Search Results (30)

This review examines the animal welfare implications associated with the purse seine fishing method as applied to the following small pelagic species: Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias), and Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). The analysis is based on synthesized data from the purse seine Method Profile, recently introduced in the catch branch of the fair-fish database—an open-access platform dedicated to compiling, evaluating, and systematically categorizing technical and/or scientific literature on aquatic animal behaviour and welfare. The Method Profile is a novel tool that outlines the commercial relevance of the respective fishing method, its target species, and general operational setup. It provides a structured overview of welfare hazards encountered across the main phases of the fishing process, including prospection, setting, capture, hauling, emersion, gear release, sorting, storage, and stunning and slaughter. In addition, this profile also addresses bycatch and discarding issues as well as environmental hazards associated with the fishing method. Identified welfare concerns in purse seining for the four small pelagic species include high stress levels resulting from intense crowding—primarily leading to hypoxia, mechanical injuries, and mortality—as well as issues related to scooping or pumping fish on board, (live) storage, and the lack of effective stunning and slaughter protocols. Furthermore, the bycatch rate of (undersized) target and diverse non-target species, as well as ghost fishing from abandoned, lost, or discarded gear, pose significant risks requiring effective mitigation. In this review, we critically evaluate factors influencing the welfare outcomes of the four pelagic species caught by purse seine and discuss potential mitigation strategies, such as operational improvements, gear modifications, and management measures. Full article

Accurate long-term tracking of individual cattle is essential for precision livestock farming but remains challenging due to occlusions, posture variability, and identity drift in free-range environments. We propose a multi-camera tracking framework that combines bird’s-eye-view (BEV) trajectory matching with cattle face recognition to ensure identity preservation across long video sequences. A large-scale dataset was collected from five synchronized 4K cameras in a commercial barn, capturing both full-body movements and frontal facial views. The system employs center point detection and BEV projection for cross-view trajectory association, while periodic face recognition during feeding refreshes identity assignments and corrects errors. Evaluations on a two-day dataset of more than 600,000 images demonstrate robust performance, with an AssPr of 84.481% and a LocA score of 78.836%. The framework outperforms baseline trajectory matching methods, maintaining identity consistency under dense crowding and noisy labels. These results demonstrate a practical and scalable solution for automated cattle monitoring, advancing data-driven livestock management and welfare. Full article

Crowding stress is an inevitable stressor in intensive farming, yet its underlying mechanisms are still obscure, severely hindering the aquaculture industry’s healthy development. As the primary sensory and regulatory organ for stressors, the brain plays a crucial role in stress responses. In this study, the effect of crowding stress on the telencephalon (Tel) and hypothalamus (Hy) has been explored using RNA sequencing. After four weeks of crowding stress, neuroinflammation-related genes were significantly induced in both the Tel and Hy. Additionally, cell fate-related processes were markedly altered. Neurogenesis-related pathways, including the Wnt and Hedgehog signaling pathways, were significantly enriched in both regions. The apoptosis-related genes (caspase3, p53) were predominantly downregulated in the Tel (log₂Fold Change: −1.27 and −0.71, respectively), while ferroptosis-related genes (ho1, ncoa4) were specifically activated in the Hy (log₂Fold Change: 1.15 and 0.73, respectively). The synaptic plasticity-related genes (prkcg, cacna1d) were significantly downregulated in both the Tel (log₂Fold Change: −1.78 and −0.88) and Hy (log₂Fold Change: −1.99 and −1.52). Furthermore, neurotransmitter synthesis (γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and serotonin (5-HT)) was disrupted in the Tel, whereas growth-related hormone gene expression was markedly altered in the Hy. These findings provide novel insights into the neurobiological mechanisms of chronic crowding stress in fish, laying a foundation for developing brain-targeted strategies to enhance welfare and mitigate stress in intensive largemouth bass farming. Full article

Slaughter facilities use a variety of tools to evaluate animal handling, including but not limited to live audits, the use of remote video auditing, and some AI technologies. The objective of this study was to determine the similarity between AI and human evaluator assessments of critical cattle handling outcomes in a slaughter plant. One hundred twelve video clips of cattle handling and stunning from a slaughter plant in the United Kingdom were collected. The AI identified the presence or absence of: Stunning, Electric Prod Usage, Falling, Pen Crowding, and Questionable Handling Events. Three human evaluators scored the videos for these outcomes. Four different datasets were generated, and Jaccard similarity indices were generated. There was high similarity (JI > 0.90) for Stunning, Electric Prod Usage, and Falls between the evaluators and the AI. There was high consistency (JI > 0.80) for Pen Crowding. There were differences (JI ≥ 0.50) between the humans and the AI when identifying Questionable Animal Handling Events but the AI was adept at identifying events for further review. The implementation of AI to assist with cattle handling in a slaughter facility environment could be an added tool to enhance animal welfare programs. Full article

Territorial crustaceans exhibit a complex set of personality traits and behavioral characteristics that are critical for their survival, growth, and overall welfare. This study aimed to systematically investigate the interplay between two essential personality traits—boldness and aggression—in Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis), during various developmental stages under conditions of crowding stress and food odor stimuli. Using behavioral assays, we found that adults displayed significantly higher levels of boldness and aggression compared to juveniles. Notably, bold adult crabs demonstrated lower aggression than their shy counterparts, revealing a significant negative correlation between boldness and aggression under crowding stress. Furthermore, juvenile and adult crabs exhibited negative correlations between the stability of their boldness and aggression with individual levels of boldness and aggression, respectively. The study also found that while juvenile boldness did not significantly correlate with body size, larger individuals displayed higher boldness under stress, contrasting with adult crabs, where boldness negatively correlated with body size, although aggression levels were unaffected by size; the stability of adult boldness demonstrated a positive correlation with body size under crowding stress. These findings elucidate the intricate dynamics of personality traits in territorial crustaceans, laying the groundwork for future research into their adaptive behavioral strategies in response to environmental cues like group stress and food odors. Full article

Economic development often results in significant greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global climate change, which demands immediate attention. Despite implementing various low-carbon policies to promote sustainable economic and environmental progress, current evaluations reveal limitations and deficiencies. Therefore, this study utilizes a dataset detailing policy intensity at a prefecture-level city in China to investigate the impacts of these policies on carbon emission reduction from 2007 to 2022 in 334 prefecture-level cities, employing a fixed-effects model. Additionally, it assesses the policies’ efficacy. The findings indicate a significant negative correlation between China’s low-carbon policies and carbon emissions, supported robustly by multiple tests. Specifically, a one-unit increase in China’s policy intensity correlates with a 0.53-unit reduction in carbon emissions. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that variations in urban agglomerations, environmental resource endowments, pollution levels, and low-carbon policy intensities influence the effectiveness of these policies in reducing carbon emissions. This analysis underscores that policy intensity achieves emission reductions through technological innovation, industrial transformation, welfare crowding out, and pollution transfer, with varying impacts across different environmental contexts, pollution levels, and policy intensities. Based on this analysis, we recommend several policies: formulating low-carbon strategies tailored to local conditions, enhancing regional low-carbon policies, establishing cross-regional coordination mechanisms, and so on. These recommendations not only offer valuable policy insights for China but also serve as useful references for the green and sustainable development of other developing countries. Full article

This paper focuses on the problem of numeracy when writing regulations, specifically how to describe a threshold for crowding of pigs during transport, considering transported pigs range in body mass from 5 to 500 kg. When scientific findings provide the basis for regulation in the public interest, those findings must be communicated in a consistent way to regulators and policymaking bodies. Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and apply appropriate numerical concepts to real-world questions. Scientific understanding is almost always based on rational understanding of numerical information, numeracy. The threshold of administrative offenses is often a numerical description. Commercial livestock transporters have an interest in loading livestock compartments to the maximum to achieve the largest payload allowed by axle weight laws, as is the case in all bulk commodity transport. Maximizing payload minimizes costs and environmental hazards of fuel exhaust and can benefit the public with lower pork prices, but has a serious animal welfare risk. Livestock production academics, veterinarians, and animal welfare activists have been working for decades to determine the level of livestock crowding in transport containers that would be appropriate for regulatory enforcement. The scientific discourse has been plagued by a lack of numerical standardization when describing results of trials and forming recommendations. Exceeding specific numerical thresholds is the core to implementing enforcement actions. This paper examines the communication and other barriers that have prevented emergence of a consensus on this question and provides a direction toward resolution. Further confirmation of effects of crowding livestock in transit is needed. This paper suggests that articulating an enforceable standard in pig transport is possible. In inspection for compliance, discovering the LP₅₀ (lethal pressure—50) for slaughter-weight pigs is an initial global benchmark goal. The LP₅₀ is the loading floor pressure in a commercial transport compartment, under field conditions, that would result in the death of at least one pig in the group 50% of the time. Full article

Long waiting times and crowded services are the current medical situation in China. Especially in hierarchic healthcare systems, as high-quality medical resources are mainly concentrated in comprehensive hospitals, patients are too concentrated in these hospitals, which leads to overcrowding. This paper constructs a game-theoretical queueing model to analyze the strategic queueing behavior of patients. In such hospitals, patients are divided into first-visit and referred patients, and the hospitals provide patients with two service phases of “diagnosis” and “treatment”. We first obtain the expected sojourn time. By defining the patience level of patients, the queueing behavior of patients in equilibrium is studied. The results suggest that as long as the patients with low patience levels join the queue, the patients with high patience levels also join the queue. As more patients arrive at the hospitals, the queueing behavior of patients with high patience levels may have a negative effect on that of patients with low patience levels. The numerical results also show that the equilibrium behavior deviates from a socially optimal solution; therefore, to reach maximal social welfare, the social planner should adopt some regulatory policies to control the arrival rates of patients. Full article

The integrated development of agriculture and tourism is an effective driving force to boost farmers’ income. We utilize a quasi-natural experiment design to test how such integrated development promotes the comprehensive rural revitalization. By adopting a panel dataset of 72 counties within Guangxi province from 2005 to 2020 and a PSM-DID method, we attempt to explore the effect of the integrated development of agriculture and tourism on farmers’ income growth. The empirical results support our hypothesis that the integrated development of agriculture and tourism can effectively promote farmers’ income growth and its regional heterogeneity with respect to tourism resource endowment and economic development level. We further discuss the transmission mechanism of the integrated development of agriculture and tourism and reveal that the agricultural technology level and agricultural production efficiency have mediating effects on improving farmers’ income growth. However, a masking effect exists between the integrated development of agriculture and tourism and the level of non-agricultural employment. The possible reason is that industrial and commercial capital investment has crowded out the welfare originally belonging to the wage income and only allowed farmers to obtain the one-time land rent income. Full article

Grazing is the most important and lowest cost means of livestock breeding. Because of the sharp contradiction between the grassland ecosystem and livestock, the grassland ecosystem has tended to degrade in past decades in China; therefore, the ecological balance of the grassland has been seriously damaged. The implementation of grazing prohibition, rotational grazing and the development of a large-scale breeding industry have not only ensured the supply of animal husbandry products, but also promoted the restoration of the grassland ecosystem. For the large-scale breeding industry, the animal welfare of livestock cannot be guaranteed due to the narrow and crowded space, thus, the production of the breeding industry usually has lower competitiveness than grazing. Disorderly grazing leads to grassland ecological crises; however, intelligent grazing can not only ensure animal welfare, but also fully improve the competitiveness of livestock husbandry products. Under the development of urbanization, the workforce engaged in grazing and breeding in pastoral areas is gradually lost. Intelligent grazing breeding methods need to be developed and popularized. This paper focuses on intelligent grazing, reviews grass remote sensing and aerial seeding, wearable monitoring equipment of livestock, UAV monitoring and intelligent grazing robots, and summarizes the development of intelligent grazing elements, exploring the new development direction of automatic grazing management with the grazing robot at this stage. Full article

Developing programs that ensure a safe start to life for Indigenous children can lead to better health outcomes. To create effective strategies, governments must have accurate and up-to-date information. Accordingly, we reviewed the health disparities of Australian children in Indigenous and remote communities using publicly available reports. A thorough search was performed on Australian government and other organisational websites (including the Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW]), electronic databases [MEDLINE] and grey literature sites for articles, documents and project reports related to Indigenous child health outcomes. The study showed Indigenous dwellings had higher rates of crowding when compared to non-Indigenous dwellings. Smoking during pregnancy, teenage motherhood, low birth weight and infant and child mortality were higher among Indigenous and remote communities. Childhood obesity (including central obesity) and inadequate fruit consumption rates were also higher in Indigenous children, but Indigenous children from remote and very remote areas had a lower rate of obesity. Indigenous children performed better in physical activity compared to non-Indigenous children. No difference was observed in vegetable consumption rates, substance-use disorders or mental health conditions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Future interventions for Indigenous children should focus on modifiable risk factors, including unhealthy housing, perinatal adverse health outcomes, childhood obesity, poor dietary intake, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours. Full article

Scholars argue that the ubiquity of the “virtual panda”—the panda people meet in zoos and consume as souvenirs, online memes, or videos—exists in a state of hybridity between wild and domesticated. The species has garnered a significant amount of attention because of their iconic status and because of how cute they are to an adoring crowd. However, given the degree of regard tourists have for the panda, there is a dearth of research on different types of visitors to captive panda venues. In filling this gap, we investigated (1) how deeply Chinese “fans” and “non-fans” consider the welfare of captive giant pandas, and (2) if these groups differ in their assessment of whether giant pandas consent to being used as tourist attractions. In both aims, we apply a recent model on animal welfare and animal consent to giant pandas of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Full article

Modern zoos and aquariums are defined by several primary goals, which include improving the welfare of their animals, public education, and inspiring visitors to develop an interest in conservation. Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVIs) (i.e., the impact of captive animals and visitors on each other) are a primary means to study these goals. The introduction of new animals into two seal exhibits—the harbor and northern fur seals—at the Seattle Aquarium presented a valuable opportunity to assess the impacts of introductions on the currently exhibited animals and aquarium visitors. The impacts of animal introductions were measured through direct observations of seal activity (i.e., ethogram behavioral observations) and visitor activity (i.e., crowd size and visitor length of stay) before and after new seal introductions. This study consisted of two experiments: Experiment 1 (Harbor seal exhibit) and Experiment 2 (Northern fur seal exhibit). In Experiment 1, we found that the introduction had few impacts on the existing harbor seals or on visitor activity. In Experiment 2, the introduction of a new fur seal had significant positive impacts on the existing fur seal, as was seen through increased social behaviors and decreased stereotypic behaviors, as well as a significant increase in crowd size post-introduction. Based on these findings, new animal introductions were associated with neutral to positive changes in both seal and visitor activity. Findings from this study suggest that studying new animal introductions can result in better understanding and promoting positive interactions with existing animals (introduction effects) and likewise positive experiences for zoo and aquarium visitors (introduction experiences). Full article

To maximize milk production, efficiency, and profits, modern dairy cows are genetically selected and bred to produce more and more milk and are fed copious quantities of high-energy feed to support ever-increasing milk volumes. As demands for increased milk yield and milking efficiency continue to rise to provide for the growing world population, more significant stress is placed on the dairy cow’s productive capacity. In this climate, which is becoming increasingly hotter, millions of people depend on the capacity of cattle to respond to new environments and to cope with temperature shocks as well as additional stress factors such as solar radiation, animal crowding, insect pests, and poor ventilation, which are often associated with an increased risk of mastitis, resulting in lower milk quality and reduced production. This article reviews the impact of heat stress on milk production and quality and emphasizes the importance of udder health monitoring, with a focus on the use of emergent methods for monitoring udder health, such as infrared thermography, biosensors, and lab-on-chip devices, which may promote animal health and welfare, as well as the quality and safety of dairy products, without hindering the technological flow, while providing significant benefits to farmers, manufacturers, and consumers. Full article

We use the overlapping generations model (OLG) to analyze and simulate the optimal retirement decision based on the two criteria of increasing the sustainability of the Social Security Fund (SSF) and improving the welfare of delayed retirees. Our key findings are as follows: (1) Relative to normal retirement, delayed retirement policies are preferable, and voluntary delayed retirement is preferable to passive delayed retirement. (2) Increases in longevity and labor productivity enhance the policy effects of voluntary delayed retirement, while increases in the birth rate promote fund sustainability but weaken its welfare effects. (3) Therefore, when any of these factors increase simultaneously, the sustainability effect is enhanced by superposition, while the birth rate causes the welfare effect to be weakened by superposition. (4) In addition, the result that pensions would crowd out savings and longevity would lead to greater pressure on pension payments does not necessarily hold. Full article