The NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Swine Welfare says biological markers that reflect an animal's state of well being have the potential to help identify animal welfare concerns that need to be addressed. Researchers with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine are looking at how various biological markers or biomarkers relate to different animal welfare states, whether positive or negative, in an effort to identify measurable indicators of animal welfare.
Dr. Yolande Seddon, an Assistant Professor of Swine Behaviour and Welfare with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Swine Welfare, says the goal is develop improved and more objective measures of animal welfare.
Clip-Dr. Yolande Seddon-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
For example, the stall versus groups debate, there is a lot of different behavioral and physiological measures that you can take but ultimately it is more of a chronic stress or chronic effect we are measuring of the experience of an animal in this housing system and that was hard to easily quantify when we're looking at a lot of acute measurements, so measures over a short period of time.