New lambs for Mother’s Day

Lambing News from our JMICAWE Director Cathy Dwyer

In these difficult and frightening times we wanted to share something positive and uplifting with you. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is springtime and plants and animals are bursting with new life. If you can, take a look out of the window to spot birds or trees, or sit in the garden and soak up some nature and spring life! Even as we are struggling to come to terms with the public health emergency we are all experiencing nature is getting on with the job of life, and reminding us that we are only a part of what our amazing planet can support.

In Scotland this is the time of year when many of our lambs are born. Lambing is just gearing up on our farm and, despite social distancing measures, we are enjoying seeing the new lambs being delivered and the attentive and focused maternal care they are receiving.

This lovely pair of active and vigorous lambs are only a few hours old, and already they have full bellies of colostrum and milk, and their mother is taking great care of them. How appropriate that they were born just in time for Mother’s Day! These lambs will be taking part in a behavioural study to look at the importance of maternal care in the development of young animals, and will help us to understand how we can take better care of our farmed animals.

We know that mothers feed and protect their offspring, but there is evidence that they do so much more – from providing a secure base for young animals to explore and develop confidence, shaping the stress responses and responsiveness of offspring, to their capacity to teach young animals about the world and how to behave. We will be looking at different aspects of the social, physical and mental development of lambs, and how maternal care is influencing these responses, with the help of a PhD student and two MSc students. And will be posting updates on the progress and abilities of these lambs as the study progresses!

JMICAWE Team Update - COVID-19

Coronavirus and JMICAWE

In these difficult and challenging times we at JMICAWE just wanted to update you on our response and activities. As of last week we have moved to working from remotely and will not be in the office until told otherwise. Our teaching is now on line or suspended, dissertation students who were planning to travel for their projects are now being offered different areas of research and we are looking to support our students remotely as much as possible. As with everyone else, the most important thing is that we limit the spread of the virus and practise social distancing and isolation as much as we possibly can.

However, we are still working hard to promote animal welfare and to support teaching practices that help veterinary students and others learn more about animal welfare. At the moment we are working on our provision of on-line resources that can be accessed remotely anywhere in the world, from your homes if need be. We are working on promoting better welfare for farm animals, companion animals, street dogs and wildlife, and will be adding to our resources in this area through the summer.

Remember also, if you are at home and wondering how to fill your day, there is a lot of excellent learning material on line, including our own MOOCs (on animal welfare, dog and cat behaviour and poultry behaviour and welfare) so why not consider signing up for some free on line learning? There is more information about our courses and MOOCs here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/jeanne-marchig-centre/cpd 

We would also like to remind everyone that dogs and cats and other companion animals are not carriers of the virus; and there is no need to relinquish pets to shelters, which will be quickly overwhelmed and unable to care for these animals, especially if rehoming rates dry up. Please see some advice from Nancy de Briyne of Federation of Veterinarians of Europe here:

‘Just wanted to inform you that FVE made a special webpage for COVID and the veterinary profession. You can find it here: https://www.fve.org/covid-19-faqs/ and some leaflets together with FECAVA.
We also specially call for owners not to abandon their pets, which seems a worry in some countries. Please keep on spreading the word that at this moment, there is no evidence that animals can become ill and spread the virus further. IDEXX and other companies already tested thousands of dogs and cats on COVID, and all cases were negative. Two dogs so far in Hong Kong tested weak positive without being sick (both owners had COVID). Further tests showed that there was no evidence that COVID made the dogs sick or that the dogs could spread the virus. Pet owners should always maintain good hygiene practices (including handwashing before and after being around or handling animals, their food, or supplies, as well as avoiding kissing them) and under no circumstances should they abandon their pets. If an owner has COVID, close contact with family members, including pets, should be avoided.’

Save the Asian Elephants - Duncan McNair talk

Taking steps to improve the welfare of Asian elephants

JMICAWE were very pleased to host Duncan McNair, CEO of Save The Asian Elephant on Friday 13th March to learn more about the work this charity is doing to improve the welfare of Asian elephants. Across Asia elephants are in use providing elephant rides, performing in circuses and at temples, often for tourists. As Duncan explained to staff and students, this hides the true story of how these elephants have been treated, and are treated when tourists are not present. Asian elephants are not a domesticated species, so they are taken from the wild and their mothers at a very young age, often leading to the death or injury of the mother as they try to protect their offspring.

Young animals are then restrained, starved, beaten and attacked with bull hooks (known as ‘pajan’) in order that the animals can be compelled to respond to human commands. The process teaches the animal that humans are associated with pain and fear, and they should perform as asked to avoid further suffering. Elephants then spend large parts of their lives chained up and shackled, prevented from performing normal social behaviour and expressing other behavioural freedoms. Often the sole purpose of taking animals from the wild and treating them in this way is to provide ‘entertainment’ for tourists.

So the opportunity to make a change is in our hands - when booking holidays ask tour operators and guides about their policy on elephant attractions, avoid attending circuses or taking elephant rides when in Asia, and choose ethical elephant tourism, such as opportunities to see elephants in their natural habitat and engaging in normal behaviours. Tour companies and operators will respond to the requests of their clients so if enough of us reject attractions that treat elephants badly we can make a difference.

We also hope to be able to contribute practically to the improvement in elephant welfare by training of veterinary undergraduates in elephant medicine and welfare. For more information and ways to make a difference visit www.stae.org 

JMICAWE India Travels - Bhannergatta Bear Rehabilitation Centre

Bhannergatta Bear Rehabilitation Centre

During their visit to Bangalore, JMICAWE director, Cathy Dwyer and Kirstin McIlvaney (MSc Programme Coordinator for Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare, University of Edinburgh) were guests of Wildlife SOS and visited the Bhannergatta Bear Rehabilitation Centre. The Centre is one of two facilities that Wildlife SOS have developed to provide homes for ex-dancing bears now that this practice has been banned in India. Working with the communities that used to make their living from dancing bears Wildlife SOS has been able to provide sustainable improvements and other job opportunities for the villagers. 

The Centre now houses 75 Asian sloth bears, mostly those rehabilitated from villages but also a number of wild bears which have been brought in with injuries after conflicts with humans. Dancing bears were often taken from the wild when very young, and before they had learned to be bears from their mothers, so these animals can have many complex behavioural and health issues. The Centre provide a very comprehensive health care programme for the bears, and Cathy and Kirstin were particularly impressed with the work done to provide enrichment and training to provide positive animal welfare for these bears that had such a difficult start in life. 

The bears are trained with positive reinforcement (dates and honey in particular!) to cooperate with health assessments, and to approach the veterinarians to allow their teeth, paws and other bodily parts to be easily checked. Bears are also encouraged to explore, to climb and to range about their large forest enclosures so that they are able to express as much natural behaviour as possible. Overall it was a fantastic opportunity to see how lives can be improved for animals, even those that have had really difficult encounters with people, by an holistic approach to changing human behaviour and valuing the lives of animals.

JMICAWE India travels - Animal Welfare Workshop in Bangalore

Workshop on animal behaviour and welfare in Bangalore

JMICAWE Director, Cathy Dwyer, and the coordinator of the MSc programme in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare (University of Edinburgh), Kirstin McIlvaney, have just returned from a trip to the Veterinary College in Bangalore (Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Science University) where they ran a 3 day workshop on animal welfare and behaviour hosted by Dr Abdul Rahman and the Commonwealth Veterinary Association.

This was part of the work that JMICAWE are doing to capacity-build in Indian vet schools, and to support the new Animal Welfare Research Centre based in the vet school in Bangalore.  The workshop was attended by about 40 postgraduate students and faculty from 9 different vet schools across India. Cathy and Kirstin focused on animal welfare sciences, and particularly animal behaviour measurements. 

After a day in the classroom the workshop went out to visit the poultry and dairy facilities on site to practice their animal behaviour data collection skills. Half the group went with Kirstin to the poultry facility, where they compared the benefits of scan and focal sampling and discussed how they might use different techniques to address different issues. The other half of the group went with Cathy to the dairy unit where we looked at the importance of good ethograms, and piloting data collection methods, and had an attempt at conducting an on farm novel object test, based on previous methods used in the UK. We ended the workshop with discussion of teaching approaches to animal welfare, and exploring different teaching resources that were available.

Some of these resources are freely available and can be found on line at JMICAWE by following this link: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/jeanne-marchig-centre/cpd   

International Women's Day 2020

International Women’s Day, 2020

International Women’s Day (IWD) this year takes the theme that an equal world is an enabled world with #EachforEqual aiming to achieve gender equality.

The field of animal welfare has a great track record in supporting women, with many charities and animal welfare groups being founded and led by women and in the past we have celebrated these amazing achievements of women on previous IWDs. Whilst we still are amazed and humbled at the success and impact that women have had in improving animal welfare, this year we want to shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes for animals. Across the globe many small holder farmers and animals keepers are women. Daily activities of caring for animals, providing food and water, shelter, comfort and dealing with injuries are all part of the roles that women take on in many countries. Their care helps to produce productive animals that can feed their families and ensure that children can access education. Working equids enable families to earn a greater income, or can mean that water or food is brought more easily to the family or for other animals. These daily duties to provide care and love for animals are often undervalued as trivial ‘women’s work’ but are a vital part of supporting people and animals in some of the poorest and least equal countries in the world.

JMICAWE’s work has been to provide education to veterinarians in animal welfare in some of these countries, and to help to understand how important these animal caring roles are and how they need to be appreciated and the women who do them empowered.  In the west animal care is often a female dominated profession, with over 60% of UK veterinary students being women, and women dominating in veterinary nursing, animal welfare courses and animal care. These jobs are incredibly important – not just for the animals under their care but also for the much wider societal benefits through #OneWelfare. We firmly support and believe that the work of women in animal care is part of enabling a better world for us all.

Seasons Greetings from the JMICAWE team

A very happy festive period from all at JMICAWE

The team at JMICAWE would like to wish everyone a very happy and relaxing holiday period, and to thank you all for your support over the last 12 months.

It has been a year of highs and lows for us this year. Tragically we lost our colleague, Fiona Rioja-Lang earlier this year, very sadly missed but will not be forgotten for her passion and commitment to animal welfare. Our administrator, Lucy Ewing, decided to move on to another post in the University this year, but we welcomed kiwi, Katherine Curnow, in her place. We were also lucky enough to have RVN Roxy Woodrow spend 6 months working with us on veterinary nursing projects to support our existing nurses. In the wider JMICAWE team we have also said goodbye to Louise Buckley and hello to Kirstin McIlvaney and Verity Bowell in the MSc teaching team.

We have had a busy year delivering workshops, teaching and training in many countries including Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, South Africa, and China, and presented at conferences in UK, USA, Norway, Canada, Czech Republic, Malta and Kenya. In particular Heather and Hayley hosted the first Animal Behaviour, Welfare and Ethics day at British Small Animal Veterinary Association conference, and Cathy presented at the British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation discussion forum. Previous JMICAWE director, Natalie Waran, was also still flying the flag for JMICAWE, speaking at the OIE meeting in Bali, and at the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association conference in Nanjing. 

We have continued to give independent advice on animal welfare issues to industry and government, with Cathy Dwyer attending meetings of the EU Animal Welfare Platform in Brussels and being appointed as the first Chair of the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission. Alongside our colleagues at SRUC, we hosted a visit from the Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment, MSP Mhairi Gougeon, who has a particular interest in animal welfare.

Finally we are delighted to be supporting our undergraduate and postgraduate students in their studies, with successful student-led conferences from the Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society and the Animal Welfare and Ethics Society, and more than 250 MSc students enrolled on animal behaviour and welfare programmes.  

The Ghent Lambing and Husbandry Project

  Lambing training in Ghent vet school

For vet students in UK spending Easter holidays lambing is a normal routine before and after starting vet school. However for some students this is not the case, and there is less opportunity to experience the highs and lows of lambing and lamb survival. A student-led initiative at the Ghent Veterinary School - the Ghent Lambing and Husbandry Project - has set out to offer students the opportunity to spend time on sheep farms across the UK and elsewhere, and to practice their lambing and husbandry skills.

As part of this project JMICAWE director, Cathy Dwyer, spent two days at the vet school to help with lambing training and to discuss with students opportunities to improve sheep welfare and lamb survival in their work. It is obviously a very popular option for students as the auditorium was packed with would-be lambers, and there was lively discussion around the various practical scenarios Cathy had prepared to help students prepare for lambing. 

Cathy explained the biological basis for maternal behaviour in the ewe, and how taking this into account in lambing management can help ewes look after their lambs, improve lamb survival and improve the welfare and well-being of sheep and lambers alike.

‘I was really impressed to see so many students keen to stay behind in the evening for extra lectures, and how excited the students were to be able to spend time in UK lambing’

- Prof Cathy Dwyer

Cathy shared the platform with farmer, Peter Myles, who has been hosting lambing students at his Scottish sheep farm for many years and both Cathy and Peter were delighted with the enthusiasm of the students to learn and be involved in lambing.

MSc Graduation 2019 - Congratulations to our students!

Congratulations to our MSc students on their Graduation!

Last week we were honoured to be present at the graduation of our MSc students, and those collecting diplomas or credits for Personal Professional Development in animal behaviour and welfare. Whether this had been a one year intensive course in Edinburgh for the MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare, or up to 6 years part time intermittent study for MSc International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law or MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour we are so proud of all our fantastic students whatever their journey may have been. It was lovely to be able to catch up with students who have been away carrying out their dissertation research, or in some cases to meet students for the first time in person who have been studying on the online programmes. It was fantastic that so many family, friends and students travelled back to Edinburgh for the graduation; and it is always a very special time for the staff who have taught these students to see them collect their degrees.

It is a wonderful personal achievement for all our students, but special praise goes to the winners of the dissertation prizes, whose work was judged the best for that year. 

This year we are delighted to be able to congratulate:

• Brianne Lyall (MSc Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare) for her dissertation: ‘Qualitative Behavioural Assessment of dairy cows to a systemic inflammatory challenge’
• Lesley Townsend (MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour) for her dissertation: ‘Who’s walking who? The relationship between pulling on the lead and dog welfare in the UK and Ireland’
• Stephanie Karageorgis (MSc International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law) for her dissertation: ‘Comparison of emotional expression in brachycephalic and non-brachycephalic dog breed types using Qualitative Behaviour Assessment’

If you would like to one day be one of these students then follow this link to learn more about applying for our MSc courses: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/studying/postgraduate

OIE (World Animal Health) Meeting in Bali - Prof. Nat Waran speaks on Animal Welfare

Encouraging and supporting the development of Regional Animal Welfare Strategies and Capability in Asia, the East and Oceania.

Former Director of the JMICAWE, Prof Nat Waran was invited to present on One Welfare at the recent OIE (World Animal Health) Regional Animal Welfare meeting in Bali, hosted by the Indonesian Government. The meeting attended by more than 25 National Animal Welfare Focal Point representatives from across a very large region was a great opportunity to provide information about the importance of linking improved animal welfare with positive human health and welfare outcomes using examples drawn from the work carried out by the JMICAWE and partners in different parts of the world. Discussions on the development and implementation of the OIE animal welfare codes and standards as well as support for the development of in-country animal welfare strategies took place over a three day period, and the complexity of driving forward changes to improve animal welfare across the region was made obvious to all.  

Chinese Veterinary Medicine Association Conference - Professor Nat Waran

Equine Welfare on the Agenda at the Chinese Veterinary Medicine Association Conference in Nanjing

Prof Nat Waran delivering talks on equine welfare

Promotion of an understanding of the importance of providing a Good Quality of Life for equids in China was high on the agenda for former JMICAWE Director, Professor Nat Waran who was an invited speaker at the recent Chinese Veterinary Medicine Association’s annual conference in Nanjing. The conference attracted a significant audience of Chinese equine veterinarians who were provided with information about practically assessing and managing equine welfare. 

Prof Nat along with Chris Riggs, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Head of Veterinary services in mainland China, and Roly Owers, CEO for the World Horse Welfare – noted that this was the first time invited equine welfare talks were integrated within the equine veterinary medicine session - a positive advance for mainstreaming animal welfare.

The Group housing facility for teaching horses at NAU.

Whilst there the group of equine welfare experts were asked to visit and comment on the proposed new equine teaching facility for veterinary students training at the Nanjing Agricultural University.
It was interesting and heartening to see the group housing facility that had been built where horses have free access to different outdoor and sheltered areas, with many behavioural opportunities. Having previously provided animal welfare professional development workshops with the NAU veterinary staff, it was good to see the JMICAWE work having a real impact on the way in which teaching animals are being managed.

Veterinary Nurses Day - Guest Speaker Hayley Walters

Veterinary nurse (VN) Hayley Walters was invited to speak at VN day in London recently to the newly qualified VNs graduating that day.

As a previous Golden Jubilee award winner, Hayley was asked by The Royal college of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) to give a 15 minute presentation to showcase what a VN can do and help inspire them as they start their careers.

Hayley qualified in 1999 from a mixed animal practice in Derbyshire and since then has worked with bears in China and dogs in Bosnia; taught in vet schools in Sri Lanka and Vietnam; taught final year vet students on their anaesthesia rotation in The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, examined students in their practical exams and created free online teaching resources used all over the world.

“Veterinary nursing has come a long way since I qualified 20 years ago. The aim of the talk was to help demonstrate to these new VNs that there is so much you can do with your career now. If you want to stay in general practice then that is fine but if you want to be an army VN, go into research, teach, work for an animal welfare charity, or specialise in referral, then that is all possible now. And since the British VN qualification is well respected all over the world, there is a lot of opportunity to work overseas too. Not many jobs offer this much diversity!”

Hayley received very positive feedback and was approached by many of the new veterinary nurses afterwards who had aspirations to progress their career.

A donation to a charity of Hayley’s choice was given by the RCVS in return for her talking. Hayley chose Dogstar Foundation; a high welfare catch, neuter, vaccinate, return project for free roaming dogs in Sri Lanka.

Animal Welfare Day 2019

Exploring Animal Sentience for World Animal Day 

World Animal Day falls on 4^th October each year and its purpose is to improve animal welfare standards around the globe, through celebrating the lives of animals. The mission of World Animal Day is to make the world a better place for animals, which fits very well with the JMICAWE mission and aims. Every two years, with our partner SRUC, JMICAWE have been involved in helping to organise an event around this date, to celebrate animal welfare. This year, we also linked up with our BioResearch vets to cover animals used in science as well as other animals. As our theme this year we focused on ‘Animal sentience and emotions’ and why that is so important in our thinking about animal welfare. We were delighted to be able to welcome 200 staff and students from local campuses to the event.

We began with a morning of talks from researchers from SRUC, the French research institute (INRA) and University of Newcastle. Our first speaker, Professor Francoise Wemelsfelder from SRUC, reminded us about animal ethics and why sentience and emotions should be at the forefront of our thinking and assessments of animal welfare. Next Professor Marie Haskell (SRUC) showed us the fascinating abilities of farm animals to recognise emotions in faces, and why faces are so important for animals.

 Professor Marie Haskell (SRUC) defines emotions

We then had a series of presentations on positive emotions in animals – such as play, positive engagement, contentment and use of enrichment. Dr Belinda Vigors shared the outcomes of some of her work in exploring these concepts with farmers, and it was great to see how important farmers felt these positive emotions were to the lives of farmed animals. Professor Alistair Lawrence then expanded on the theme of positive animal welfare, including showing a wonderful video of rats engaging in hide-and-seek play with researchers – what a great thing to be able to call work! A visiting researcher, Dr Vincent Bombail from INRA, then continued this theme with a talk about tickling rats and assessing their vocal responses. Finally our morning programme ended with a talk by Dr Matt Leach of Newcastle University about the very important emotion of pain and how it can be recognised in animals.

As is becoming a tradition with these events we had a long lunch break to allow delegates to network and find out more about animal welfare research including the use of 3D video imaging to detect animal behaviour on farm, training tools for farmers on body condition scoring of cows, and a peek at the new large animal imagining facility, including MRI. For the afternoon we had a really interesting talk from about the use of animals in science from Elliott Lilley of RSPCA and concluded with a panel discussion on animal sentience and how that might affect use of animals in science. 

Overall the feedback on the event was very positive, and we look forward to organising the next one in 2021! 

New publication – cat welfare

The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education have undertaken a research project funded by the Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF), to identify welfare issues for a number of species, including cats.

Animal welfare experts found a consensus in determining priority welfare issues for cats in the UK and identified that the key welfare issues for our domestic cats include

• behaviour issues, often experienced by cats confined to the home
• social behaviour problems 
• disease as a result of old age 
• not seeking veterinary care at an appropriate time
• poor pain management
• issues arising from specific breeding traits
• neglect and hoarding
• stray cats.

The publication highlights important areas where further research is needed, or where awareness needs to be increased, so that there is a better understanding of the potential welfare issues that can arise and what can be done to address the welfare issues.

Common welfare issues relating to behaviour can potentially be addressed by providing enrichment, such as scratching posts, toys, hiding places – an environment that supports normal cat behaviour. Social behaviour issues in cats can arise from having insufficient resources (e.g. litter trays, feed bowls) for the number of cats in a home. Cats do not like to share and need their own space and resources to live together happily.

Read the publication for further information: https://edin.ac/2oNr2RA

Rioja-Lang, F., Bacon, H., Connor, M., Dwyer, CM. (2019) Determining priority welfare issues for cats in the United Kingdom using expert consensus. Veterinary Record Open 6: e000365. doi: 10.1136/vetreco-2019-000365

If you are interested in cat behaviour we also recommend checking out our free online course in the behaviour and welfare of dogs and cats:

The Truth About Cats and Dogs (free 5 week online course)