected infants as a captive management strategy is advocated as an alternative to traditional hand-rearing techniques because of the welfare advantages to both infants and foster parents.

The aim of the study was to compare different behavioural, physiological and performance traits in three groups of veal calves fed either a routine all-liquid diet with milk replacer (GO) or the same diet supplemented with a total of 10kg (G10) or 25kg (G25) of pelleted straw and cereals. Each of the three feeding programmes involved 21 male Friesian calves kept in individual crates for 20 weeks (from 1 to 21 weeks of age). Oral activities, haematological variables, ruminai characteristics, health and performance were all investigated. In calves supplied with dry feed, there was no evidence of ruminating behaviour; and chewing, regarded as a non-nutritive oral activity, was clearly reduced. The incidence of tongue playing and manipulating objects was not influenced by additional pellets.

Haemoglobin concentrations were higher in G25 than in other groups as a result of the extra iron supplied in the pellets. Other blood variables were unchanged. In G10 and G25 changes in rumen characteristics were clearly demonstrated by the following observations: i) the weight of reticulo-rumens increased by 11 and 35 per cent, respectively; ii) small papillae (virtually non-existent in calves fed an all-liquid diet) were present, and there was a darkening of the mucosa; and iii) there was a marked reduction in the number of hairballs, resulting from a continuous elimination of ingested hair by ruminai motility. In G25, carcase weight was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 6.5 per cent compared with controls and no detrimental effects such as bloating or abomasal ulceration were observed when dry feed was added. Supplying calves with straw-cereal pellets was considered positive for the physiological aspects of welfare in veal calves. However, other diet compositions capable of inducing rumination behaviour should also be investigated.

The effects of food restriction on the welfare of sheep are as yet unclear. An operant crate and a push-door were used to measure feeding motivation in sheep after Oh, 6h, 12h, 18h and 24h without food. In experiment 1, sheep had to push a panel with their noses to obtain a food reward. In experiment 2, sheep had to run a race and push through a weighted door to reach food; the time taken to reach various points was recorded and the work performed to push through the door was calculated.

In experiment 1, 3 out of 12 sheep became trained to push the panel and there was a difference in the mean number of rewards/session obtained by each animal (P < 0.05). There was no effect of treatment on the number of panel presses performed. In experiment 2, 10 out of 14 sheep were successfully trained. More sheep went through the push-door when deprived of food (P < 0.05), and they were quicker to enter the race, reach the push-door, and reach the food than those which had not been deprived (P < 0.0001). They also spent less time pushing the door than non-deprived sheep (P < 0.0001).

The push-door was a more appropriate method of measuring motivation to feed in sheep, as more sheep learned the task in less time than for the operant crate. As measured by the time taken to enter the race, reach the push-door, push through the door and reach the food there was an increase in feeding motivation after only 6h without food.

In September 1998, the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organisations, IAHAIO, held its 8th international conference in Prague, Czechoslovakia entitled ‘The Changing Roles of Animals in Society’. Eight hundred delegates from 42 nations attended this three-day event. At its annual business meeting, just prior to the congress, IAHAIO national members unanimously passed the IAHAIO Prague Guidelines on Animal-Assisted Activities and Animal-Assisted Therapy (reproduced below), designed to protect the persons receiving such services, the programmes offering them and, in particular, the animals involved.

In August 1998, the UK's Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) published its most recent report: addressing the welfare of broiler breeders. Some 780 million broiler chicks are produced annually in the UK and at any one time the national population of broiler breeder hens that produce these chicks is about 6 million. Professor Sir Colin Spedding in his letter (reproduced on page iii of the report) introducing the report to the Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, points out that broiler breeders are relatively valuable birds and that there is a strong commercial incentive to ensure they receive careful husbandry. However, commercial forces do not always pull in the same direction as welfare considerations and they have lead to some particular dilemmas in the welfare of broiler breeders.

The available statistics suggest that some 7 million mice are used annually for scientific procedures in the European Union. More mice are used than any other species. There has been a great deal of attention given to application of the ‘3Rs’ (replacement of animal use, reduction of numbers used, and refinement of techniques) in scientific procedures but there may be room for considerable further improvement in the quality of animals’ lives through improved husbandry. In view of this, about 10 years ago, the British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation (BVAAWF), the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) established a Joint Working Group on Refinement tasked with arranging working parties to define improvements in the husbandry of laboratory animals. This is the third report produced by the Joint Working Group (previous reports covered the removal of blood and rabbit husbandry). The 14 authors comprise experts in a variety of aspects of murine biology, care, and welfare.

It is likely that, under natural conditions, selection for fitness and good feelings are closely coupled. There would, under most circumstances, be no evolutionary advantage for an animal to feel good when its fitness was poor or threatened and, likewise, generally nothing to be gained by feeling bad when fit. In fact, there would be strong selection pressure against such mismatches of feelings and fitness. Pain must hurt enough to serve its purposes such as the guarding of damaged tissues and the provision of sharp lessons about things to be avoided, but not so much that it unnecessarily interferes with other body-maintenance functions such as eating and avoiding predators. Natural selection probably ‘scrutinizes’ the intensities of pleasures and pains very closely and keeps them tightly linked to health and evolutionary fitness.

The UK Government issued a requirement on 1 April 1998 that all establishments designate under the 1986 Act should have an ethical review process (ERP) satisfactorily installed by 1 April 1999. This document, which has been circulated by the Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA) to its members, is a report of a meeting held to formulate guidelines to assist establishments in the process of setting up an ERP. The document builds on the experience of participants who had already had experience of either establishing or running an ERP, and addresses the requirements of an ERP, taking into account that different establishments will have different needs and that therefore the structure of ERPs may differ. The booklet provides a number of excellent bullet points addressing the roles of those involved in an ERP, how to review an existing ERP, and concerns that people may have about such issues as confidentiality or possible delays to experiments. LASA is to be commended for producing such a useful document in a comparatively short time. Moreover, as the ERP is seen as an evolving concept, the booklet should continue to be useful for a number of years to come.

During 1997 a study was carried out on welfare aspects of the exotic animal trade in the Netherlands to provide data for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture in their preparation of animal health and welfare legislation. The summary and conclusions are available in English translation. In a report which provides some interesting statistics on the scale of the trade and keeping of exotic animals as pets in the Netherlands, it is estimated that about 16 million animals are kept as pets, of which some 11 million are birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. There are 2200 pet shops and through these some 1 million birds, 200 000 reptiles and amphibians, and 200 000 small mammals are sold each year. The majority of these are bred in the Netherlands but there are significant importations of wild-caught marine fish, reptiles and amphibians and birds. Welfare problems were identified at the pre-transport, transport, and subsequent stages of the chain from source to buyer. The report recommends that the selling of wild-caught animals to inexperienced pet owners should cease and suggests ways in which this could be brought about including: increasing the availability of captive-bred animals, making wild-caught animals more expensive (eg by taxing their sale), and making it a requirement that wild-caught animals can be sold only through registered outlets.

On 27 July 1998 new regulations came into force in the UK on the husbandry and welfare of calves. These implement EU Council Directive 91/629/EEC, as amended by Directive 97/2/EC, (laying down minimum standards for the protection of calves). Under the new law, calves older than 8 weeks must be kept in groups, unless isolated for veterinary reasons. Furthermore, those kept in individual stalls prior to this age must be able to have direct visual and tactile contact with at least one other calf through perforations in the walls of their stalls. To allow time for changes in housing, these rules will not apply for 5 years to accommodation that was in use on 1 January 1998. Minimum space allowances are also defined both for individual stalls and for group pens.

In what the UK Government are calling the ‘most radical changes to UK quarantine laws for almost a century’ the Advisory Group on Quarantine, chaired by Professor Ian Kennedy, published their review of quarantine legislation in September 1998. The Group was set up to provide the Government with an independent assessment of the risk of introducing rabies to the UK under the current policy of quarantine for pet animals, and under proposed alternative policies; the first review since the Waterhouse Committee reported back in 1971. If the recommendations are accepted, then taking pets on holiday to Europe (not to mention package deals for people and pets) will become a reality for many UK citizens.

The Council of Agriculture Ministers agreed a final text for Directive 98/58/EC concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes in June 1998, and the Directive was formally adopted in July 1998. This Directive sets minimum standards for welfare of livestock throughout the EU and a framework for adoption of more detailed standards for individual farmed species. It is not uncommon in legislation for the taxonomic range of the species covered to be rather poorly defined and often more inclusive than, one guesses, the legislators had in mind (eg specifying ‘bovine animal’ when ‘domestic cow’, rather than any member of the subfamily Bovinae was intended). In this case, it is made clear that the Directive applies only to vertebrate animals kept for farming purposes. However, while Article 3 requires that owners or keepers of any vertebrate animals kept for these purposes ‘…take all reasonable steps to ensure the welfare of animals under their care and to ensure that those animals are not caused any unnecessary pain, suffering or injury’, Article 4 applies only to some vertebrates, thus: ‘Member states shall ensure that the conditions under which animals (other than fish, reptiles or amphibians) are bred or kept‥, comply with the provisions set out in the Annex.’ The provisions in the Annex outline requirements for staffing, inspection, record-keeping, freedom of movement, buildings, accommodation and mechanical equipment, feed and water, mutilations, and breeding procedures. The final paragraph of the Annex, paragraph 21, appears strikingly sweeping and perhaps a potentially powerful force against the use of strains with high prevalences of production diseases. It states: ‘No animal shall be kept for farming purposes unless it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of its genotype or phenotype, that it can be kept without detrimental effect on its health or welfare’. Member states are required to bring the legislation, administrative provisions and sanctions necessary for compliance with the Directive into effect before 31 December 1999.

Following the publication in September 1996 of the Farm Animal Welfare Council's (FAWC) report on the welfare of farmed fish, the UK Government consulted interested parties and has now produced a response taking account of these views. This comprises a 4-page overview document with a 17-page Annex which: (i) outlines the points which the Government proposes for inclusion in a welfare code for farmed fish production; and (ii) lists FAWC's recommendations. Two general points are made regarding the way forward. First, since the recently adopted EU Directive on the protection of farm animals (Council Directive 98/58/EC) does not include any requirements which deal in detail with the welfare of farmed fish, the UK will continue to play an active part in the Council of Europe's negotiations to develop recommendations. Second, the Government proposes that many of FAWC's recommendations should be met by developing voluntary codes of practice with the farmed salmon and trout industries. FAWC made a number of recommendations on the need for research and the Government has prioritized these as follows. First to review commercial slaughter methods for trout and ensure that humane methods are available (Government-funded work is already underway on this). Second, if funds become available, to investigate improved methods for stunning and killing farmed salmon and setting stocking densities. Further research into environmental stimulation and interrelationships between food distribution, fish size and fish welfare is then to be pursued. Other research topics, such as the development of systems which minimize injuries to snout and fins, are viewed as matters for the industry to pursue.

The first report by the UK Independent Scientific Group on cattle TB, chaired by Professor John Bourne, was published in July 1998, giving details of a randomized trial which will involve the extensive culling of badgers. The Group was formed to advise the UK Government on the implementation of the recommendations contained within the Krebs Report on Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle and Badgers, published in 1997 (see, Animal Welfare 7: 217).