NEUROPHYSIOLOGY AND ASSESSMENT OF WELFARE

Concern for animal welfare is a major consideration in meal production and is barred upon the belief that animals can suffer. Welfare may be considered in terms of the subjective experiences of animals; prefere nce testing is often used in this approach. Neurophysiology has provid ed insight into the biological basis of emotions and into the mechanis ms of learning and memory, which are important to interpret the result s of preference tests. Welfare may also be defined in terms of the bio logical functioning of the animals; physiological measures of stress s uch as plasma levels of glucocorticoids, catecholamines, prolactin and endorphins, as well as heart rate and brain levels of neurotransmitte rs are then used to assess welfare. Individual differences in the stre ss response are important in welfare issues. Slaughter poses particula r problems and neurophysiology has provided objective criteria to asse ss the effectiveness of electrical stunning. It is concluded that neur ophysiology has made important contributions to assess and improve ani mal welfare. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.