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Outputs (18)

Dairy vs. beef production – expert views on welfare of cattle in common food production systems (2022)
Journal Article
Mandel, R., Bracke, M., Nicol, C., Webster, J., & Gygax, L. (2022). Dairy vs. beef production – expert views on welfare of cattle in common food production systems. animal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2022.100622

Consumers’ views and concerns about the welfare of farm animals may play an important role in their decision to consume dairy, meat and/or plants as their primary protein source. As animals are killed prematurely in both dairy and beef industries, it... Read More about Dairy vs. beef production – expert views on welfare of cattle in common food production systems.

Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken (2021)
Journal Article
Abeyesinghe, S., Abeyesinghe, S., Chancellor, N., Hernandez Moore, D., Chang, Y., Pearce, J., …Nicol, C. (2021). Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken. animal, 15(7), Article 100261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2021.100261

Broiler chickens are prone to a range of complex health and welfare issues. To support informed selection of welfare traits whilst minimising impact on production efficiency and to address a major gap in understanding, we systematically explored asso... Read More about Associations between behaviour and health outcomes in conventional and slow-growing breeds of broiler chicken.

Social buffering in horses is influenced by context but not by the familiarity and habituation of a companion (2021)
Journal Article
C, R., CJ, N., T, R., & DS, M. (2021). Social buffering in horses is influenced by context but not by the familiarity and habituation of a companion. Scientific Reports, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88319-z

Social buffering applies when a companion can help to reduce the subject’s stress response during a stressful event and/or help to recover more quickly from a stressful event. The aim of this study was to determine if the social buffering function of... Read More about Social buffering in horses is influenced by context but not by the familiarity and habituation of a companion.

Foraging efficiency, social status and body condition in group-living horses and ponies (2020)
Journal Article
Giles, S., Harris, P. A., Rands, S. A., & Nicol, C. J. (2020). Foraging efficiency, social status and body condition in group-living horses and ponies. PeerJ, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10305

Individual animals experience different costs and benefits associated with group living, which may impact on their foraging efficiency in ways not yet well specified. This study investigated associations between social dominance, body condition and i... Read More about Foraging efficiency, social status and body condition in group-living horses and ponies.

Anthropogenic Threats to Wild Cetacean Welfare and a Tool to Inform Policy in This Area (2020)
Journal Article
Nicol, C., Bejder, L., Green, L., Johnson, C., Keeling, L., Noren, D., …Simmonds, M. (2020). Anthropogenic Threats to Wild Cetacean Welfare and a Tool to Inform Policy in This Area. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.00057

Human activities and anthropogenic environmental changes are having a profound effect on biodiversity and the sustainability and health of many populations and species of wild mammals. There has been less attention devoted to the impact of human acti... Read More about Anthropogenic Threats to Wild Cetacean Welfare and a Tool to Inform Policy in This Area.

From Unpleasant to Unbearable - Why And How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain And Other Forms of Suffering in Research with Animals (2020)
Journal Article
Olsson, I. A. S., Nicol, C. J., Niemi, S. M., & Sandøe, P. (2020). From Unpleasant to Unbearable - Why And How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain And Other Forms of Suffering in Research with Animals. ILAR Journal, https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar/ilz018

The focus of this paper is the requirement that the use of live animals in experiments and in vivo assays should never be allowed if those uses involve severe suffering. This requirement was first implemented in Danish legislation, was later adopted... Read More about From Unpleasant to Unbearable - Why And How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain And Other Forms of Suffering in Research with Animals.

The Ethics of Laying Hen Genetics (2019)
Journal Article
Fernyhough, M., Nicol, C. J., Van De Braak, T., Toscano, M. J., & Tønnessen, M. (2019). The Ethics of Laying Hen Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-019-09810-2

Despite societal concerns about the welfare of commercial laying hens, little attention has been paid to the welfare implications of the choices made by the genetics companies involved with their breeding. These choices regarding trait selection and... Read More about The Ethics of Laying Hen Genetics.

Light-based monitoring devices to assess range use by laying hens (2019)
Journal Article
Buijis, S., Nicol, C. J., Booth, F., Richards, G., & Tarlton, J. F. (2019). Light-based monitoring devices to assess range use by laying hens. animal, 14(4), 814-823. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731119002830

Access to an outdoor range has many potential benefits for laying hens but range use can be poor due to factors only partly understood. Techniques to monitor individual range use within commercial flocks are crucial to increase our understanding of t... Read More about Light-based monitoring devices to assess range use by laying hens.

The impact of early structural enrichment on spatial cognition in layer chicks (2019)
Journal Article
Norman, K. I., Adriaense, J., & Nicol, C. J. (2019). The impact of early structural enrichment on spatial cognition in layer chicks. Behavioural Processes, 164, 167-174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.008

The aim of the study was to determine whether early access to elevated structures affects spatial navigational abilities. Ninety six day-old chicks were reared in 16 pens. Eight pens were provided with A-frame perches with an attached platform and a... Read More about The impact of early structural enrichment on spatial cognition in layer chicks.