This study introduces Health Technology Assessment (HTA) — a systematic, evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to assessing human health technologies, aimed at supporting decision-making in health policy and clinical practice — into laboratory animal science. A conceptual presentation is provided on how the assessment concept of HTA can be adapted to procedures in laboratory animal science (LAS), using phenotyping of mutant mice as an example of how decision-making in this particular setting can be supported. Since a full HTA can be a comprehensive task, a limited version, the Mini-HTA, is introduced, and a proposal for an adapted Mini-HTA form of assessment of phenotyping protocols is presented. It is the conclusion of this study that the principles of HTA could improve the decision-making process, resulting in increased validity of scientific results and animal welfare.

The gulf between ethical propositions of animal welfare and the scientific basis of wildlife conservation has, at times, impeded a practical working relationship between the two (Harrop 2003). Indeed, quite often the two disciplines are capable of looking in different directions. The conservationist fixes on the species and its population status whilst the welfarist focuses on any animal, regardless of its conservation status, that is phylogenetically sophisticated enough to be capable of suffering. In consequence, welfare components are rare in international wildlife management law and are restricted to being subordinate to conservation objects (Harrop 1997, 2010). Nevertheless, the two disciplines are moving closer in many ways with the development of scientific indicators of welfare and also the need to refine the principal drivers of conservation strategies which must ultimately derive from an ethical objective. In this connection, the recent review of the CBD's strategy at Nagoya founded its new targets on a vision of ‘Living in Harmony With Nature’ (Harrop 2011c). Such an achievement would probably be a first for humanity and an utterly impractical aspiration. However, I would like to construe this vision, with the freedom of poetic licence, as conceiving both a materially and ethically harmonious future for humans and animals.

Understanding the way in which animals perceive important features of their environment, and how this information may be stored and used, underpins the study of the impact of husbandry systems on animal welfare. Research into incentive contrast in laboratory animals has indicated that they can store and use information about stimuli associated with situations or resources. If cognitive processes are used, the relevant stimuli associated with a resource or event are encoded, allowing comparisons to be made when the key stimuli are changed. The presence and quality of this comparison, negative or positive, can be ascertained by assessing the change in the animal's level of appetitive or operant responding in order to gain access to the situation on the subsequent trial. We wished to determine whether the presence of a sudden change in appetitive response, such as speed of approach to an area following a change in incentive features of a resource or event in that area, is shown by the domestic chicken. This would indicate the presence of a cognitive comparison of incentives. The magnitude of such a change may also provide a measure of the welfare impact of the change. In the first experiment, 16 groups of four broiler chicks were trained to run a maze to an area where they received a high quality test diet. After training, the test diet of eight groups was changed to a low quality diet that all groups had been receiving in their home pens. Compared to the control unchanged groups, the experimental birds took increasingly longer to run the maze on successive post-change trials; the decrease reaching significance on the fourth post-change trial (P < 0.05). The behaviour of the chicks on the day of the change was indicative of frustration, with greater activity and redirected foraging shown (P < 0.05). Although there was no definitive evidence of cognitive processing which would have been shown by an immediate decrease in approach speed, this may have been due in part to the testing of groups of chicks. However, the occurrence of a frustration reaction indicated that some cognitive representation of food quality may have been present. In a second experiment, individual adult hens were trained to run a runway for access to food or water, while food- or water-deprived, respectively. Every fourth trial in a total of 16 trials, access to the resource was thwarted by a clear plastic lid on the dish. Time taken to traverse the runway was significantly longer on the two trials following this experience (P < 0.05), with no effect of repetition of thwarting (P > 0.05), indicating that the experience of thwarting was aversive. These results indicated that chickens appear to be able to store and use information on incentives. Additionally, with appropriate experimental design, an incentive contrast paradigm might be used to assess birds’ perception of the quality of changes in incentives.

The aim of this study was to assess the welfare of culled dairy cattle sent to an auction in the UK and identify associations between animal-based measurement and economic gain. The population of cull dairy cows sold at a Scottish livestock market were assessed on ten occasions for measures including body condition, mobility, hair loss and lesions, swelling, body cleanliness, claw conformation and total time in pre-sale pens. Details on breed, age, breeding status, farm, weight and price were gathered from market reports and cattle passports. Questionnaires sent to farms gathered information on reason for culling, retirement period (a finishing period to improve body condition), and number of lactations, among other variables. Measures such as bodyweight, breeding status, and breed type influenced price paid, with heifers and larger animals receiving higher prices. A negative effect over price paid was due to reduced mobility and hair loss scores, suggesting that some animal-based indicators of compromised welfare may be associated with a lower economic return from the cows sent to market. No influence of retirement length on price paid was noted. Reason for culling also did not influence price paid, but considering the association found between welfare and price paid, this suggests that the farmers’ reason for culling may not be necessarily revealed by the visual appearance of the cow. This study reveals reasons for culling and quantifies the welfare of dairy cows at market and demonstrates how measures of breeding status and body size, as well as measures of welfare, influence the buyers’ decisions and prices paid at auction.

Changes in plasma Cortisol concentrations in response to a stimulus have been used to indicate aversiveness. Hormone concentrations at any time point depend on the interaction between an animal's previous experience and its present physiological state. In order to assess how an animal's perception of, and thus its response to, a stimulus change as it gains experience of the stimulus, eight Welsh Mountain ewes were subject to 2h road transport daily on three occasions and then once again 4 days later. Differences in Cortisol concentrations in plasma samples taken every 15min were assessed using a general linear model and Tukey's test.

This study was designed to determine whether feedback from welfare assessments, using the Horse Welfare Assessment Protocol, affected actual horse welfare in 21 stables. After the first assessment, stable managers in the high feedback (HF; n = 10 stables) group were supplied with extensive information and support regarding the welfare measures and relevance of the results. The low feedback (LF; n = 11 stables) group only received the results without additional information. Upon re-assessment, six months later, no significant changes were seen in the stable overall (SO) score in either group. Significant changes occurred in individual measures; in the HF group more fresh-air inlets were open but water drinker function and ocular discharge deteriorated. In the LF group, the feeding troughs were cleaner but mane and tail condition deteriorated. Both groups had cleaner water troughs and less equipment chafing but the sum of relative air humidity (RH) and temperature (T) deteriorated. Significant decreases occurred in the stable welfare issues (SWI) score; the HF group decreased from 93.3 to 72.0 and the LF group from 113.3 to 91.3. There were also nonsignificant changes; in the HF group, 71 measures and five stables improved while 63 measures and five stables (50%) deteriorated. In the LF group, 65 measures and seven stables improved while 62 measures and four stables deteriorated. The observed improvements in both groups suggest that assessment alone (with no detailed feedback) might raise awareness but we cannot yet conclude whether or not the type of feedback affects overall horse welfare.

It is my conviction that all animals, including invertebrates, possess a mind. This conviction is not based on scientific evidence. We are unable to observe the mind directly. According to the principle of parsimony, I assume that body and mind are two aspects of the same. This assumption predicts that it will always be possible to find a bodily explanation, implying that it will never be possible to perform an experiment that proves that a mind is present in any animal species, including human beings. As a result, it will never be possible to prove scientifically that my conviction that all animals possess a mind is correct or wrong.

Animal models are a key component of translational medicine, helping transfer scientific findings into practical applications for human health. A fundamental principle of research ethics involves weighing the benefits of the research to society against the burden imposed on the animals used for scientific purposes. The utilisation of wild animals for research requires evaluation of the effects of capture and invasive sampling. Determining the severity and duration of these interventions on the animal’s physiology and behaviour allows for refining study methodology and for excluding or accounting for biased data. In this study, 39 Scandinavian brown bears (Ursus arctos) captured either while hibernating in winter or via helicopter in summer and that underwent surgery as part of a human health project had their movement, body temperature and timing of onset of hibernation compared with those of 14 control bears that had not been captured during the same period. Bears captured in winter and summer showed decreased movement from den exit until late summer, compared to those in the control group. Bears captured in summer showed reduced movement and body temperature for at least, respectively, 14 and 3 days, with an 11% decrease in hourly distance, compared to pre-capture levels, but did not differ in the timing of hibernation onset. We reveal that brown bear behaviour and physiology can be altered in response to capture and surgery for days to months, post-capture. This has broad implications for the conclusions of wildlife studies that rely upon invasive sampling.