ASSESSING THE WELFARE OF MODIFIED OR TREATED ANIMALS

Animal welfare can be assessed in a precise way using measures of seve ral kinds of abnormal behaviour, aversion, physiological responses inc luding adrenal and opioid activity, immunosuppression, disease inciden ce, weight gain, reproductive success and life expectancy. Welfare may be affected in various ways in transgenic animals and animals treated with biotechnology products. In order to assess this, carefully contr olled studies using a wide range of welfare indicators are needed. The se should be carried out for at least the total farm life of a breedin g animal and for al least two generations. No such comprehensive studi es of either category of animals have been reported in the scientific literature to date although some measures of the effects of bovine som atrophin have been made and are described. Neither the use of recombin ant DNA products nor the keeping of transgenic animals should be permi tted on commercial farms until it is clear that the welfare of these a nimals is not adversely affected in comparison with that of animals wh ich do not have the products administered to them or which are not pro duced by transgenic procedures.