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Animals
Special Issues
Environmental Enrichment in Farm Animals
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Environmental Enrichment in Farm Animals

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 2519

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Daniella Jorge De Moura

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Guest Editor
Agricultural Engineering College, State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
Interests: precision livestock farming; animal welfare; environmental control for animals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jairo Alexander Osório Saraz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agricultural Engineering and Food Department, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia
Interests: environment control for animals; gas emissions in animal facilities; computational modelling in animal facilities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The increase in demand for animal protein also increases concerns about farm animal welfare. Within the study of animal welfare, environmental enrichment is considered to be a powerful tool. The main characteristic of environmental enrichment is to reduce stimuli that generate stressful responses and allow the presentation of natural behaviors, avoiding the undesirable occurrence of stereotyped behaviors in confined animals. It also introduces improvements in housing systems and stimulates the desirable behavioral activities inherent to the species, improving their welfare, health, and performance. In this Special Issue, we invite original manuscripts that address novelties surrounding environmental enrichment for farm animals under different housing conditions.

Prof. Dr. Daniella Jorge De Moura
Prof. Dr. Jairo Alexander Osório Saraz
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 submissions that pass pre-check are 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 semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • animal welfare
  • precision livestock farming
  • social environment
  • animal behavior

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 824 KiB  
Article
Using Different Cage Enrichments to Improve Rabbits’ Performance, Behavior, and Welfare
by Menna Elsayed, Farid Soliman, Osama Elghalid and Karim El-Sabrout
Animals 2024, 14(15), 2271; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14152271 - 4 Aug 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1028
Abstract
Environmental enrichment is about improving the surroundings in which your animal lives by providing opportunities to express behavioral activity normally, which in turn has a great impact on the animal’s welfare and productivity. The aim of the present study is to investigate the [...] Read more.
Environmental enrichment is about improving the surroundings in which your animal lives by providing opportunities to express behavioral activity normally, which in turn has a great impact on the animal’s welfare and productivity. The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of using different enrichment cage tools (a rubber floor, plastic-colored balls, and a mirror) on rabbits’ physiology, productivity, carcass quality, behavior, and welfare. A total of 84 weaned rabbits (V-line) were randomly and equally assigned to 4 groups, each with 7 replicates (3 rabbits/replicate). The 1st rabbit group (T1) served as a control, while the 2nd group (T2) was enriched with rubber floors. The 3rd group (T3) was enriched with plastic-colored balls, and the 4th group (T4) was enriched with mirrors. Productive traits, including the weekly body weight and feed intake, as well as the carcass characteristics, were measured. Hematological parameters and biochemical constituents were determined according to the reference’s description. Furthermore, behavioral activities, such as walking, resting, feeding, and drinking, were observed. According to the results, enriching the rabbit cages with plastic-colored balls and mirrors improved the marketing body weight and feed conversion rate. It also improved carcass quality characteristics, such as the carcass weight and dressing percentage. The T3 and T4 rabbits had higher RBCS, Hb, and hematocrit levels as well as lower WBCS levels. They also had significantly higher total protein, globulin, glucose, AST, and IgG values than other treatments. In addition, they had significantly lower corticosterone levels and fear responses. Therefore, it is recommended to use plastic-colored balls and mirrors for rabbit farming for better productivity, behavior, and welfare. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Enrichment in Farm Animals)
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14 pages, 1157 KiB  
Article
Sequential Behavior of Broiler Chickens in Enriched Environments under Varying Thermal Conditions Using the Generalized Sequential Pattern Algorithm: A Proof of Concept
by Juliana Maria Massari, Daniella Jorge de Moura, Irenilza de Alencar Nääs, Danilo Florentino Pereira, Stanley Robson de Medeiros Oliveira, Tatiane Branco and Juliana de Souza Granja Barros
Animals 2024, 14(13), 2010; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14132010 - 8 Jul 2024
Viewed by 706
Abstract
Behavior analysis is a widely used non-invasive tool in the practical production routine, as the animal acts as a biosensor capable of reflecting its degree of adaptation and discomfort to some environmental challenge. Conventional statistics use occurrence data for behavioral evaluation and well-being [...] Read more.
Behavior analysis is a widely used non-invasive tool in the practical production routine, as the animal acts as a biosensor capable of reflecting its degree of adaptation and discomfort to some environmental challenge. Conventional statistics use occurrence data for behavioral evaluation and well-being estimation, disregarding the temporal sequence of events. The Generalized Sequential Pattern (GSP) algorithm is a data mining method that identifies recurrent sequences that exceed a user-specified support threshold, the potential of which has not yet been investigated for broiler chickens in enriched environments. Enrichment aims to increase environmental complexity with promising effects on animal welfare, stimulating priority behaviors and potentially reducing the deleterious effects of heat stress. The objective here was to validate the application of the GSP algorithm to identify temporal correlations between heat stress and the behavior of broiler chickens in enriched environments through a proof of concept. Video image collection was carried out automatically for 48 continuous hours, analyzing a continuous period of seven hours, from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM, during two consecutive days of tests for chickens housed in enriched and non-enriched environments under comfort and stress temperatures. Chickens at the comfort temperature showed high motivation to perform the behaviors of preening (P), foraging (F), lying down (Ld), eating (E), and walking (W); the sequences <{Ld,P}>; <{Ld,F}>; <{P,F,P}>; <{Ld,P,F}>; and <{E,W,F}> were the only ones observed in both treatments. All other sequential patterns (comfort and stress) were distinct, suggesting that environmental enrichment alters the behavioral pattern of broiler chickens. Heat stress drastically reduced the sequential patterns found at the 20% threshold level in the tested environments. The behavior of lying laterally “Ll” is a strong indicator of heat stress in broilers and was only frequent in the non-enriched environment, which may suggest that environmental enrichment provides the animal with better opportunities to adapt to stress-inducing challenges, such as heat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Enrichment in Farm Animals)
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