Welfare Emotions 2

Components of Emotion

1) Subjective – what the animal feels, 2) Behavioral – what the animal displays, 3) Neurophysiological – how the body responds.

Fear

The universal survival emotion that helps protect animals from injury.

Anxiety

Anxiety is a reaction to a potential threat

Fear

fear is a response to an actual danger.

Factors Altering Fear

Evolutionary history (innate fears) and learned experiences (conditioned fear).

Fear Behaviors

Active defense, avoidance, alarm calls, postural changes, and facial expressions depending on threat type.

Social Influences on Fear

Social stimuli like alarm calls, odors, or isolation can elicit or modulate fear.

Fear Assessment Methods

Novel arena test, novel object test, confinement, handling, predator test, startle test, conditioned test.

Welfare Concerns of Fear

Fear can cause panic injuries, depression, anxiety, and disrupt normal behaviors.

Temple Grandin

Professor known for developing low-stress livestock handling systems that reduce fear responses.

Pain Definition

An unpleasant subjective experience caused by tissue injury or harmful stimulation; protective but can cause suffering.

Somatic Pain

Originates from skin, muscles, or joints; sharp or stabbing.

Visceral Pain

Originates from internal organs; dull and diffuse.

Fast vs Slow Pain

Fast pain is sharp and travels via myelinated fibers; slow pain is dull and travels via unmyelinated fibers.

Four Aspects of Sensory Reception

Modality (type), Location (site), Intensity (strength), Duration (length).

Spontaneous Pain

pain without cause

Pain Assessment Methods

Physiological responses, quantitative sensory testing, and behavioral observation.

Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST)

Controlled noxious stimulus used to measure withdrawal reaction time and pain threshold.

Challenges in Pain Management

Human bias, limited data, economic and food safety concerns, drug availability.

Endogenous Pain Control

Endorphins and opioids produced by the body that block pain transmission and create euphoria.

Exogenous Pain Control

Includes local anesthetics, NSAIDs, and anesthesia.

Hyperalgesia,

(exaggerated response)

Allodynia

(pain to non-painful stimuli).