Relationships between behaviour and health in working horses, donkeys, and mules in developing countries
Relationships between behaviour and health in working horses, donkeys, and mules in developing countries
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.applanim.2010.06.007
复制
发表时间：
2010-09-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Whay, Helen R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Burn, Charlotte C.;Dennison, Tania L.;Whay, Helen R.
最近的研究提出了严重的福利问题，约9360万匹马，驴和骡子在发展中国家。大多数马科动物被用于贫困社区的工作，并且通常患有伤口、身体状况差、呼吸道疾病、寄生虫、牙齿问题和跛行。非身体福利问题，如对人类的恐惧，也是令人关注的。改善工作马科动物福利的干预措施旨在优先考虑对动物主观体验的福利造成最严重影响的条件，但缺乏确定这些可能是哪些条件的数据。在这里，我们描述了一个阶段的行为福利指标的验证，形成一个工作的马福利评估协议的一部分。在4年多的时间里，研究人员从9个发展中国家的5481头驴、4504匹马和858头骡子身上收集了行为和身体数据。行为包括动物的一般警觉性，以及它们对4个人类互动测试的反应，这些测试使用不熟悉的观察者作为人类刺激。在人类互动测试中，回避行为彼此之间存在显着相关性，21%的动物回避观察者，但它们与可能的人为伤害没有任何联系超过13%的马科动物表现出“冷漠”：昏睡而不是警觉在五项测试中，反应迟钝的措施彼此相关，并且与身体状况差，粘膜颜色异常有关。粪便污染、眼睛异常、更严重的伤口和年老，这表明身体健康状况不佳的工作马表现出反应迟钝的行为特征，与疾病行为、疲惫、慢性疼痛或抑郁样状态一致（C）2010 Elsevier B V保留所有权利
Recent studies raise serious welfare concerns regarding the estimated 93 6 million horses, donkeys and mules in developing countries. Most equids are used for work in poor communities, and are commonly afflicted with wounds, poor body condition, respiratory diseases, parasites, dental problems, and lameness Non-physical welfare problems, such as fear of humans, are also of concern Interventions to improve working equine welfare aim to prioritise the conditions that cause the most severe impositions on the animals' subjectively experienced welfare, but data identifying which conditions these may be, are lacking. Here we describe a stage in the validation of behavioural welfare indicators that form part of a working equine welfare assessment protocol. Over 4 years, behavioural and physical data were collected from 5481 donkeys, 4504 horses, and 858 mules across nine developing countries Behaviours included the animals' general alertness, and their responses to four human-interaction tests, using the unfamiliar observer as the human stimulus. Avoidance behaviours con elated significantly with each other across the human-interaction tests, with 21% of animals avoiding the observer, but they showed no associations with likely anthropogenic injuries Over 13% of equids appeared 'apathetic': lethargic rather than alert Measures of unresponsiveness correlated with each other across the five tests, and were associated with poor body condition, abnormal mucous membrane colour. faecal soiling, eye abnormalities, more severe wounds, and older age, depending on the equine species This suggests that working equids in poor physical health show an unresponsive behavioural profile, consistent with sickness behaviour, exhaustion, chronic pain, or depression-like states (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved