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Waitrose and SRUC team up to understand animals' emotions
"There is so much knowledge among the farmers already about the way animals express themselves, but a lot of it is implicit and goes unspoken."

Study will analyse the expressive body language of animals in the supply chain

Leading supermarket Waitrose has teamed up with Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) in a bid to further understand the emotions of animals used in the supply chain.

The pioneering study aims to identify and promote positive expressions of animals' welfare and achieve the best quality of life for farm animals supplying Waitrose produce.

It will be carried out by the Waitrose and Partners Animal Welfare Development Group – an expert panel of vets, scientists and farmers - in conjunction with Professor Françoise Wemelsfelder, animal welfare and behaviour specialist at SRUC.

Key to the study will be the Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) toolkit, developed by Prof Wemelsfelder to analyse the expressive body language of animals when interacting with each other and their surroundings. The system consolidates the actions, such as 'curious' or 'scared', into a framework that can provide an insight into an animal's emotional state.

Prof Wemelsfelder explains: “For any given species, you need a list of about 20 terms to describe both the positive and negative aspects of the animals’ emotional range. Is the animal relaxed, playful, confident or curious? Is it tense, frustrated, agitated or bored? Then you scale the intensity of this expressivity. It’s bored? Well, how bored? It’s content? How content? The scale starts at zero for ‘not at all content’ and goes up to ten for ‘couldn’t be more content’.”

By scoring a significant number of terms in this way, researchers will be able to identify  patterns that can reveal how an animal is generally feeling.

The researchers aim to develop lists of descriptors for pigs, laying hens, dairy cows, chickens, ducks and veal calves. These lists will then be converted into an 'on-the-go' app that Waitrose inspectors can use when visiting farms to ensure a high standard of welfare.

“There is so much knowledge among the farmers already about the way animals express themselves, but a lot of it is implicit and goes unspoken,” continued Prof Wemelsfelder. “The toolkit will formalise this and give people confidence to say, ‘Let’s do something with the knowledge that we have.”

Andrew Booth, chair of the development group, added: “We know that Waitrose & Partners has always led the way when it comes to animal welfare, but what we wanted was to create a framework to assess this welfare, to show what we’re doing well and to identify areas for improvement.”

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

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News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.