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Lifting laboratory rats: a survey of methods, handlers’ reasons and concerns, and rat behavioural responses (2023)
Journal Article
Burn, C., Camacho, T., & Hockenhull, J. (2023). Lifting laboratory rats: a survey of methods, handlers’ reasons and concerns, and rat behavioural responses. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 268, Article 106077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2023.106077

Lifting mice by the tail is of animal welfare and scientific concern, but rat lifting methods are little researched, potentially differing from mice. Using an online questionnaire we explored different methods for lifting laboratory rats, alongside h... Read More about Lifting laboratory rats: a survey of methods, handlers’ reasons and concerns, and rat behavioural responses.

Ear health and quality of life in pet rabbits of differing ear conformations: a UK questionnaire survey of signalment risk factors and effects on rabbit welfare and behaviour (2023)
Journal Article
Chivers, B., Keeler, M., & Burn, C. (2023). Ear health and quality of life in pet rabbits of differing ear conformations: a UK questionnaire survey of signalment risk factors and effects on rabbit welfare and behaviour. PLoS ONE, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285372

The impacts of ear disease on animal welfare and behaviour are little documented. Ear disease may be common in rabbits, but difficult to recognise, and lop-ears have previously been indicated as a risk factor for ear disease. We aimed to better under... Read More about Ear health and quality of life in pet rabbits of differing ear conformations: a UK questionnaire survey of signalment risk factors and effects on rabbit welfare and behaviour.

Is UK Puppy Purchasing Suffering a Long COVID Effect? Ongoing Negative Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic upon Puppy Purchase Motivations and Behaviours in 2021 (2023)
Journal Article
Brand, C., Packer, R., Brand, C., Belshaw, Z., Pegram, C., Dale, F., …O'Neill, D. (2023). Is UK Puppy Purchasing Suffering a Long COVID Effect? Ongoing Negative Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic upon Puppy Purchase Motivations and Behaviours in 2021. Animals, 13(13), 2186. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132186

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in acquisitions of puppies in the UK, dubbed the “Pandemic Puppy” phenomenon. In addition to an increased demand for puppies, widespread changes to both why and how puppies were purchased during this period compar... Read More about Is UK Puppy Purchasing Suffering a Long COVID Effect? Ongoing Negative Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic upon Puppy Purchase Motivations and Behaviours in 2021.

Ear disease in pet rabbits: owner-reported data from a UK survey 2021-2022 (2023)
Dataset
Chivers, B., Keeler, M., & Burn, C. (in press). Ear disease in pet rabbits: owner-reported data from a UK survey 2021-2022. [Dataset]

Methods, analysis and interpretation of these data are published in Chivers, B. D., Keeler, M. R. D., and Burn, C. C. (2023) Ear health and quality of life in pet rabbits of differing ear conformations: a UK survey of owner-reported signalment risk... Read More about Ear disease in pet rabbits: owner-reported data from a UK survey 2021-2022.

Individual Monitoring of Activity and Lameness in Conventional and Slower-Growing Breeds of Broiler Chickens Using Accelerometers (2023)
Journal Article
Pearce, J., Chang, Y. R., & Abeyesinghe, S. (2023). Individual Monitoring of Activity and Lameness in Conventional and Slower-Growing Breeds of Broiler Chickens Using Accelerometers. Animals, 13(9), 1432. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13091432

Accelerometers are increasingly being investigated to detect animal behaviour as a method for monitoring individual welfare that overcomes manual challenges associated with time, re-source, and discrete sampling. We investigated the effects of broile... Read More about Individual Monitoring of Activity and Lameness in Conventional and Slower-Growing Breeds of Broiler Chickens Using Accelerometers.

Expert assessment of the impact of ship-strikes on cetacean welfare using the Welfare Assessment Tool for Wild Cetaceans (2023)
Journal Article
Rae, F., Nicol, C., & Simmonds, M. (2023). Expert assessment of the impact of ship-strikes on cetacean welfare using the Welfare Assessment Tool for Wild Cetaceans. Animal Welfare Journal, 32, Article e18. https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2023.7

Human activities are increasingly impacting our oceans and the focus of attention tends to be on their environmental impacts, rather than consequences for animal welfare. Global shipping density has quadrupled since 1992. Unsurprisingly, increased le... Read More about Expert assessment of the impact of ship-strikes on cetacean welfare using the Welfare Assessment Tool for Wild Cetaceans.

Applying clinical audit for quality improvement in canine dystocia cases seen at a UK primary-care emergency practice (2023)
Journal Article
O'Neill, D., Leicester, L., Reid, A., Marshall, R., & Gilbert, S. (2023). Applying clinical audit for quality improvement in canine dystocia cases seen at a UK primary-care emergency practice. Veterinary Record, https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.2485

Background: The paucity of published veterinary clinical audits suggests that clinical audit is an under-used tool for quality improvement (QI) in the veterinary profession. Therefore, a continuous QI process was designed and implemented at a UK m... Read More about Applying clinical audit for quality improvement in canine dystocia cases seen at a UK primary-care emergency practice.