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Bombail V, Brown SM, Martin JE, Meddle SL, Mendl M, Robinson ES, Hammond TJ, Nielsen BL, LaFollette MR, Vinuela-Fernandez I, Tivey EK, Lawrence AB. Stage 1 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats. F1000Res 2022; 11:1053. [PMID: 36636473 PMCID: PMC9811030 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.125649.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Rat tickling is a heterospecific interaction for experimenters to mimic the interactions of rat play, where they produce 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USV), symptoms of positive affect; tickling can improve laboratory rat welfare. The standard rat tickling protocol involves gently pinning the rat in a supine position. However, individual response to this protocol varies. This suggests there is a risk that some rats may perceive tickling as only a neutral experience, while others as a positive one, depending on how tickling is performed. Based on our research experiences of the standard tickling protocol we have developed a playful handling (PH) protocol, with reduced emphasis on pinning, intended to mimic more closely the dynamic nature of play. We will test whether our PH protocol gives rise to more uniform increases in positive affect across individuals relative to protocols involving pinning. We will compare the response of juvenile male and female Wistar rats as: Control (hand remains still against the side of the test arena), P0 (PH with no pinning), P1 (PH with one pin), P4 (PH with four pins). P1 and P4 consist of a background of PH, with treatments involving administration of an increasing dosage of pinning per PH session. We hypothesise that rats exposed to handling protocols that maximise playful interactions (where pinning number per session decreases) will show an overall increase in total 50 kHz USV as an indicator of positive affect, with less variability. We will explore whether behavioural and physiological changes associated with alterations in PH experience are less variable. We propose that maximising the numbers of rats experiencing tickling as a positive experience will reduce the variation in response variables affected by tickling and increase the repeatability of research where tickling is applied either as a social enrichment or as a treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincent Bombail
- Animal Behaviour and Welfare group, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, EH9 3RG, UK,
| | - Sarah M. Brown
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Jessica E. Martin
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Simone L. Meddle
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Michael Mendl
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS40 5DU, UK
| | - Emma S.J. Robinson
- School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Tayla J. Hammond
- Animal Behaviour and Welfare group, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, EH9 3RG, UK,The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Birte L. Nielsen
- Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, Wheathampstead, AL4 8AN, UK
| | | | | | - Emma K.L. Tivey
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Alistair B. Lawrence
- Animal Behaviour and Welfare group, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, EH9 3RG, UK,The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH25 9RG, UK,
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Bombail V, Brown SM, Hammond TJ, Meddle SL, Nielsen BL, Tivey EKL, Lawrence AB. Crying With Laughter: Adapting the Tickling Protocol to Address Individual Differences Among Rats in Their Response to Playful Handling. Front Vet Sci 2021; 8:677872. [PMID: 34250064 PMCID: PMC8264139 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.677872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Vincent Bombail
- Physiologie de la Nutrition et du Comportement Alimentaire (PNCA), INRAE, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France
| | - Sarah M Brown
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Tayla J Hammond
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.,Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Simone L Meddle
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Birte L Nielsen
- Modélisation Systémique Appliquée aux Ruminants (MoSAR), INRAE, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France.,Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), Wheathampstead, United Kingdom
| | - Emma K L Tivey
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Alistair B Lawrence
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.,Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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Lawrence AB, Vigors B, Sandøe P. What Is so Positive about Positive Animal Welfare?-A Critical Review of the Literature. Animals (Basel) 2019; 9:ani9100783. [PMID: 31614498 PMCID: PMC6826906 DOI: 10.3390/ani9100783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Revised: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Positive animal welfare (PAW) is thought to have come about as a response to there being too much of a focus on avoiding negatives in animal welfare science. However, despite its development over the last 10 years, it is not clear what it adds to the study of animal welfare. To clarify this, we conduct a review of the literature on PAW. We aim to identify the characteristic features of PAW and to show how PAW connects to the wider literature on animal welfare. We find that the PAW literature is characterised by four features: (1) positive emotions which highlights the capacity of animals to experience positive emotions; (2) positive affective engagement which seeks to create a link between positive emotions and behaviours animals are motivated to engage in; (3) quality of life which acts to give PAW a role in defining an appropriate balance of positives over negatives and; (4) happiness which brings a full life perspective to PAW. While the first two are already well situated in animal welfare studies the two last points open research agendas about aggregation of different aspects of PAW and how earlier experiences affect animals’ ability to have well-rounded lives. Abstract It is claimed that positive animal welfare (PAW) developed over the last decade in reaction to animal welfare focusing too much on avoiding negatives. However, it remains unclear what PAW adds to the animal welfare literature and to what extent its ideas are new. Through a critical review of the PAW literature, we aim to separate different aspects of PAW and situate it in relation to the traditional animal welfare literature. We find that the core PAW literature is small (n = 10 papers) but links to wider areas of current research interest. The PAW literature is defined by four features: (1) positive emotions which is arguably the most widely acknowledged; (2) positive affective engagement which serves to functionally link positive emotions to goal-directed behavior; (3) quality of life which serves to situate PAW within the context of finding the right balance of positives over negatives; (4) happiness which brings a full life perspective to PAW. While the two first points are already part of welfare research going back decades, the two latter points could be linked to more recent research agendas concerning aggregation and how specific events may affect the ability of animals to make the best of their lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alistair B Lawrence
- Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3RG, UK.
- Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Penicuik EH25 9RG, UK.
| | - Belinda Vigors
- Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3RG, UK.
| | - Peter Sandøe
- Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
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Odour conditioning of positive affective states: Rats can learn to associate an odour with being tickled. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0212829. [PMID: 31188832 PMCID: PMC6561538 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2019] [Accepted: 04/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Most associative learning tests in rodents use negative stimuli, such as electric shocks. We investigated if young rats can learn to associate the presence of an odour with the experience of being tickled (i.e. using an experimenter’s hand to mimic rough-and-tumble play), shown to elicit 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USVs), which are indicative of positive affect. Male, pair-housed Wistar rats (N = 24) were all exposed to two neutral odours (A and B) presented in a perforated container on alternate days in a test arena. Following 60s of exposure, the rats were either tickled on days when odour A (n = 8) or odour B (n = 8) was present, or never tickled (n = 8). When tickled, rats produced significantly more 50 kHz USVs compared to the days when not being tickled, and compared to control rats. The level of anticipatory 50 kHz USVs in the 60s prior to tickling did not differ significantly between the tickled and control rats. As a retrieval test following the odour conditioning, rats were exposed successively in the same arena to three odours: an unknown neutral odour, extract of fox faeces, and either odours A or B. Compared to controls, 50 kHz USVs of tickled rats increased when exposed to the odour they had previously experienced when tickled, indicating that these rats had learned to associate the odour with the positive experience of being tickled. In a test with free access for 5 min to both arms of a T-maze, each containing one of the odours, rats tickled with odour A spent more time in the arm with this odour. This work is the first to test in a fully balanced design whether rats can learn to associate an odour with tickling, and indicates that positive odour conditioning has potential to be used as an alternative to negative conditioning tests.
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