APPLIED ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND WELFARE

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1010765
• Multistate No.: NC-_old1029
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2016
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2021
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824

Performing Department
ANIMAL SCIENCE

Non Technical Summary
There is widespread public concern regarding animal welfare in the US and how welfare affects the long-term sustainability of animal use. For example, among numerous stakeholder initiatives, including agricultural universities, there is widespread support for the idea that decisions about welfare and standards of animal care should be based on scientific evidence. The US standards of care for agricultural animals used in research and teaching (The Ag Guide), is informed and revised every 10 years to reflect the latest research in this area. Animal welfare also plays a critical role in world trade as evidenced by the recent establishment of global animal welfare standards on transport and slaughter by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The OIE continues the development of standards and recommendations in new areas of importance to animal welfare and it is important that these standards be based on scientific evidence.Through NC-1029, we have established a national scientific committee to generate and disseminate objective scientific information on animal welfare issues. This committee is comprised of approximately 20 scientists, including at Michigan State University, working in multiple disciplines at different locations throughout North America. Our research is critical to provide the science and technology to help stakeholders make informed decisions about standards of animal care.Over the last 5 years, the field of animal welfare continues to grow. There is considerable media attention on practices such as using cages for laying hens and tail docking dairy cattle. The role of scientists in the societal discussion of how to best treat agricultural animals is considerable (Mench, 2008). There are several areas where these contributions are particularly notable: proliferation of precision farming or automated measurement of animal responses, additional novel indicators and new applications of existing animal welfare measures, and the rigor and scope of on-farm welfare assessment.As livestock and poultry industries shift to housing animals in larger social groups and more complex environments, it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor individual animals. Yet, in order to assess welfare, it is essential we understand the response of individuals to systems as welfare is a characteristic of an individual animal, not of a group. Conducting direct observations of animal behavior or intensive monitoring of animal health is time consuming and requires trained, highly skilled employees. Furthermore, when large numbers of nearly identical looking animals are housed together in a large group, it becomes nearly impossible to visually observe all members of the group and to recognize them as individuals. Advances in technology, both in sensors that are wearable by animals and in equipment that allows us to measure environmental characteristics at the level of the animal itself may be a way to overcome these challenges and provide a means to track animals over a period of time. In addition, historically, environmental control has been based on a classical engineering approach to technology, specifically for providing optimal thermal comfort based on a set point condition or controlling lighting or feeding on a set schedule. This prescriptive approach to animal housing and husbandry resulted in the ability to increase the scale and intensity of animal production. One deficiency in this approach is that it focuses only on one or two main environmental parameters and neglects other potentially relevant ones. Another deficiency in this approach is that it takes a one-size-fits all approach to the needs of the animals under a given set of conditions. Advances in technology are moving quickly toward viable on-farm capabilities to offer real-time status inputs of individuals or groups of animals, which has the potential to offer a new approach to animal management.Body-worn sensors for recording physiological variables such as heart rate, body temperature, and respiration rate have been developed (Brown-Brandl et al., 2003; Eigenberg et al., 2007), and other types of body-mounted sensors, including pedometers, active transponders, accelerometers, and position detectors, provide additional information about animal behavior (Brehme et al., 2007; Müller and Schrader, 2003; Pépin et al., 2006; Scheibe et al., 1998). Small wireless body-worn sensors capable of detecting general levels of activity, specific behavior and location of hens relative to other hens as well as ambient and skin temperatures have been developed and validated at Michigan State University (Quwaider et al., 2010; Banerjee et al., 2012, 2014; Daigle et al., 2012, 2014). Such systems represent an approach to detecting specific information about the behavior and physiology of individual animals while linking this to the environmental context. Developments in precision agriculture, as in the dairy industry, have resulted in a proliferation of commercially available sensors and systems for capturing information at the level of the individual animal. These sensors typically record activity of the animals as well as rumination and lying time and have been correlated with visual assessments of these behaviors (Schirmann et al., 2009; Ledgerwood et al., 2010; Elischer et al., 2013; Bikker et al., 2014). However, at present, many producers and researchers do not yet take full advantage of these data, although some research has shown that there is a relationship between behaviors recorded by these sensors and dairy cattle health (e.g., Liboreiro et al, 2015). A main objective of the NC1029 multi-state project is to develop and validate of automated methods for measuring welfare of individual animals. At Michigan State University, work will focus on automated detection of behavior of indvidual laying hens and pigs using both body-worn sensors and visual detection systems.In some circumstances, the effect of an animal's breed or strain on behavior is known to be important (e.g., white hens showing more preference to roost at height compared to brown hens as per Ali et al., 2016 or brown hens laying within a short period of time in the morning as per Villanueva et al., in prep). Animals of different breeds or genetic strains show heritable differences in temperament and behavioral characteristics, such as activity patterns and use of resources. For example laying hens selected for high levels of production and feed efficiency are less active and show less foraging behavior than hens of other strains (Braastad and Katle, 1989; Schütz and Jensen, 2001; Schütz et al., 2001). As alternative housing systems are developed for livestock and poultry that simultaneously provide animals more resources for fulfilling behavioral motivation along with more space and larger social groups, it will be important to determine whether all breeds are equally suitable for certain configurations or associated management regimes. For example, laying hen producers are transitioning to enriched colony cages and aviary systems that house hens in large groups and provide them with resource such as perches, nest boxes and litter (Lay et al., 2011). How these resources are presented within each system and the configuration of each resource itself (e.g., round or rectangular perch shapes) varies considerably between manufacturers. Yet, there has been little research on how the various laying hen strains used in North America adapt to specific aspects of the housing environment (Ali et al., 2016). Studies examining social phenotypes related to underlying genotypes in pigs and comparing how much space white and brown strains of laying hens require to peform key behaviors and how they adapt to to aviary housing are ongoing at Michigan State University and will provide insight producers need as they select animals for use in alternative housing systems so that welfare is optimized.

Animal Health Component

65%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

25%

Applied

65%

Developmental

10%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
315	3210	1060	30%
315	3510	1060	30%
315	3210	1080	10%
315	3510	1080	10%
315	3210	1020	10%
315	3510	1020	10%

Knowledge Area
315 - Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection;

Subject Of Investigation
3210 - Egg-type chicken, live animal; 3510 - Swine, live animal;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems); 1080 - Genetics; 1020 - Physiology;

Keywords

animal well-being

animal behavior

animal welfare

poultry

pigs

laying hens

sows

Goals / Objectives
To develop novel behavioral and physiological indicators of animal welfare. To strengthen the scientific basis of animal welfare assessment and auditing programs.

Project Methods
A number of projects will be conducted at various universities as part of the overall NC1029 multistate research project. At MSU work will focus mainly on pigs and laying hens, and the role of MSU in the overall NC1029 project is described below.Development and validation of automated methods for measuring welfare of individual animalsPoulty: A sensor system for laying hens under development at Michigan State University detects the performance of key behaviors performed by poultry including dust bathing, feeding, walking and jumping down from perches. We hope to integrate data collected from such sensors with data from other hens and house-level information about air quality, temperature, or even feed consumption. Integrated multi-modal data such as this will provide robust information that can be used to monitor the welfare of individual birds. In future, as additional research funding is obtained, sensors could be trained to detect health and behavior problems in flocks such as disease outbreaks, heat stress, or cannibalism.Pigs: Gestation sow housing, in particular individual stalls, continues to be a controversial and highly debated topic in the United States as it relates to sow welfare. Individually housing gestating sows can maximize individual care and production, however, restricted movement as a result of this environment may result in both abnormal behavior development and decreased performance. Likewise, group housing may allow sows more freedom for movement but aggressive interactions can result in severe injury to less dominant individuals. Although both facility designs have advantages and disadvantages for the welfare of the sow, larger swine producers are transitioning to group gestation housing system as a result of legislative action or retailer pressure. However, to date, limited research is available to optimize social housing environments of group housed sows and provide proper management and feeding regimens. MSU has submitted a proposal to USDA's food security program to automate collection of social behavior data to enable faster analysis of pigs' response in different housing systems and to enable higher throughput collection of phenotypic data for use in genomic selection related to behavioral traits.Additional novel indicators and new applications of existing of animal welfare measures Poultry: Research at Michigan State University is currently examining how different poultry strains behave in aviary housing systems. Behaviors of particular interest include egg laying (and how hens utilize nest areas), perching and dust bathing. Hens are strongly motivated to perform these behaviors and systems designed to promote good welfare must facilitate the performance of these behaviors by all hens. Toward this end, data will be collected at both the level of the flock and the individual hen to enable us to understand how well group averages capture variation in individual responses in complex systems. Data will also be collected across the laying cycle to understand how hens' use of space changes as they age or experience management changes such as access to litter. This body of information is needed by producers to match strains with their ideal housing type to sustainably implement alternative housing, best management practices and to provide scientific evidence of improved poultry welfare to consumersPigs: Social genetic effects contribute a large proportion of the genetic variance in pig growth rate. By incorporating selection for social effects into breeding programs pigs better suited to group living could result. These pigs would experience improved welfare via less aggression, injury and stress related to negative social behaviors. However, the basis for this type of selection program, a link between social behavior and molecular genotypes, has received only limited attention in pigs. No studies have yet examined whether favorable social behaviors are heritable and could be selected for as another avenue to minimize aggression and facilitate social living. In ongoing work at Michigan State University, social behaviors of pigs at mixing and under more stable social conditions will be examined and paired with genotype information. The goal of this work is to identify novel molecular genetic markers that would facilitate incorporating social behavior into selection paradigms to improve sow welfare and lifetime productivity in group housing systems.Strengthen the scientific basis of animal welfare guidelines and assessment programsPoulty: Many US producers are moving from housing hens in conventional cages to keeping them in cage-free systems due to increasing demand for cage-free eggs (Scheier, 2016). However, very little is known about how hens actually use the space and resources provided to them or how much space hens need to adequately peform such behaviors. Though a few studies have examined inter-hen distance for certain behaviors (Keeling, 1994; Duncan et al., 1992), only two studies have examined the amount of space required by hens to actually peform behaviors (Mench and Blatchford, 2014; Dawkins and Hardy, 1989). However, these studies used focused on only a small number of birds from 2 strains and did not capture all behaviors relevant to designing housing, such as perching. Using video data collected from laying hens of 4 popular laying strains, information will be obtained about how much space hens require to perch, dust bathe, wing flap, stretch their wings, stand and lie down. This information can be used in conjunction with data obtained about how hens actually use space and resources and distribute themselves in complex aviaries to provide more robust guidelines and auditing standards related to space requirements of hens.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for this project weremembers of the research and academic community subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and colleagues that are members of scientific societies such as the International Society for Applied Ethology, the American Society of Animal Science, the Poultry Science Association, and the American Dairy Science Association. Both J. Siegford and J. Swanson serve on animal welfare scientific boards and advisory councils of various industry groups and corporations implementing animal welfare standards and guidelines. Wedirectly disseminated new information to these stakeholders. Throughout the project, J. Siegford and J. Swanson maintained instructional activities that prepare new generations of researchers, veterinarians, industry workers and animal ag producers to be well informed about issues related to animal welfare. Dr. Swanson particpates on the MSU Beef Team and provides expertise to other extension professionsla as requested. Dr. Siegford has been a member of thecoordinating council of the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition administered by the American Veterinary Medical Associate.Each year, she prepares scenarios for ~ 120 students from across North America who compete to assess animal welfare using scientific information, which was a key objective of NC1029. Dr. Jackie Jacobs, although not on this project, teaches courses in animal welfare assessment. Dr. Swanson is cross appointed between animal science and large animal clinical sciences depatrments in the veterinary college and teaches a first-year veterinary course in addition to undergraduate animal science courses. Both courses address sceintitifc and ethical components of animal welfare. She also holds a partial extension appointment and larger outreach component to assure social responsibility with the food system. NC1029 faculty at other research stations also hold extension appointments. Through them, and through extension personnel at MSU, the 1029 project findings have beendisseminated to various stakeholders addressing animal welfare issues,considering or adopting on-farm welfare assessments, or developing and validating audit tools. It has beenimportant that those groups incorporate practical indicators of welfare and that they know the validity and reliability of those indicators. This is particularly important since many of the options to assess welfare have not been carefully evaluated and validated. The NC1029 project teamhas been collaborative and has contributedpeer-reviewed scientific publications, and reviews, as well as abstracts presented at national and international meetings, and extension publications. Moreover, this project provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary training of graduate students and other research personnel. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development and training opportunities were provided to students, post docs, visiting scientists and to faculty. For example, the various scientific and industry conferences attended (see results dissemination section) during the course of NC 1029 served multiple purposes. Students gained important experience in the development and dissemination of the results of their research work along with professional development in their discipline and engage establishing a collaborative network by participating in these conferences. Faculty gain professional development in the same manner. Our graduate students, post docs and visiting scholars also assist in the courses taught by our group especially the laboratories. These experiences are essential to building skills for teaching and scientific outreach. Below are the year-by-year summaries of students trained in our MSU Animal Behavior and Welfare Group and teaching responsibilities. 2021: Currently J. Siegford is mentoring and training 1 PhD, 1 MS and 2 undergraduate students conducting research. She is instructing two courses, one in animal behavior (~50 students) and a new Advanced Animal Behavior lab (~ 6 students) for the department and a collaborative virtual course in Animal Welfare Assessment for graduate students, veterinary, and those desiring post-doctoral training. This course engages co-instructors from Virginia Tech and Texas A&M. J. Swanson taught a required spring senior level course on ethical issues in animal agriculture and instructed a 1st year veterinary student course VM 515 Animals and Society to 116 students enrolled in the College of Veterinary. Jackie Jacobs teaches the undergraduate animal welfare assessment course and the animal welfare judging team course for the department with 20 students typically enrolled in each course. A new member of the department animal behavior and welfare group is Dr. Hanne Hofmann who is developing a course in animal stress physiology. Students attending all of the cited courses have been exposed to completed and on-going research supported by this project. 2020: Siegford taught an undergraduate course on applied animal behavior to 50 students in spring 2020. Siegford finished 1 PhD and 1 MS student plan B and currently mentored a second MSU student, 2 postdocs and 2 undergraduate students conducting research as well as supervised 11 additional undergraduates working on behavioral data collection. J. Swanson taught a required undergraduate course on ethical issues in animal agriculture (spring 2020) and instructed a 1st year veterinary student course VM 515 Animals and Society to 116 students enrolled in the College of Veterinary. Students in both courses have been exposed to completed and on-going research supported by this project. 2019: Siegford taught an undergraduate course on applied animal behavior to 50 students in spring 2019. Siegford finished 1 PhD and 1 MS student plan B and currently mentored a second MSU student, 2 postdocs and 2 undergraduate students conducting research as well as supervised 11 additional undergraduates working on behavioral data collection. J. Swanson taught a required undergraduate course on ethical issues in animal agriculture (spring 2019) and instructed a 1st year veterinary student course VM 515 Animals and Society in the College of Veterinary Medicine in the CVM curriculum. Students in both courses have been exposed to completed and on-going research supported by this project. 2018: Dr. Janice Siegford, Dr. Jacquelyn Jacobs and Dr. Janice Swanson jointly supervised 2 postdocs, 3 graduate students, and about 12 undergraduates and serve on graduate committees across campus. Students and postdocs gain experience conducting research with various species (including on projects of their own devising), presenting their work within the group and to broader audience, as well as become engaged in the Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. The postdocs and graduate students were guided in mentoring undergraduate students and the postdocs given opportunities to apply for funding as lead investigators. 2017: Dr. Janice Siegford and Dr. Janice Swanson jointly supervised 1 postdoc, 1 visiting scholar, 3 graduate students, and about 12 undergraduates and serve on graduate committees across campus. Students, postdocs and visiting scholars gain experience conducting research with various species (including on projects of their own devising), presenting their work within the group and to broader audience, as well as become engaged in the Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. The postdocs, graduate and visiting scholars were guided in mentoring undergraduate students and the postdocs given opportunities to apply for funding as lead investigators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results during the period of the NC 1029 project have been disseminated through presentations and posters at scientific conferences, published journal articles and proceedings (see publication listing) outreach/extension activities, and to producer and allied industry organizations and scientific advisory activities. Major scientific conferences where results of our research have been presented include the annual meetings of the American Society of Animal Science, Poultry Science Association, Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology, Assessment of Animal Welfare at the Farm and Group Level (WAFL), North American Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology, and the Plant and Animal Genome conference. Industry focused meetings include the Midwest Poultry Federation, Iowa Egg Center Forum, National Pork Board Pig Welfare Symposium, MI Allied Poultry Industry Winter Meeting, J. Siegford and colleagues at MSU, Scotland's Rural College, Iowa State University (A. Butters Johnson) and North Carolina State University (M. Pairis-Garcia) have commenced a USDA funded project examining perceptions of precision livestock within the swine industry.This project overlaps with the newly established multi-state project on precision livestock farming. The success of using such precision technology hinges on its acceptance and implementation by producers. J. Siegford engaged in the planning of a virtual field day on the use of precision livestock systems which was held on October 7, 2021. Both Janice Siegford, Janice Swanson, and Jackie Jacobs hold teaching appointments within the department of animal science (see training and professional development section). The research results from NC 1029 contribute significantly to our assigned teaching in animal behavior, animal welfare and assessment, and animal ethics. J. Siegford instructs an on-line advanced course in Animal Welfare Assessment for graduate and veterinary students with co-instructors L. Jacobs of Virginia Tech and C. Daigle of Texas A&M. Swanson also holds an appointment in the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department in the College of Veterinary Medicine providing instructional leadership in skill building and assessment of animal handling skills and understanding of animal behavior and welfare to 1st year veterinary students. Research results from our studies have been shared with students in veterinary medicine enhancing their knowledge in animal behavior and animal welfare as well as the measurement and assessment of both in a scientific and practical context. Students are genuinely interested in learning about new scientific findings on the care and welfare of livestock and poultry. Finally, Janice Swanson is chairing the 6th Biennial International Symposium on the Welfare of Beef Cattle and supported through a USDA conference grant. First offered in 2008, the symposium brings together scientists, beef producers, allied industry, and other stakeholders to discuss the latest research, technology, and emerging issues in the care and welfare of beef cattle. A special feature of the program is a workshop session which allows symposium participants to learn new skills. A graduate student oral paper and poster session are also part of the conference The symposium is hosted every other year by an U.S. or Canadian institution. A steering committee guides the development of the program. Committee members represent the following institutions and include members of NC 1029: Colorado State University (L. Edwards-Callaway), Iowa State University (D. Thomson, D. Grooms, S. Millman), University of California-Davis (C. Tucker), Kansas State University (J. Coetzee), Michigan State University (J. Swanson, D. Buskirk), University of Calgary College of Veterinary Medicine (E. Pajor), University of Guelph (D. Haley), and Agriculture and Agribusiness Canada (K. Schwartzkopf-Genswein). Originally scheduled for June 2020, the COVID 19 pandemic has delayed the symposium for two years. In spring 2022, the symposium will be offered via 5 webinars scheduled monthly from mid-February through mid-June. Results from the Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing project will be presented at the symposium. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1. Our researchfocused on assessing factors affecting the welfare of hens housed in a commercial aviary. Aseries of studies examinedthe effect of genetic hen strain on behavior and use of aviary resources. Hy Line Brown, Bovan Brown, Dekalb White and Hyline W 36 hens were studied. Differences were found (see ref). Brown strains were more likely to lay eggs outside of the nest than the white. White hens nestedin the morning vs brown at mid-day. Brown birds preferred the right nest compartment while whitepreferred the left. During the morning hours brown hens used the nest more but coincided with more non-nest eggs and suggests a lack of nest space during the peak laying hours. Hens' use of resources and nighttime roosting behaviorwere also studied. White strains preferred roosting higher in the aviary than brownwho used distributed system perches. White strains roosted on metal ledges whereas brown preferred perches in the mid/lower levels. Larger numbers of white hens occupied the open litter at first access, mid-day, and evening. More brown hens occupied the wire floor. White hens occupied metal ledges and system perches, and more brown hens occupiedthe area underneath the system. Dustbathing and occupancy of the open litter wasstudied. White hens occupied litter at the same time and dustbathed simultaneously. Brown hens maintained larger inter-bird distances and had shorter dustbathing bouts than white hens. White hens decreased their dustbathing area as hens on litter increased. Dustbathing duration for brown hens decreased as more hens occupied open litter space leading to incomplete dustbathing bouts. Finally, resource use and production parameters were used toassess risk to hen health/production. Number and location of eggs laid were recorded daily. 20% of the hens from eachunit were randomly selected and scored for feather condition, keel bone damage, and foot health. Results were similar to previous findings for occupancy of resources and nest use. Keel bone damage was found across all strains and at higher rates as hens aged. White hens had higher odds of sustaining keel bone damage and poorer feather scores. Hen strain matters in aviary design. Late exposure of hens to aviary resources was studied.W-36 pullets were raised in a standard floor pen and moved directly into an aviary at 17 weeks of age (WOA) (control) or in a floor pen to 25 WOA then moved to the aviary (Floor), or at 17 WOA moved to an enriched floor pen containing nests and perches of variable heights then moved to the aviary at 25 WOA (Enriched). Equal numbers of focal hens from each pullet raising treatment observed during specific periods of the day. Focal hens from each treatment were fitted with body worn accelerometers recording their diurnal movement, frequency of movement, and acceleration of falls at night. Results indicate that the control hens experienced nighttime falls most often than Floor or Enriched hens with the latter experiencing the least number of falls. Floor hens had nearly half the number of nighttime falls than Control hens. Differences were most prevalent during the first 10 weeks after movement into the aviary system then diminished. A second study counted birds occupying the tiered and litter areas of the aviary at 36 and 54 WOA. Results suggest that birds moved into aviaries at 25 WOA can adapt to an aviary system but at different rates depending on raising experience. MSU and the Scotland's Rural College examined how social behavior phenotypes relate to underlying genotypes and production traits in swine (see ref). The goal of this work is to facilitate the inclusion of social behavior into genetic selection indexes and breeding programs to reduce aggression in group housed swine. And to understand the human contribution to mitigating inter-pig fighting. Lesion scoring of pigs at different stages of a production cycle were used to estimate the genetic parameters associated with aggression. Yorkshire gilts were remixed into groups of known and unknown pigs at weaning, grow finish, maturity. Lesion scores were assessed for three body zones at mix, and 24 hours, and 3 weeks post mix. Body weight, backfat thickness and loin area were also collected before slaughter. Heritability of lesion scores fell between 0.10 to 0.40.The highest heritability estimates were calculated from the lesions on the anterior zone at 24 hours and 3 weeks post-mix, while the caudal and central zones produced highest genetic correlation at each production stage, and the anterior and central were lowest. Results indicated the possibility that pigs selected for lower lesions scores may not impact growth rate and may produce greater loin muscle area. SNPS (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that may be associated with aggression were then identified. Using the same population of pigs and methods of remixing and lesion scoring, genomic best linear unbiased prediction models were generated for each trait. Results indicate that SNPs located on Chromosome 11 were responsible for a major portion of the variance for lesions sustained on the anterior and central body zones and suggest gene(s) located within a region of Chromosome 11 as a potential source of genetic control of aggression. Asurvey of North American swine producers was conducted to determine if housing, handling, and the mixing strategies used during different phases of pig production could help identify strategies that minimize inter-pig aggression. Of the producers who mixed pigs, effective strategies reported to reduce aggression included the socialization of pre-weaned piglets, penning of mixed weight pigs, and mixing pigs at night. Human-animal interactions to identify relationships to aggression/fearfulness in finisher pigs were explored. The Human Approach Test (HAT),the Novel Object Test (NOT) and animal handling were utilized to measure pig responses to humans and its effect on inter-pig aggression. Inter-pig aggression was measured using skin lesion score as previously described. Skin lesion scores were recorded on finisher pigs at 24 hours and 3-weeks post mixing. Pigs were mixed at 10 weeks of age. Response data collected for each of the human interaction tests administered to the pigs were compared with the lesion score data collected post mixing. Results indicated a lack of consistency in pig responses across the different behavioral tests and no significant relationships were found between them. However, the HAT and the NOT responses of pigs were related to lesion scores of pigs at 24 hours post mixing, and relationships were found between the NOT and handling responses and the 3-week post mix lesion scores. Certain results indicate that care should be taken when selecting for less aggressive pigs as it may affect other behavioral traits. Goal 2: J. Swanson is a Co-PI on Module 7 (animal welfare) of an Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing project led by Arizona State University. This module was part of a larger sustainable grazing systems-based study that included teams of scientists studying various aspects of the ecological impacts of ranches using AMP versus Conventional grazing. Data collection was conducted on 10 beef ranches located in the SE U.S. Ranchers were paired by geographic adjacency, presence of a cow-calf herd, and type of grazing strategy used on their ranch. Data was gathered from on-site visits to assess cattle welfare, resources, and facilities. Results from the on-site visits were used to develop recommendations for improvement and presented at in-person meetings with ranchers. An outcome of this work was for ranchers to share experience and ideas supporting implementation of sustainable grazing practices. A national survey was also administered to cow-calf ranchers on 13 practices representing risk to the cow herd. The goal was to assess the potential risk posed to the cowherd when BMPs are not implemented. A herd risk index was developed based on farmer responses.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: OMalley CI, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM. 2021. Time budgets of group-housed pigs in relation to social aggression and production. Journal of Animal Science, 99(5):1-8. doi: 10.1093/jas/skab110.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Angarita BK, Han J, Cantet RJC, Chewning SK, Wurtz KE, Siegford JM, Ernst CW. Steibel JP. 2021. Estimation of direct and social effects of feeding duration in growing pigs using records from automatic feeding stations. Journal of Animal Science, 99(5):1-8 doi: 10.1093/jas/skab042.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Corbett RJ, Luttman AM, Wurtz KE, Siegford JM, Raney NE, Ford LE, Ernst CE. 2021. Weaning induces stress-dependent DNA methylation and transcriptional changes in piglet PBMCs. Frontiers in Genetics Livestock Genomics, 12:633564. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.633564.
• Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Koelkebeck K, Anderson K, Cheng H-W, Coufal C, Schwean-Lardner K, Siegford JM, Webster B. 2020. Chapter 12: Egg-type poultry. In: Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching, 4th edition. ASAS-ADSA-PSA. Pp. 177-198.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Olmos Antill�n Gabriela*, H�kan Tun�n, Daiana de Oliveira, Michael Jones, Anna Wallenbeck, Janice Swanson, Harry Blokhuis, Linda Keeling. 2021. Education to meet the challenges of our time  reinforcing links between Animal Welfare and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability 13 (6): 3328 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063328
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Clifford, M. E., M.G.S. McKendree*, J. Hobod and J.C. Swanson. 2020. Adaptive Multi-Paddock grazing: Producer survey results. AgEcon Search. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/307453 Paper Series
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Hopkins, K.A., J.C. Swanson, M. McKendree. Assessing best management practices adoption: The Whole Herd Beef Risk Index. Applied Animal Science.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences will be members of the research and academic community subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and colleagues that are members of scientific societies such as the International Society for Applied Ethology, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Poultry Science Association. Both J. Siegford and J. Swanson serve on animal welfare boards and advisory councils of various industry groups and corporations and disseminate information to these stakeholders directly. J. Siegford and J. Swanson have instructional activities that prepare new generations of researchers, veterinarians, industry workers and animal ag producers to be well informed about issues related to animal welfare. Dr. Siegford is on the coordinating council of the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. Each year, she prepares scenarios for ~ 120 students from across North America compete to assess, with respect to animal welfare using scientific information, a key objective of NC1029. Dr. Swanson is cross appointed between animal science and large animal clinical sciences and teaches a first-year veterinary course in addition to undergraduate animal science courses. She also holds a small extension appointment and larger outreach component to assure social responsibility with the food system. NC1029 faculty at other research stations also hold extension appointments. Through them, and through extension personnel at MSU, project findings are disseminated to groups that are addressing animal welfare issues and considering or adopting on-farm welfare assessments or audits. It is important that those groups incorporate practical indicators of welfare and that they know the validity and reliability of those indicators. This is particularly important since many of the options to assess welfare have not been carefully evaluated and validated. The NC1029 project expected to generate collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific publications, and reviews, as well as abstracts presented at national and international meetings, and extension publications. Moreover, this project provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary training of graduate students and other research personnel. Changes/Problems:The COVID 19 pandemic presented significant challengesduring the reporting time period. The planned symposium was postponed until June 2021. J. Swanson was in the process of securing a post-doctoral trainee to commence training inMarch 2020 but placed on hold due to international travel restrictions. The number of undergraduates we typically mentor and employ in our lab has been hindered due to restrictions on undergraduate research and on-campus work restrictions. This has been a challenging year for project completions due to pandemic interruption of work. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Siegford taught an undergraduate course on applied animal behavior to 50 students in spring 2020. Siegford advised one doctoral student, two post docs and 4 undergraduate students. J. Swanson taught a required undergraduate course (139 students) on ethical issues in animal agriculture (spring 2020) and instructed a 1st year veterinary student course VM 515 Animals and Society (Fall 2020) to 116 students enrolled in the College of Veterinary. Students in both courses have been exposed to completed and on-going research supported by this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, published journal articles, and proceedings, outreach/extension activities to producer and allied industry organizations and activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Dr. Swanson is preparing a final report on the sponsored project on Adaptive Multi paddock Grazing in Beef Cattle. The project manuscripts are under development and targeted for publication in a special journal issue in 2021. Swanson is chairing the 6th Biennial Symposium on the Welfare of Beef Cattle at Michigan State June 17-18 of 2021, the conference was postponed for one-year due to COVID 19. The symposium will bring together scientists, beef producers, allied industry, and other stakeholders to discuss the latest research, technology, and emerging issues. A special feature is a wet lab session which allows symposium participants to learn new skills. A graduate student oral paper and poster session is also part of the conference. Dr. Siegford is focusing on precision agriculture and more specifically technologies that allow for better data collections and animal welfare assessment and auditing capabilities. She will continue her work on poultry welfare targeting aviary laying hens.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? MSU conducted research and outreach contributing to Objectives 1 and 2 of the NC 1029 multi-state project. The work on this project overlaps with the NE 1442 Poultry Housing multi-state project and will also overlap with the new NCDC 235: Precision Management of Animals for Improved Care, Health, and Welfare of Livestock and Poultry project that is being developed. Research: Objective 1: J. Siegford completed a research study on the use of open litter areas by 2 brown (Hy Line Brown and Bovan Brown) and 2 white lines of laying hens (Dekalb White and Hy Line W 36) housed in an aviary system. Behaviors of interest were dustbathing and occupancy of open litter space by hens. Findings indicate more white hens occupied litter at the same time and dustbathed simultaneously (P < 0.01) than did brown hens. Brown hens maintained larger inter-bird distances and had shorter dustbathing bouts than white hens (P < 0.01). Dustbathing duration for Brown hens decreased as more hens occupied open litter space (P < 0.01) and white hens decreased their dustbathing area as more hens on litter increased (P < 0.01). Therefore, the white hens on this study would decrease the area used to dustbathe as more birds occupied litter whereas both strains of brown hens under the same conditions truncated their dustbathing bouts leading to an incomplete dustbathing sequence. The results of this work suggest strain of hen should be considered when planning for litter space in an aviary. This work is part of a doctoral student project and one manuscript was developed and published in Poultry Science. Objective 2: J. Swanson is completing work comparing beef cattle welfare on farms using adaptive multi paddock (AMP) grazing strategies and conventional (CONV) grazing practices. Descriptive data was gathered from on-site visits to assess cow wellbeing, site resources and facilities. Thirteen questions about farmer implementation of best management practices in the course of managing their cowherd were asked during an in-person recorded interview. The same 13 questions were used to conduct a national survey of beef cattle grazers. The national survey results have been analyzed and manuscripts are in development. The AMP and CONV study survey analysis will be completed Fall 2020. A risk and progressiveness indices were developed based on farmer responses to thirteen questions on the implementation of best management practices in the course of managing their cowherd. J. Siegford engaged in the planning of a virtual conference held October 7th on the use of precision livestock systems which includes new tools to measure and assess animal welfare. The International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare was postponed until June 2021 due to the pandemic. J. Swanson is chair of the symposium planning committee. USDA conference funds were secured to support the conference.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ufer, D, Ortega, D, Wolf, C, Swanson, J., and McKendree M. Biotechnology that improves farm animal welfare: Market acceptance of gene-editing and immunocastration in the U.S. Pork Industry. Food Policy.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ali ABA, Campbell DLM, Siegford JM*. 2020. A risk assessment of health, production, and resource occupancy for 4 laying hen strains across the lay cycle in a commercial-style aviary system. Poultry Science. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2020.05.057.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Grebey TC, Ali ABA, Swanson JC, Widowski TM, Siegford JM*. 2020. Dust bathing in laying hens: strain, proximity to, and number of conspecifics matter. Poultry Science, 99:4103-4112. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2020.04.032.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: MacLachlan SS, Ali ABA, Toscano MJ, Siegford JM*. 2020. Influence of later exposure to perches and nests on flock level distribution of hens in an aviary system during lay. Poultry Science, 99:30-38. doi: 10.3382/ps/pez524.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ali ABA, Toscano MJ, Siegford J*. 2019. Later exposure to perches and nests reduces individual hens occupancy of vertical space in an aviary and increases force of falls at night. Poultry Science, 98:6251-6262.doi: 10.3382/ps/pez506.
• Type: Book Chapters Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2020 Citation: Koelkebeck K, Anderson K, Cheng H-W, Coufal C, Schwean-Lardner K, Siegford JM, Webster B. In press. Egg-type poultry. Guide for the care and use of agricultural animals in research and teaching, 4th edition. United States.

Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences will be members of the research and academic community subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and colleagues that are members of scientific societies such as the International Society for Applied Ethology, the American Society of Animal Science, the Poultry Science Association, and the American Dairy Science Association. Both J. Siegford and J. Swanson serve on animal welfare boards and advisory councils of various industry groups and corporations and disseminate information to these stakeholders directly. J. Siegford and J. Swanson have instructional activities that prepare new generations of researchers, veterinarians, industry workers and animal ag producers to be well informed about issues related to animal welfare. Dr. Siegford is on the coordinating council of the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. Each year, she prepares scenarios for~ 120 students from across North America compete to assess, with respect to animal welfare using scientific information, a key objective of NC1029. Dr. Swanson is cross appointed between animal science and large animal clinical sciences and teaches a first-year veterinary course in addition to undergraduate animal science courses. She also holds a small extension appointment and larger outreach component to assure social responsibility with the food system. NC1029 faculty at other research stations also hold extension appointments. Through them, and through extension personnel at MSU, project findings are disseminated to groups that are addressing animal welfare issues and considering or adopting on-farm welfare assessments or audits. It is important that those groups incorporate practical indicators of welfare and that they know the validity and reliability of those indicators. This is particularly important since many of the options to assess welfare have not been carefully evaluated and validated. The NC1029 project expected to generate collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific publications and reviews, as well as abstracts presented at national and international meetings, and extension publications. Moreover, this project provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary training of graduate students and other research personnel. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Siegford taught an undergraduate course on applied animal behavior to 50 students in spring 2019. Siegford finished 1 PhD and 1 MS student plan Band currently mentored a second MSU student, 2 postdocs and 2 undergraduate students conducting research as well as supervised 11 additional undergraduates working on behavioral data collection. J. Swanson taught a required undergraduate course on ethical issues in animal agriculture (spring 2019) and instructed a 1st year veterinary student course VM 515 Animals and Society in the College of Veterinary Medicine in the CVM curriculum. Students in both courses have been exposed to completed and on-going research supported by this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences, published journal articles and proceedings, outreach/extension activities to producer and allied industry organizations and activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Dr. Swanson is finishing the analysis and data on the FFAR and industry sponsored project on Adaptive Multipaddock Grazing in Beef Cattle. The project willbe completed at the end of 2019 or early 2020 and manuscripts prepared forpublication in a special journal issue in 2020. Swanson ischairing the 6th Biennial Symposium on the Welfare of Beef Cattle at Michigan State June 18-19 of 2020. The symposium brings together scientists, beef producers, allied industry and other stakeholders to discuss the latest research, technology and emerging issues. A special feature is a wet lab session which allows symposium particpants to learn new skills. A graduate student oral paper and poster session is also part of the conference. Dr. Siegford is focussing on precision agriculture and more specifically technologies that allow for better data collections and animal welfare assessment and auditing capabilities. She will continue her work on poultry welfare targeting aviary laying hens. A visiting scientist will be added to the animal behavior lab in 2020.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? MSU conducted research and outreach contributing to Objectives 1 and 2 of the NC 1029 multi-state project. The work on this project overlaps with the NE 1442 Poultry Housing multi-state project and will also overlap with the new NCDC 235: Precision Management of Animals for Improved Care, Health, and Welfare of Livestock and Poultry project that is being developed. Research: Objective 1: J. Siegford wrapped up work on how delayed placement of pullets into aviary (individual and flock levels) affects hen behaviors, including movement/falls at night. She is concluding work on bone strength and keel damage with collaborators at University of Bern. Siegford' s USDA funded project examining how social behavior phenotypes relate to underlying genotypes and production traits in swine has been completed and final manuscripts are being published and prepared. Objective 2: J. Swanson is a Co-PI on the animal welfare portion of an Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) Grazing project supported by FFAR (Arizona State University, Peter Byck PI). Based on the findings of (Simon et al. 2016 part 1&2), a focal surveywas administered toparticpating rancherson 13practices representing riskto assess rancher attitudes toward best management practices and the welfare of beef cows on their ranches (AMP and conventional grazers). On-farm data collection of beef cow condition and available resources (post-calving) was completed late May 2019. Evaluation and analysis of survey rancher focal transcripts and sending additional surveys to SE state beef organizations will be completed late 2019 early 2020. Siegford is examining the impact of interbird distance and strain on the performance of key behaviors on litter. As co-PI on a USDA project examining use of technology to collect behavioral phenotypes in pigs, Siegford is working with a team of US and international collaborators to automatically identify behaviors such as aggression and use of a feeder. The development of such technology will greatly enhance accuracy and precision of data collection for scientific and practical purposes including the assessment of animal welfare.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Chen C, Zhu W, Liu D, Steibel J, Siegford J, Wurtz K, Han J, Norton T. 2019. Detection of aggressive behaviours in pigs using a RealSense depth sensor. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 166:105003 doi: 10.1016/j.compag.2019.105003.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: MacLachlan SS, Ali ABA, Toscano MJ, Siegford JM*. 2019. Influence of later exposure to perches and nests on flock level distribution of hens in an aviary system during lay. Poultry Science. doi: 10.3382/ps/pez524.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ali ABA, Toscano MJ, Siegford J*. 2019. Later exposure to perches and nests reduces individual hens occupancy of vertical space in an aviary and increases force of falls at night. Poultry Science. doi: 10.3382/ps/pez506.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: OMalley CI, Turner SP, DEath RB, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CE, Siegford J*. 2019. Review: Animal personality in the management and welfare of pigs. Applied Animal Behavior Science. 218:104821. doi: 10.1016/j.applanim.2019.06.002
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Han, J., S. Chewning, K. Wurtz, J. M. Siegford, and J. P. Steibel. 2019. Using 3D images and deep learning to predict feeder occupancy in grow-finish pigs. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Science (Abstr.)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ison, S. H., R. O. Bates, J. P. Steibel, C. W. Ernst, and J. M. Siegford. 2019. Pork producer outreach: Could we be doing better? Results of a North American survey. 11th European Symposium of Porcine Health Management Abstract Book, 433 (Abstr.)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ison, S. H., K. E. Wurtz, C. I. O'Malley, and J. M. Siegford. 2019. North American stakeholder perceptions of issues affecting the management, performance, and welfare of pigs. 11th European Symposium of Porcine Health Management Abstract Book, 435 (Abstr.)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Corbett, R. J., K. E. Wurtz, J. M. Siegford, N. E. Raney, L. M. Ford, and C. W. Ernst. 2019. Weaning induces rapid DNA methylation and transcriptional changes in piglet PBMCs associated with impaired stress. The Plant and Animal Genome Meeting XXVII (Abstr.)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steibel, J. P., B. Barajas, J. Han, S. Chewning, K. Wurtz, C. O'Malley, J. M. Siegford, R. Cantet, and C. W. Ernst. 2019. Behavioral phenotyping and modeling of social genetic effects. The Plant and Animal Genome Meeting XXVII (Abstr.)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Swanson, J.C. 2019. Animal Welfare. Lala Rajput University of the Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Hisar, India. Faculty Seminar. April 29, 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Swanson, J.C. 2019. Animal Welfare and Corporate Social Responsibility. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Animal Welfare Summer School. Swedish University of the Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. June 17, 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Keeling, L., H. Tunon, G. Olmos, C. Berg, M. Jones, L. Stuardo, J. Swanson, A. Wallenbeck, C. Winckler, H. Blokhuis. Animal welfare: an integral part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Proceedings 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology, Bergen, Norway.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Rodenburg TB, Bennewitz J, de Haas E, Koa?�l L, Pichov� K, Tetens J, Visser B, De Klerk B, van der Sluis M, van der Zande L, Siegford J, Toscano M, Norton T, Guzhva O, Ellen E. 2019. Developing sensor technologies to inform breeding approaches to reduce damaging behaviour in laying hens and pigs: The GroupHouseNet approach. Precision Livestock Farming 19: Papers Presented at the 9th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, Cork Ireland, August 26-29, 2019. 9:467-470.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Steibel JP, Han J, Chewning S, Wurtz K, Siegford JM. 2019. Combining automatic feeding records and image analyses to study feeder occupancy in growing-finishing pigs. Precision Livestock Farming 19: Papers Presented at the 9th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, Cork Ireland, August 26-29, 2019. 9:831-835.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Rodenburg TB, Van Der Zande L, De Haas EN, Koa?�l L, Pichov K, Piette D, Tetens J, Visser B, De Klerk B, Van Der Sluis M, Bennewitz J, Siegford J, Norton T, Guzhva O, Ellen ED. 2019. Reduce damaging behaviour in laying hens and pigs by developing sensor technologies to inform breeding programs. Proceedings of the 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 53:364
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Siegford J*, Ali A. 2019. Comparison of patterns of substrate occupancy by individuals versus flocks of 4 strains of laying hens in an aviary. Proceedings of the 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 53:358.
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: OMalley, C. I. 2019. Individual behavior types and social cohesion of group-housed pigs. PhD Diss. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wurtz K, Camerlink I, DEath R, Pe�a Fern�ndez A, Siegford JM, Steibel JP. 2019. Automated phenotyping of swine behavior using image analysis: A systematic review. Precision Livestock Farming 19: Papers Presented at the 9th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, Cork Ireland, August 26-29, 2019. 9:454-459.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ison S, Wurtz K, OMalley C, Siegford J. 2019. North American stakeholder perceptions of the issues affecting the management, performance and well-being of pigs. Proceedings of the 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 53:247. (poster)
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Keeling, L.J., H. Tunon, G. O. Antillon, C.L. Berg, M. Jones, L. Stuardo, J. Swanson, A. Wallenbeck, C. Winckler, and H. Blokhuis. Animal Welfare and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Frontiers in Veterinary Science
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ali, A., D. Campbell, D. M. Karcher, and J. M. Siegford. 2019. Daytime occupancy of resources and flooring types by 4 laying hen strains in a commercial style aviary. J. Vet. Behav. 31:59-66. doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2019.03.010
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ali, A. B., D. Campbell, D. M. Karcher, and J. M. Siegford. 2019. Nighttime roosting substrate type and height among four strains of laying hens in an aviary system. Poult. Sci. 98:1936-1946. doi:10.3382/ps/pey574

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences will be members of the research and academic community subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and colleagues that were members of scientific societies such as the International Society for Applied Ethology, the American Society of Animal Science, the Poultry Science Association, International Society for Equitation Science, and the American Dairy Science Association. Both J. Siegford and J. Swanson serve on animal welfare boards of various industry groups and corporations and disseminate information to these stakeholders directly. J. Siegford and J. Swanson are involved in teaching activities so that the upcoming generation of researchers, veterinarians, industry and producers can be well informed about issues related to animal welfare. J. Siegford is on the coordinating council of the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. Each year,Dr. Siegfordprepares scenarios for over 120 students from across North America compete to assess, with respect to animal welfare using scientific information, a key objective of NC1029. NC1029 faculty at other research stations also hold extension appointments. Through them, and through extension personnel at MSU, project findings will be disseminated to groups considering, or that are already conducting, on-farm welfare assessments or audits. It is important that those groups incorporate practical indicators of welfare and that they know the validity and reliability of those indicators. This is particularly important since many of the options to assess welfare have not been carefully evaluated (an important point of the present NC1029 overall project). In general, the NC1029 overall project is expected to result in collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific publications and reviews, as well as abstracts presented at national and international meetings, and extension publications. This project also provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary training of graduate students and other research personnel. Changes/Problems:The only change to report is the recent addition of a new faculty member in the Department of Animal Science, Dr. Jacquelyn Jacobs. Dr Jacobs has expanded the training, research and outreach capabilities of the MSU Animal Welfare and Behavior Group. Dr. Jacobs brings expertise in companion animal, biology, behavior and management. She has also completed research in dairy cattle management and behavior and conducted post doctoral research in laying hen welfare. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Dr. Janice Siegford, Dr. Jacquelyn Jacobs and Dr. Janice Swanson participate in activities related to NC1029. In 2016-2017, they jointly supervised 2 postdocs, 3 graduate students, and about 12 undergraduates and serve on graduate committees across campus. Students and postdocs gain experience conducting research with various species (including on projects of their own devising), presenting their work within the group and to broader audience, as well as become engaged in the Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. The postdocs and graduate students were guided in mentoring undergraduate students and the postdocs given opportunities to apply for funding as lead investigators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via the publications and presentations described under the products section. All three PIs also teach courses of their own and lecture across campus, which offer additional venues for disseminating research findings. J. Swanson is cross appointed in the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department in the College of Veterinary Medicine and providing leadership in skill building and assessment of animal handling skills and understanding of animal welfare with 1st year veterinary students.Therefore expanding our training opportunitiesto students in veterinary medicine. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?J. Siegford's research on laying hens in aviaries and pigs in groups will continue in line with proposed grants supporting those projects. Publications resulting from this work will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and findings presented at scientific conferences such as the 2018 Congress for the International Society for Applied Ethology, the National Pork Board's Pig Welfare Symposium, and the Michigan Allied Poultry Industry Winter Program. J. Siegford will again be an organizer and scenario writer for the 2018 Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. J. Jacobs is assisting with coaching of the MSU Animal Science graduate and undergraduate teams. J. Siegford, J. Jacobs and J. Swanson will continue to teach in courses on applied animal behavior and animal welfare, including participating in a veterinary student course related to professional ethics and animal welfare. Three graduate students, two postdocs, and 12 undergraduates will receive training related to applied ethology and animal welfare. J. Swanson will participate in the annual NC1029 meeting and deliver the station report from Michigan State University. J. Jacobs and J. Siegford are co-instructing the companion animal biology and management course (119 students) this fall and J. Siegford is mentoring a postdoc and graduate student as they co-instruct courses in animal welfare assessment (36 students total). J. Swanson will continue data collection on the FFAR funded projecton the welfare of beef cows herds participating in adaptive multipaddock grazing programs and conventional grazing systems. Swanson will also be chairing the steering and planning committees for the 2020 International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare which will be hosted by MSU.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. J. Siegford continues to produce scientific research related to impacts of aviary housing on laying hen behavior and welfare. She has completed an additional experimental project studying the impact of hen strain (breed) on how much space hens occupy when performing key behaviors. She has also examined delayed placement of pullets into aviary at both individual and flock levels, including using accelerometers to assess hen movement and falls at night. Her team is engaging in work on bone strength and keel damage with collaborators at University of Bern related to use of ramps during pullet rearing and in laying hen systems. 2. J. Siegford and colleagues at MSU and Scotland's Rural College are continuing work on a project examining how social behavior phenotypes relate to underlying genotypes and production traits. The team recently sed combined datasets to increase power of genetic studies and expanded behavioral data collection beyond assessing damaging aggression to non-damaging aggression, personality and positive social behaviors such as play. This work should facilitate inclusion of social behavior for improved welfare into genetic selection indexes and breeding programs to reduce some of the aggression seen in group housed swine, especially after mixing of animals into new groups. 3. The on-going work of the multi-university team with the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition helps students develop the skills necessary to assess animal welfare and to communicate effectively about controversial issues. 4. J. Swanson developed the animal welfare research module to assess beef cattle welfare on an FFAR and industry supported adaptive multi-paddock beef cattle grazing project. The project has received funding and data collection will begin October 2018. 5. J. Swanson is the MSU representative on an international consortium of universities working on sustainable development goals for animal welfare under the United Nations framework.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wurtz KE, Siegford JM, Ernst CW, Raney NE, Bates RO, Steibel JP. Accepted. Genome-wide association analyses of lesion scores in group-housed pigs. Animal Genetics.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ison SH, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Steibel JP, Siegford JM*. 2018. Housing, ease of handling and minimising inter-pig aggression at mixing for nursery to finishing pigs as reported in a survey of North American pork producers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 205:159-166. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2018.05.004
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: OMalley CI, Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2018. Relationships among aggressiveness, fearfulness and human-interactions in finisher pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 205:194-201. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2018.03.001
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Siegford J*, Jensen MB, Haskell M. 2018. Preface: Special issue on Tinbergens questions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 205:181-182. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2018.06.001
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Witaifi AA, Ali ABA, Siegford JM*. 2018. Stall and feed bunk stocking rates impact cows diurnal behavior and activity in automatic milking systems. Journal of Veterinary Behavior. 24:48-55. doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2018.01.004
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Riddle ER, Ali ABA, Campbell DLM, Siegford JM*. 2018. Space use by 4 strains of laying hens to perch, wing flap, dust bathe, stand and lie down. PLoS ONE. 13(1): e0190532. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0190532
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Guest Editors: Siegford J, Jensen MB, Haskell M. 2018. Special Issue on Tinbergens Questions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 205:181-233. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/applied-animal-behaviour-science/special-issue/10LJPP956H4
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ali ABA, Siegford JM*. 2018. An approach for tracking directional activity of individual laying hens within a multi-tier cage-free housing system (aviary) using accelerometers. Measuring Behavior 2018 Conference Proceedings: 11th Annual Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research. 11:178-180.
• Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Swanson, J.C., C. Hankenson and L. Chapin. 2018. Housing and Environment: Agricultural Animals. In: Management of Animal Care and Use Programs in Research, Teaching and Testing. 2nd edition. CRC Press, Washington DC.
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Swanson, J.C. Legislative Approaches. 2018. In: Scientific, Ethical, and Economic Aspects of Farm Animal Wellbeing. CAST Taskforce Report no. 143. Council on Agricultural Science and Technology, Ames, IA.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Swanson, J.C. Animal welfare and dairy farming. 2017. Proceedings of the International Buffalo Symposium, Chitwan, Nepal.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences will be members of the research and academic community subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and colleagues that were members of scientific societies such as the International Society for Applied Ethology, the American Society of Animal Science, the Poultry Science Association, International Society for Equitation Science, and the American Dairy Science Association. Both J. Siegford and J. Swanson also serve on animal welfare boards of various industry groups and corporations and disseminate information to these stakeholders directly. J. Siegford and J. Swanson are also involved in teaching activities so that the upcoming generation of researchers, veterinarians, industry and producers can be well informed about issues related to animal welfare. J. Siegford is on the coordinating council of the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. Each year, she prepares scenarios for nearly 120 students from across North America compete to assess, with respect to animal welfare using scientific information, a key objective of NC1029. NC1029 Faculty at other research stations also hold extension appointments. Through them, and through extension personnel at MSU, project findings will be disseminated to groups considering, or that are already conducting, on-farm welfare assessments or audits. It is important that those groups incorporate practical indicators of welfare and that they know the validity and reliability of those indicators. This is particularly important since many of the options to assess welfare have not been carefully evaluated (an important point of the present NC1029 overall project). In general, the NC1029 overall project is expected to result in collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific publications and reviews, as well as abstracts presented at national and international meetings, and extension publications. This project also provides unique opportunities for interdisciplinary training of graduate students and other research personnel. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Dr. Janice Siegford and Dr. Janice Swanson participate in activities related to NC1029. In 2016-2017, they jointly supervised 1 postdoc, 1 visiting scholar, 3 graduate students, and about 12 undergraduates and serve on graduate committees across campus. Students, postdocs and visiting scholars gain experience conducting research with various species (including on projects of their own devising), presenting their work within the group and to broader audience, as well as become engaged in the Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. The postdocs, graduate and visiting scholars were guided in mentoring undergraduate students and the postdocs given opportunities to apply for funding as lead investigators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via the publications, posters and presentations described under the products section. All three PIs also teach courses of their own and lecture across campus, which offer additional venues for disseminating research findings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?J. Siegford's research on laying hens in aviaries and pigs in groups will continue in line with proposed grants supporting those projects. Publications resulting from this work will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and findings presented at scientific conferences such as the 2018 Congress for the International Society for Applied Ethology, the National Pork Board's Pig Welfare Symposium, and the Michigan Allied Poultry Industry Winter Program. J. Siegford will again be an organizer and scenario writer for the 2017 Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition. J. Siegford and J. Swanson will continue to teach in courses on applied animal behavior and animal welfare, including participating in a veterinary student course related to professional ethics and animal welfare. Three graduate students, one visiting scholar, and 15 undergraduates will receive training related to applied ethology and animal welfare. J. Siegford will participate in the annual NC1029 meeting and deliver the station report from Michigan State University.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. J. Siegford continues to produce scientific research related to impacts of aviary housing on laying hen behavior and welfare. She has completed an additional experimental project studying the impact of hen strain (breed) on how birds use the space, tiers, perches and nests in aviaries. She has also examined how delayed placement of pullets into aviary housing affects how hens lay eggs and use the system. Her team has also started to conduct work on bone strength and keel damage with collaborators at University of Bern. 2. J. Siegford and colleagues at MSU and Scotland's Rural College are continuing work on a project examining how social behavior phenotypes relate to underlying genotypes and production traits. This work should facilitate inclusion of social behavior for improved welfare into genetic selection indexes and breeding programs to reduce some of the aggression seen in group housed swine, especially after mixing of animals into new groups. 3. The work of the team with the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition helps students develop the skills necessary to assess animal welfare and to communicate effectively about controversial issues.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Campbell DLM, Ali ABA, Karcher DM, Siegford JM. 2017. Laying hens in aviaries with different litter substrates: behavior across the flock cycle and feather lipid content. Poultry Science. doi: 10.3382/ps/pex204.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Villanueva S, Ali ABA, Campbell DLM, Siegford JM. 2017. Nest use and patterns of egg laying and damage by four strains of laying hens in an aviary system. Poultry Science. 96:3011-3020. doi: 10.3382/ps/pex104.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hunniford ME, Woolcott C, Siegford J, Widowski TM. 2017. Nesting behavior of Hy-Line hens in modified enriched colony cages. Poultry Science. 96:1515-1523. doi: 10.3382/ps/pew436.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lord L, Millman S, Carbone L, Cook N, Fisher A, McKeegan D, Morton D, Pajor E, Peralta JM, Robertson SA, Siegford J, Egrie PG, Mashima TY, Turner PV, Golab GC, Patterson-Kane E. 2017. A model curriculum for the study of animal welfare in colleges and schools of veterinary medicine. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 250:632-640.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Croney C, Anthony R, Bauer A, Elbert C, Siegford JM, Stricklin R, Swanson J, Varner G. 2017. 728 Workshop on teaching bioethics in animal agriculture: Outcomes for faculty in animal science and veterinary medicine. Journal of Animal Science 95(Supplement 4):354-355. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ison SH, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. US pork producer perceptions of issues affecting the management, performance, and well-being of pigs. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level. 7:148. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: OMalley CI, Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. The relationship between response to humans and social aggression in pigs. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level. 7:226. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Steibel JP, Cantet RJC, Siegford JM. 2017. Modelling intensity of interaction to estimate direct and indirect genetic effects. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level. 7:215. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wurtz KE, Siegford JM, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Steibel JP. 2017. Genetic correlations between skin lesions and growth traits in group housed pigs. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level. 7:217. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ison SH, Bates RO, Steibel JP, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. On-farm techniques used to minimize aggression in pigs by US pork producers. 51st Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology, Aarhus, Denmark, August 7-10, 2017. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ali ABA, Riddle ER, Campbell DLM, Siegford JM*. 2017. Two-dimensional space use by 4 genetic strains of laying hens in an aviary system. Poultry Science. 96(E-Supplement 1):101. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ali ABA, Campbell DLM, Karcher DM, Siegford JM*. 2017. Influence of genetic strain on resource use by four strains of laying hens in a non-cage aviary. Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:44. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Dewberry BC, OMalley CI, Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. Comparing measurements of different behavioral responses between a novel environment test and a novel object test in domestic swine. Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:43. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Flynn GE, Wurtz KE, OMalley CI, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. Analysis of swine aggression when stable groups are moved to novel pens. Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:15. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pearsall HE, Hinson AF, OMalley CI, Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. The relationship between social aggression and play behavior in finisher pigs: do pigs that play less fight more? Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:16. (Oral presentation)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Raney NE, Siegford JM*. 2017. Genome wide association analyses of lesion scores in group-housed swine. Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:32. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ison SH, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Steibel JP, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. Frequency of culling by sow housing type as reported by North American pork producers. Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:45. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: OMalley CI, Wurtz KE, Steibel JP, Bates RO, Ernst CW, Siegford JM*. 2017. Do different behavior tests measure similar personality dimensions in domestic pigs? Proceedings of the 13th North American Regional Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology. 13:41. (Poster)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ali ABA, Campbell DLM, Karcher DM, Siegford JM*. 2017. Nighttime preference for roosting height and substrate type among four strains of laying hens in an aviary system. 10th European Poultry Welfare Symposium: Book of Abstracts. 10:164. (Poster)