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Unité de recherche
OSAV
Numéro de projet
2.06.01
Titre du projet
Measuring emotional reactions of sheep in aversive and rewarding on-farm situations
Titre du projet anglais
Measuring emotional reactions of sheep in aversive and rewarding on-farm situations

Textes relatifs à ce projet

 AllemandFrançaisItalienAnglais
Mots-clé
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Description succincte
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Objectifs du projet
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Mise en oeuvre et application
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Publications / Résultats
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Textes saisis


CatégorieTexte
Mots-clé
(Anglais)
welfare, well-being, emotion, sentiment, sheep, intensive housing systems
Description succincte
(Anglais)
Usually, the judgement of animal well-being is based on few selected parameters such as measurements of fear behaviour (e.g. rate of defence behaviour, rate of aggressive interactions) and physiological parameters (e.g. heart rate, milk cortisol concentration). In addition, operant conditioning approaches may be used to infer the importance of specific resources or the emotional appraisal of a situation. These approaches may have several drawbacks, for example if they are based on invasive procedures, if they need to be performed in artificial experimental situations or if their implication regarding emotional states and thus well-being of the animals is not clear.

In the study proposed here, these problems are addressed by using a wide selection of parameters which are measured in a non-invasive way and in day-to-day on farm situations. The proposed parameters which are all measured in conjunction comprise situation specific behavioural indicators as well as a broad range of physi-ology-near (amount of eye-white, size of pupil, piloerection) and physiological parameters (skin temperature, skin conductance, heart rate, heart rate variability). To overcome the insecurity regarding emotional states, a further measurement is proposed that should allow a more direct access to the emotional reactions in animals. Near-infrared imaging methods allow to record activity in the brain continuously and non-invasively. Thus, relative activity in the centres of emotional control (especially orbitofrontal and cingulate cortex) can be directly measured. The measurement device is so small that an animal can carry it on its head.
Objectifs du projet
(Anglais)

The general aims of this project are to

  • evaluate a new and broad combination of non-invasive and directly measurable parameters to characterise positive and negative emotional reactions in animals.
  • validate an additional parameter that is potentially more general (brain activity measured by near-infrared imaging methods) and more closely related to the emotional reactions that need to be measured.
  • characterise exemplary situations that can occur in housing systems regarding their valence for animals based on our given set of parameters.
  • find a subset of the parameters that sufficiently characterises situations with positive and negative valence of varying degree.
  • use this subset to asses some exemplary situations of unknown valence.
  • provide statistical evaluation tools for data sets where many parameters are measured simultaneously.
  •  prepare methods that allow to find additional critical moments in housing systems where animals show signs of both positive or negative emotional reactions.
  • prepare methods that allow to judge complete housing systems

The main aims of project part A (postdoc) is to coordinate the project and support the PhD students. In addition, statistical methods for data sets with many parameters measured for each observation will be evaluated in project A. Project part B (engineering PhD) will provide the near-infrared brain imaging adapted to farm animals and help in integrating this method into the combined measurement system. Project part C (biological PhD) will subject the animals to the different experimental procedures and conduct the measurements in these situations.

Mise en oeuvre et application
(Allemand)

An der Selektionssitzung vom 7.6.2005 ist folgende Umsetzung eruiert worden (jme/13.6.2005):
- Methode, die es erlaubt, beim Schaf Befindlichkeit zu quantifizieren.
- Methode, die auch bei anderen Tierarten eingesetzt werden könnte
- Positionierung des ZTHT auch in der Grundlagenforschung

Publications / Résultats
(Allemand)

Bütikofer, F. (2007) Nichterfüllung und Übertreffen von Erwartung als Beispiele emotionaler Situationen bei Schafen. Diplomarbeit, ETH Zürich.

Reefmann, N., Bütikofer, F., Stauffacher, M., Wechsler, B., Gygax, L. (2007): Ethophysiologische Erfassung emotionaler Valenz bei Schafen in positiv-negativ Kontrastsituationen. KTBL-Schrift 461,

Publications / Résultats
(Anglais)

Mühlemann, T.; Haenesse, D.; Wolf, M. (2008): Wireless miniaturized in-vivo near infared imaging. Optics Express, 16, 14, 10323-10330.

Reefmann, N.; Wechsler, B.; Gygax, L. (2009): Behavioural and physiological assessment of positive and negative emotion in sheep. Animal Behaviour 78: 651-659. 11 conference contributions by the same authors

Reefmann, N.; Bütikofer Kaszàs, F.; Wechsler, B.; Gygax, L. (2009): Ear and tail postures as indicators of emotional valence in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 118: 199-207.

Reefmann, N.; Bütikofer Kaszàs, F.; Wechsler, B.; Gygax. L. (2009): Physiological expression of emotional reactions in sheep. Physiology & Behaviour 98: 235-241.

Muehlemann, T.; Reefmann, N.; Wechsler, B.; Wolf, M.; Gygax, L. (under review) In vivo functional near-infrared spectroscopy measures mood-modulated cerebral responses to a positive emotional stimulus in sheep. NeuroImage.

Reefmann, N.; Muehlemann, T.; Wechsler, B.; Gygax, L. (2012) Housing induced mood modulates reactions to emotional stimuli in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 136: 146– 155.

Muehlemann, T.; Reefmann, N.; Wechsler, B.; Wolf, M.; Gygax, L. (2011) In vivo functional near-infrared spectroscopy measures mood-modulated cerebral responses to a positive emotional stimulus in sheep. Neuroimage 54, 1625–1633.

Documents annexés