The Encyclopedia of Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare

Welfare research has established a range of scientific indicators of stress, welfare and suffering in animals that can be applied to all aspects of improving their welfare through good housing and management, and the topic continues to grow in importance among both professionals and the public. The practical focus of this authoritative, comprehensive encyclopedia aims to promote the understanding and improvement of animals’ behaviour without compromising welfare. Under the editorial direction of Professor Daniel Mills, the UK’s first specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine, over 180 international experts have contributed a wealth of fully cross-referenced entries from concise definitions to detailed short essays on biological, practical, clinical and ethical aspects of behaviour and welfare in domestic, exotic, companion and zoo animals.

Professor Mills is an RCVS, European and ASAB recognised specialist in clinical animal behaviour, and was the first professor of the discipline in Europe. While his clinical and scientific work has historically focused on the disruptive effect of companion animal behaviour on owners and society (problem behaviour and its management) through his work as a clinical animal behaviourist, he has more recently pursued an interest in assistance dogs and animal assisted interventions through diverse collaborations. His research in this area has included the first longitudinal study of its kind (3 year follow up) examining the effect of the pet dog on families with an autistic child, the effect of reading to dogs in schools and the impact of dogs in the workplace (currently under review). Professor Mills is a well-known international speaker on companion animal behaviour/welfare and the role of animals in society , with around 100 peer-reviewed full scientific research publications, over 40 books and chapters, and over a hundred ISBN indexed conference abstracts. He heads up a large interdisciplinary group at Lincoln with 11 Post Graduate Research students and 3 Post Doctoral Researchers.

Jeremy has had lifelong passions for animals, farming and nature ever since helping collect eggs and feed pigs on his grandparents' smallholding and roaming the countryside in rural Suffolk, UK. These passions and an interest in science led eventually to a PhD on pig behavior and welfare at St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge, where he also spent time representing the University in rugby league, and the College in rugby union, soccer, field hockey, rowing and track and field. After a few years working in the UK, Jeremy moved across the Atlantic to become a Research Animal Scientist with USDA-ARS, serving with the Livestock Behavior Research Unit in Indiana for 22 years, researching pig and dairy cattle welfare. He has published 4 books and over 260 scientific publications, being named in Stanford University's list of the top 2% of the world's scientists. A strong believer in global exchange of agricultural knowledge, he has collaborated with 250 scientists in 32 countries across 6 continents and founded a scheme to fund scientists from less developed countries to attend international conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Applied Ethology and a Registered Animal Scientist.

Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, FRCVS is a veterinarian and ethologist. He is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications and nine books. With expertise in learning theory, animal training, animal welfare science, veterinary behavioural medicine and anthrozoology, he is a co-founder and honorary fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science. He led the VetCompass Australia initiative that brought together all of the Australian veterinary schools to provide ongoing national disease surveillance for companion animals and horses. With the additional involvement of Massey University (NZ), the same schools collaborated under Paul's leadership to create the One Welfare teaching portal.

Christine Nicol was awarded a first-class degree in Zoology and a PhD on the welfare of laying hens from the University of Oxford before taking up a lectureship at the University of Bristol (1985-2017). She is currently Professor of Animal Welfare at the Royal Veterinary College. Christine's primary research interest is the validation of methodologies to assess animal welfare. She has published ~ 230 peer-reviewed papers and has authored and edited books on the welfare of horses and chickens, including: The Behavioural Biology of Chickens (CABI, 2015). She strives to ensure that animal welfare research is used effectively to improve the lives of farm, companion and wildlife species through membership of working groups and committees, producing reports and reviews for governments and NGOs around the world, and through her membership of the UK government's Animal Sentience Committee, which scrutinises policies to ensure due regard is paid to animal welfare. She is an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Applied Ethology, an Honorary Life member of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and writer and presenter of a BBC radio 4 series on animal ethics called Would You Eat an Alien?

Professor Clive Phillips studied agriculture at undergraduate level and obtained a PhD in dairy cattle nutrition and behaviour from the University of Glasgow in 1983. He then lectured in farm animal production and medicine at the Universities of Wales and Cambridge, conducting research into cattle and sheep nutrition and welfare. In 2003 he became the inaugural holder of Australia's first Chair in Animal Welfare, at the University of Queensland, and established the Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics. He has published over 430 scientific articles on animal nutrition, welfare and management in journals and has authored or edited 15 books and over 50 book chapters. He also edits a book series for Springer on the welfare of animals and CABI's Animal Behaviour and Welfare Cases. As Australia's first professor of animal welfare, Prof. Phillips devoted his time to developing animal welfare and ethics research and teaching, with a focus on good nutrition. His research is concerned with many different animals: livestock during transport, dogs and cats in shelters, racehorses and zoo animals, and also with our ethical responsibilities towards animals. He is particularly interested in understanding and improving animal welfare in Asia and conducts regular workshops and research projects in China and nearby countries. In 2010 he established the on-line journal Animals, which is now one of the leading journals in the field. In 2009 his book The Welfare of Animals: The Silent Majority was shortlisted for an Australian Museum Eureka prize. In 2012 he received the Australian Museum Eureka Award for Scientific Research that contributes to Animal Protection and in 2025 The Australian named him Australia's most cited veterinary scientist. He has been involved in the development and implementation of State and Federal government welfare policies and chaired both the Queensland and Western Australian Governments' Animal Welfare Advisory Boards. He also chaired the UK's Agriculture Ministry Bovine Tuberculosis husbandry review panel. He was the Independent Member of the UK's Milk Development Council and Member of the UK Government's Select Committee to review zinc-cadmium sulphide dispersion tests conducted by the Ministry of Defence during the Cold War.