Animal Welfare EXAM 2

Five Freedoms

Hunger and Thirst | Discomfort | Pain, Injury, and Disease | Express Normal Behavior | Fear and Distress

Umvelt

The way in which organisms of a particular species perceive and experience the world

What is umvelt shaped by

Sensory organs and perceptual systems

What are the 5 senses

Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch

Photoreceptors

light-detecting cells

Opsins

Proteins in all photoreceptors

Every animal that can see does so with

Opsins

Photoreceptors only, without any eyes

Detect light only

Photoreceptor no eyes example

Jelly fish, octopus skin

Shaded photoreceptors

Detect light and infer its direction

Clusters of photoreceptors

true eyes but poor vision (see light and infer multiple directions to see large shapes)

Complex eyes

Full vision with depth perception and increased acuity (may or may not have color)

Migrating birds

Shift behavior in response to skyblow

What does light pulltion do to migrating birds

Increased circling, vocalizations, and death from exhaustion/collision

Spring migration

March 15 through May 31

Fall migration

August 15 - November 30

Panoramic vision

Vision exceeding 300 degrees, can see without turning head

Example of panoramic vision

Dairy cows

Downside of panoramic vision

High-contrast patterns like sharp shadows (transition from light to dark sucks)

Odorants

Molecules that contain “smell”

What are nasal passages coated with

Olfactory epithelium

Epithelium has

long neurons with odorant receptors

Passage of smell

Inhale, odorant → nasal passage → all the way back to olfactory bulb

Compared to humans dogs have

More olfactory epithelium, dozens of times more olfactory receptors, larger olfactory bulb in the brain

Primary sense of dogs

Smell

What effect did scented toys have on shelter dogs (main finding)

Increased toy interaction/time, Decreased stress behavior, increased exploration

What were the behavior effects of scent only due to increased toy use

No, scent altered behavior overall.

Methods of detecting environment chemicals

Taste and Smell

Tastes uses the

Hindbrain (basic vital function)

Smell uses the

Forebrain (memory and learning)

Taste is what kind of mechanism

Safety Mechanism

Types of taste

Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salty, Umami

What is NOT a taste

Spicy

Whales only taste

Salty

Carnivores can’t taste

Sweet

Most Herbivores have

sensitive taste receptors for bitter

Taste is not always

Sensed through the tongue

What can taste also be sensed by

Smell, Feet, Legs

Cats are sensitive to

bitter

Cats prefer

Oil based medications over water based medications

Touch is processed through

the Somatosensory cortex

Humans tactile region

Hands, lips, genitals

Mice and cats tactile region

Whiskers

Platypus tactile region

Bill

Naked mole rats tactile region

teeth

Touch can be a sense of

direct, physical contact

What can touch also be linked to

Vibrations, currents, textures, or pressures

Whisker Fatigue

A hypothesized fatigue in which a cat when their whiskers eat from deep bowls can cause sensory overload

What did the study find in Whisker Fatigue

that whisker-friendly cat bowls did not significantly improve eating behavior in cats

Whale songs can travel

~1500 miles

In addition to the main senses mammals also have

Proprioception, Equilibrioception, Thermoreceptors

Proprioception

Awareness or sense of own body in space

Equilibrioception

Sense of balance

Thermoreceptors

Sense of heat/cold

Echolocation

Using sound waves to map space

Electrolocation

Able to sense distortions in their electric field so they can map space around them

Electrocommunication

Dedicated organs to sense electric signals only from other fish of the same species

Magnetoreception

Sense of magnetic field mostly for navigation

Stress can be

Physical, Mental/Emotional, or both

Adrenal Cortex

Produces steroid hormones

Zona glomerulosa

Produces mineralcorticoids such as aldosterone

Zona fasciculata

Produces glucocorticoids like cortisol

Zona reticularis

Produces androgens such as testosterone and estrogen

Cortisol is

A major stress hormone produced by the zona fasciculata

Adrenal Medulla

Produces catecholamines

The Adrenal Medulla is a part of the

Sympathoadrenal axis and Responsible for fight or flight

HPA axis includes

Hypothalamus, Pituitary gland, Adrenal glands

Cortisol function

Increases blood glucose, suppresses inflammation, Helps maintain blood pressure

Cortisol can used to assess

An animal’s stress level

Drawbacks to using cortisol to assess stress

Can spike due to exercise or arousal

Catecholamine examples

Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, Dopamine

Why are Catecholamines released

When the body receives an external or environmental stimuli which activates pre-ganglionic sympathetic fibers to release acetylecholine which then stimulates to adrenal medulla to release

Epinephrines correlates with

Adrenaline

Norephinephrine correlates with

Noradrenaline

What do catecholamines do

Increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rat, body temperature, blood glucose levels, mental acuity, dilate bronchi, and alter blood flow

We can measure Catecholamines in

Directly in Plasma or Serum, and indirectly through HR, RR, and BP

How are Catecholamines typically measured

With high performance liquid chromatography

Catecholamines compared to Cortisol

They are quickly broken down in blood and used less commonly in research than cortisol

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Variation in time between heartbeats

HIGH HRV

Balanced autonomic nervous system → lower stress

LOW HRV

Sympathetic dominance → greater stress

Sheep when grooming have a

Higher HRV

Sheep when in isolation have a

Lower HRV

Respiratory Rate increases with

Stress Response

Sheep when grooming have what RR

Lower RR

Stress looks like

HR increase, RR increase, HRV decrease

Stress induced hyperthermia

Short-lived increase in core body temperature caused by stress

Stress can negatively affect

Meat Quality | Reproduction | Weight/growth | Immune function

When does meat pH change

During glycogen mobilization being increase when stress is increased

Low pH meat can become

Pale, Soft, Exudative, Altered color, Have bacterial growth

PSE

Pale, Soft, Exudatice

Stress can affect reproduction by

Decreasing reproductive hormones and capacity

Reproductive hormones

Prolactin, FSH, LH

Chronic Stress can lead to

Weight loss, Decreased growth rate, low BCS

Activation of HPA axis

Immunosupression

Social Stress can cause

An increase in Neutrophils and decrease in Lymphocyte proliferation

New Environments can cause stress which leads to

Immune suppression which then leads to unfamiliar pathogens then greater disease risk

There has been an increasing scientific consensus that

Crustaceans do feel pain

Humane Slaughter methods for lobster

Dry electrical stunning, or in salt water

Lobsters prefer

Solitude, Darkness, Cold temps