Individual gestation housing of pregnant sows in stalls from four weeks after mating is banned in the EU. Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of two gestation management and housing systems (STALL: gilts housed in stalls and PEN: gilts loose-housed in pens with increased feed ratio) on gilt and piglet performance during lactation. Thirty-seven PEN and 33 STALL gilts were used. Backfat, litter pre-weaning mortality and total feed intake (TFI) during lactation were recorded in gilts. Weight and rectal temperature was recorded in piglets. In Exp 1 the behaviour of a subsample of gilts was videotaped during lactation. In Exp 2 saliva cortisol in gilts, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and T4 hormones in piglet blood were measured. PEN gilts had more backfat when moved to the farrowing stalls. PEN gilts tended to have higher cortisol concentration 24 h after entering the farrowing stall and to spend more time sitting or standing up one day before parturition than STALL gilts. PEN piglets had higher bodyweight (BW) on day 0 (Exp 2) and lower T4 concentration than STALL piglets. However, STALL piglets showed higher rectal temperature 60 min after birth and lower mortality at day 2. In Exp 2, STALL piglets also had higher BW and average daily gain at weaning. During lactation, PEN gilts lost more backfat and weaned less piglets. Gilts loose-housed with increased feed ratio during gestation might be more stressed when housed in farrowing stalls than those kept in stalls during gestation, thus compromising their offsprings’ thermoregulatory capacity and growth however, from our results, it is difficult to differentiate the effect of feed level from the effect of allocation during gestation.

Reproductive medicine is one of the fastest developing fields of veterinary medicine. Regulation of veterinary-assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is currently divided between the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (1986), the Veterinary Surgeons Act (1966), and the Animal Welfare Act (2006). None of those pieces of legislation was purpose designed to protect the welfare of animals undergoing ARTs, either directly or by determining which veterinary ART procedures may or may not be performed. Consequently, due to the lack of reference to such procedures, the welfare protection aims of the legislation are sometimes ambiguous. It is therefore difficult to ascertain whether the aims of the legislation are being fulfilled but, in the opinion of this author, the legislation is anyway inadequate in scope, most particularly because it fails to provide a reporting function. It is unclear whether all or any veterinary ART procedures being undertaken on post-natal animals are associated with suffering. Some ARTs may cause discomfort, stress or pain: study or review of the welfare effects of these would be valuable. Any future review of the legislation regulating veterinary ARTs, be that an overall review or a review of one of the relevant statutes (for example the VSA), should take into account the interface between research and clinical medicine; the potentially welfare-compromising gaps between the Acts, the need to introduce reporting functions in order to build an evidence base, and the issue of veterinary specialisation and whether specialised techniques should be carried out only by those with specialist post-graduate qualifications.

Animal welfare enhancement requires that problems are reliably identified and ranked in order to prioritise corrective actions. Welfare problems vary with the conditions in which animals are maintained. The objectives were to highlight major welfare problems for dairy cows on farms in France, and find out how farm characteristics (housing and milking systems, breed) could impact specific welfare aspects on these farms. We conducted a cross-sectional survey on 131 French dairy farms. We used the Welfare Quality® protocol, which addresses all aspects of welfare, and yields scores for principles and criteria that represent how well farms meet welfare requirements (from 0 for a very adverse situation to 100 for an excellent one). We used descriptive statistics to highlight low welfare scores, and variance analyses to compare farms. Most farms were found ‘Acceptable’ according to the Welfare Quality® classification. Principles scores for Health, Feeding and Behaviour ranged from 33 to 39. The median score for eight of the welfare criteria was below 50 (‘Pain’, ‘Integument alterations’, ‘Diseases’, ‘Comfort around resting’, ‘Social behaviours’, ‘Human-animal relationship’, ‘Positive emotional state’, ‘Hunger’), while the median score was above 50 for the four other criteria (‘Thirst’, ‘Lameness’, ‘Expression of other behaviours’, ‘Ease of movement’). The scores varied widely between farms, within and between systems. Farms with cubicles obtained lower scores for ‘Comfort around resting’, ‘Injuries’; farms with Holstein cows obtained lower scores for ‘Hunger’; farms using an automatic milking system obtained lower scores for ‘Expression of other behaviours’ and ‘Diseases’ in Holstein herds. This survey yields information on bottlenecks in dairy cow welfare with all dimensions of welfare considered together. The results can be used by stakeholders to prioritise corrective actions in welfare plans, focusing either on the whole population of farms or on farms with characteristics that are at high risk for specific welfare problems.

Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) encounter a plethora of anthropogenic risks as a result of their ability to exploit humanaltered environments. A systematic assessment of these risks has not been carried out to date. Here, we aim to begin addressing this gap in our understanding of human-vervet conflict in South Africa. We present a descriptive analysis of the intake of the Vervet Monkey Foundation (VMF) — a specialist vervet monkey rehabilitation centre and sanctuary in the Limpopo Province. Between October 2003 and March 2012 almost 200 vervet monkeys arrived at the VMF. At least 161 infants arrived with a steady decrease in annual intake over time, most probably due to the increasing number of other centres in the province. Detailed data for all age classes were available from March 2009 to March 2012. Of the 50 monkeys that arrived during this period, more young monkeys (infants and juveniles) than adults arrived and more infants than juveniles. Intake of injured and uninjured monkeys was equal. The majority of injuries were caused by cars and the majority of uninjured arrivals were ex-pets handed over voluntarily. A distinct temporal pattern of arrival, peaking in the austral summer, coincides with the birthing season of vervet monkeys in South Africa. The merits of publishing such records and the welfare implications of the perceptions of and objections to these ‘pest’ primates are discussed.

There have been many improvements regarding transport conditions, pre-slaughter handling, and captive-bolt stunning of cattle at commercial abattoirs, but many challenges still exist. Animals unaccustomed to human-animal contact, such as free-range beef cattle, may be especially difficult to handle on the day of slaughter. Shifting of the slaughter process from the abattoir to the animals’ familiar environment could improve animal welfare at slaughter. In 2011, the German government passed an amendment allowing farmers to slaughter free-range cattle, on-farm, using a rifle. A proper stun is vital when employing this method but neither sufficient practical experience nor scientific knowledge are in place to allow this. Thus, this study aimed to examine shot placement and the effect of diverse ammunition by means of shooting at cattle heads, post mortem, with a rifle. Impact was assessed using brain tissue damage observed from skull dissections. Placing the shot frontally at the forehead resulted in severe brain damage significantly more frequently than targeting laterally. A precise frontal shot, utilising both large and small bore calibres, caused severe brain damage that would almost certainly have led to immediate unconsciousness and death. One of the small bore calibres caused minimal brain damage apart from the trajectory. However, this was the only calibre not passing straight through. Due to the fact that the bullet remains within the skull, thus transferring all of its energy to the skull and brain, the impact of this calibre on the brain would also be expected to be rapidly fatal. A projectile that does not exit the skull would also be advantageous as regards safety.