Refining a novel on-farm attention bias test to measure anxious states in sheep (AEC14/28)

Animal welfare is an increasingly important aspect of livestock production systems and there is a need to develop tests that can identify sheep that are more resilient and cope better with our production systems. This study further validated and refined a novel behavioural test for sheep as a measure of anxious states. The original test method took 3 minutes per animal and required some prior training. One objective of this project was to refine the test, to take less than 3 minutes per animal and to remove the need for prior training, so that it could be applied on-farm to larger numbers of animals. Another objective of the study was to pharmacologically validate the test as a measure of anxious states, using the drugs diazepam and m-Chlorophenylpiperazine to reduce and induce anxious states respectively prior to testing.

动物福利是畜牧生产体系中日益重要的组成部分，当前亟需开发可识别出对生产体系适应力更强、应对表现更佳的绵羊的相关检测方法。本研究针对绵羊焦虑状态的评估需求，进一步验证并优化了一种新型行为学检测方法。原检测方法单只动物耗时3分钟，且需要预先开展培训。本项目的目标之一便是优化该检测方案，使其单只动物检测时长缩短至3分钟以内，同时无需预先培训，从而能够在农场场景中应用于更多数量的受试动物。本研究的另一目标是从药理学层面验证该检测方法作为焦虑状态评估手段的有效性：在检测前分别使用地西泮（diazepam）与间氯苯哌嗪（m-Chlorophenylpiperazine）来降低和诱发受试绵羊的焦虑状态。