Animal Welfare In Veterinary Practice

One of the cornerstones of veterinary practice is animal welfare and the welfare of animals should be considered in every aspect of this field. There are numerous opinions as to the optimal practices that should be followed to ensure optimal animal welfare, each providing different points of view and considerations. This book highlights a number of views on animal welfare as it applies to veterinary practice. Considerations for animal welfare are presented from neonatal care all the way to euthanasia. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the impact of various commonly used medications on animal health as well as a variety of dietary methods to improve animal health. Other topics include environmental stresses, farm animal welfare, equestrian treatment, drug safety, gut health and sleep cycles. Upon completion of this book a new found understanding of the general concepts surrounding animal welfare in veterinary practice should be discovered. First chapter presents an overview on animal welfare and second chap¬ter concludes by outlining an alternative means of characterizing animal welfare and its management. Third chapter aims to assess the toxicity and safety of etofenprox, s-methoprene and piperonyl butoxide in dogs, and possible exposure to owners and veterinary personnel after topical application on dogs of Bio Spot Defense. Fourth chapter aims to assess the toxicity and safety of Activyl® in dogs, as well as assessed the potential of human health exposure by determining the residue of permethrin and indoxacarb in the dog’s blood and in gloves worn while petting the dogs. The primary objective of fifth chapter was to assess completeness of reporting interventions designed to mitigate pain in neonatal piglets undergoing routine management procedures. Environmental stress effect on animal reproduction is highlighted in sixth chapter. At present, the need to produce more efficiently, the need to improve reproductive and productive parameters so that new technologies have been adopted which are becoming more sophisti¬cated, all in order to increase the production in animals. Starvation due to neglect, and healthy appetite and eating behavior are described in chapter seven and chapter eight respectively. Ninth chapter provides a review on relevant information on the utilization of dietary fiber (DF) by pigs and its effects on gut physiological functions, microbiota and health. It delivers in-depth insight on both negative and positive effects of differ¬ent fibers inclusion in swine diets. In tenth chapter, Foucault’s ideas of disciplinary and pastoral power to try to understand a discursive shift in the way that ‘farmed’ animals are understood in Western culture. Some reflections on how liberation activism and scholarship might respond to this new discursive challenge is concluded. The objective of eleventh chapter is to compile the current knowledge and evidence available in the scientific literature examining what is known about the importance and impact of heat stress in poultry production, focusing on broilers and laying hens. The importance of animal responses to environmental challenges applies to all species. Chapter twelve and chapter thirteen highlights on horse-related risk and changing human-animal relation-ships in sport individually. Fourteenth chapter elaborates on changes in circadian and periprandial rhythms of feed intake as possible biomarkers of physiology and certainly health. Fifteenth chapter presents a study that showed absence of the withdrawal- and threat reflex did not indicate unconsciousness in veal calves subjected to non-stunned slaughter and are therefore not recommended for assessment of unconsciousness. Furthermore, sixteenth chapter highlights some of the challenges and opportunities that welfare assessment presents and how we adapt and adopt methodologies within animal welfare science to obtain greater understanding, quantification, and qualification of an animal’s welfare state. Historically, animal welfare has been defined under one of three over-arching, and intersecting, themes or approaches. The principal objective of seventeenth chapter was to assess the welfare of ducks sacrificed by two different methods of slaughter and the effects of those processes on gas exchanges, energy metabolism and acid-base and mineral imbalances. Role of olfaction in behavioral development and expression in animals, and association between prepartum feeding behavior and periparturient health disorders in dairy cows are illustrated in chapter eighteen and chapter nineteen correspondingly. The principal objective of twentieth chapter is to characterize the physiological and biochemical events that occur in hogs during pre-slaughter stunning with CO2, as they relate to animal welfare. Assessment of the human aspect regarding the welfare of cart horses is provided in last chapter. It has been suggested that more than half of the world’s population depends on animals for power, income, social status, security as well as food and clothing. The welfare of their animals is therefore essential for their livelihood. With current efforts of increasing productivity, animals fall at the center of development, whether as food or work animals.