Special Issue "Hormones and the Welfare of Animals"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Alan Tilbrook
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Interests: neuroendocrinology; endocrinology; animal welfare; animal science; stress; behavior; biomedical sciences; animal reproduction
Dr. Dominique Blache
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
Interests: animal welfare; endocrinology; stress physiology; domestic animals; emotional reactivity
Prof. Dr. Shane Maloney
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia
Interests: thermoregulation; chronobiology; physiology; animal science; stress; biomedical sciences
Dr. Jill Fernandes
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Interests: animal welfare; decision science; cognitive science; wicked problems; evidence-based policy; research adoption

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A growing concern to society is the welfare of animals, creating the need for objective measures to assess animal welfare. However, assessing the welfare of animals in an objective manner is fraught with difficulty. Animals have numerous endocrine (hormonal) responses in their daily lives, and these responses affect the physiological and behavioural functioning of the animal. Sometimes a response will signal a welfare concern, but in other contexts the same response might be considered normal. To date, animal research has concentrated on a small number of endocrine systems and hormones, generally studied in isolation. To advance the science of animal welfare, we need broader, systems-based, approaches to animal endocrinology. Furthermore, interdisciplinary approaches are required to establish when the actions of hormones are associated with physiological or behavioural consequences that have negative or positive effects on the welfare of an animal.

Original manuscripts from any discipline that address any of the following are invited for this Special Issue:

1. The actions of hormones on physiological and behavioural functioning, such that animal welfare is impacted

2. The usefulness of measuring hormones and their actions for the assessment of animal welfare

3. The manipulation of hormones to improve animal welfare

We look forward to reading your thought-provoking manuscripts that take novel approaches in endocrinology to advance our ability to understand and assess the welfare of animals.

Prof. Alan Tilbrook
Dr. Dominique Blache
Prof. Dr. Shane Maloney
Dr. Jill Fernandes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • hormones
  • animal neurophysiology
  • animal welfare
  • assessment of animal welfare

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

Review
Impact of Estrogens Present in Environment on Health and Welfare of Animals
Animals 2021, 11(7), 2152; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11072152 - 20 Jul 2021
Viewed by 1042
Abstract
Nowadays, there is a growing interest in environmental pollution; however, knowledge about this aspect is growing at an insufficient pace. There are many potential sources of environmental contamination, including sex hormones—especially estrogens. The analyzed literature shows that estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), [...] Read more.
Nowadays, there is a growing interest in environmental pollution; however, knowledge about this aspect is growing at an insufficient pace. There are many potential sources of environmental contamination, including sex hormones—especially estrogens. The analyzed literature shows that estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and synthetic ethinyloestradiol (EE2) are the most significant in terms of environmental impact. Potential sources of contamination are, among others, livestock farms, slaughterhouses, and large urban agglomerations. Estrogens occurring in the environment can negatively affect the organisms, such as animals, through phenomena such as feminization, dysregulation of natural processes related to reproduction, lowering the physiological condition of the organisms, disturbances in the regulation of both proapoptotic and anti-apoptotic processes, and even the occurrence of neoplastic processes thus drastically decreasing animal welfare. Unfortunately, the amount of research conducted on the negative consequences of their impact on animal organisms is many times smaller than that of humans, despite the great richness and diversity of the fauna. Therefore, there is a need for further research to help fill the gaps in our knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hormones and the Welfare of Animals)
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