ABSTRACT Sustainable agriculture implies trade-offs with farm animal welfare. Proposals to increase agricultural productivity and ecological sustainability alike, are often linked to intensification, which may restrict animal welfare. Despite the growing importance of farm animal welfare for the alignment of agricultural and environmental policy, determinants of decision-making at the EU level remain unexplored. This article contributes to closing this research gap, broadening our understanding of why policymakers vote for the enactment of animal welfare policies. Applying the Social Identities in the Policy Process (SIPP) perspective we highlight the role of group membership for individual decision-making. By means of a quantitative analysis of voting behaviour in the European Parliament on two animal welfare policies, we show that different identities are salient. The strongest predictor is political group membership. In case of defections from the group line, the salience of national, sectoral and also demographic identities adds to the understanding of decision-making. 相似文献
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the 5-point harness or the impact shield child restraint system (CRS) or both have the potential to cause chest injuries to children. This is determined by examining whether the loading to the chest reaches the internal organ injury threshold for children.
Method: The chest injury risk to a child occupant in a CRS was investigated using Q3 dummy tests, finite element (FE) simulations (Q3 dummy and human models), and animal tests. The investigation was done for 2 types of CRSs (i.e., the impact shield CRS and 5-point harness CRS) based on the UN R44 dynamic test specifications.
Results: The tests using a Q3 dummy indicated that although the chest deflection of the dummy in the impact shield CRS was large, it was less than the injury threshold (40 mm). Computational biomechanics simulations (using finite element FE analysis) showed that the Q3 dummy's chest is loaded by the shield and deforms substantially under this load. To clarify whether chest injuries due to chest compression can occur with an impact shield or with the 5-point harness CRS, 7 experiments were performed using Tibetan miniature pigs with weights ranging from 9.7 to 13 kg. Severe chest and abdominal injuries (lung contusion, coronary artery laceration, liver laceration) were found in the tests using the impact shield CRS. No chest injuries were present when using the 5-point harness CRS.
Conclusion: When using the impact shield CRS, the chest deformed substantially in dummy tests and FE simulations, and chest and abdominal injuries were observed in pig tests. It is possible that these chest injuries could also occur to child occupants sitting in the impact shield CRS. 相似文献
Public debate on acceptable farm animal husbandry suffers from a confusion of tongues. To clarify positions of various stakeholder
groups in their joint search for acceptable solutions, the concept of animal welfare was split up into three notions: no suffering,
respect for intrinsic value, and non-appalling appearance of animals. This strategy was based on the hypothesis that multi-stakeholder
solutions should be based on shared values rather than on compromises. The usefulness of such an artificial value distinction
strategy was tested in a small series of experiments. The results demonstrate that the chosen concept to distinguish between
values is effective in a stakeholder context. Farmers’ views on doing good to animals appeared to be largely based on their
value to prevent suffering and predominantly focused on the provision of regular care. Their priority for this value is clearly
shared with other stakeholders, providing a basis for joint solutions. The concept of intrinsic value does not play a discernable
role in farmers’ considerations. Based on the varying views on welfare, it can be inferred that there is a gradual rather
than a principal difference between government legislation and farmers’ values, whereas public perception and acceptance of
farm practices remains complicated. Distinction between value groups and focusing on a selected notion (such as no suffering)
proved to be effective in bringing representatives of stakeholder groups together, but is unlikely to bridge the emotional
gap between commercial farm practices and public ideals. 相似文献
Livestock production today faces thedifficult task of effectively meeting emergingconsumer concerns while remaining competitive on majortarget markets. Meeting consumer concerns aboutproduct safety and animal welfare are identified askey attention points for future livestock production.The relevance of these issues pertains to productionefficiency and economic benefits and tore-establishing meat sector image and consumer trust.The current paper analyses consumer concerns about theethical issues of meat safety and animal welfare fromcurrent livestock production. The research methodologyis based on literature review, secondary data sources,and primary research through focus group discussionsand a survey of 320 meat consumers in Belgium.Objectives were to assess importance attached byconsumers to product safety and animal welfare asethical issues in commercial livestock production, andto evaluate consumer perception of these issues forbeef, pork, and poultry. Significant differences inissue importance and perception are identified amongconsumer groups based on socio-demographic andbehavioral characteristics. From the analysis, meatsafety emerges as an absolute but minimum requirementfor future success of livestock and meat production.Additionally, animal welfare can be expected to becomea critical theme especially for pork and poultryacceptance. 相似文献
Recent studies have introduced computer tomography (CT) as a tool for the visualisation and characterisation of insect architectures. Here, we use CT to map the three-dimensional networks of galleries inside Cubitermes nests in order to analyse them with tools from graph theory. The structure of these networks indicates that connections inside the nest are rearranged during the whole nest life. The functional analysis reveals that the final network topology represents an excellent compromise between efficient connectivity inside the nest and defence against attacking predators. We further discuss and illustrate the usefulness of CT to disentangle environmental and specific influences on nest architecture. 相似文献
A good understanding of the quantitative uptake of actinide elements from foodstuffs, across the mucosal cell membranes of the gastrointestinal tract, into man is of great importance in setting intake limits and in assessing radiation doses to critical organs. In the past, such knowledge has been gained from the extrapolation of animal models to man. Whilst this strategy has proved useful in a number of cases, it is, unfortunately, phenomenological and the results prone to perturbation from factors such as the fasting state of the animal and the initial chemical form of the actinide. The application of computer simulation models which can calculate the chemical speciation of an element in a variety of foodstuffs under conditions pertinent to the gastrointestinal tract offers a non‐invasive and general method for predicting the uptake of exogenous elements, like the actinides. This paper reviews the current state of chemical speciation analysis with respect to bioavailability highlighting areas requiring further consideration, presenting results amplifying the issues raised and showing that computer simulation has a rôle to play in predicting quantitative uptake of the actinides. 相似文献
Bird song is a sexually selected multidimensional signal. A fundamental question regarding the evolution of sexually selected
signals is what information they convey and how their honesty is maintained. Song amplitude is a performance-related signal
trait that varies considerably between individuals, but this signal dimension has been neglected in past studies. I found
that median song amplitude in male nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) did not vary significantly with body size or residual body mass. In contrast, I found a significant negative correlation
between body size (and also residual mass) and the maximum song amplitude during interactive singing in nightingales. However,
the function of these more subtle differences in song amplitude remains to be investigated. By and large, the results of this
study suggest that mean song amplitude is unlikely to indicate a bird’s body size or current condition (measured as residual
mass). 相似文献
Network analysis has a long history in the mathematical and social sciences and the aim of this introduction is to provide
a brief overview of the potential that it holds for the study of animal behaviour. One of the most attractive features of
the network paradigm is that it provides a single conceptual framework with which we can study the social organisation of
animals at all levels (individual, dyad, group, population) and for all types of interaction (aggressive, cooperative, sexual
etc.). Graphical tools allow a visual inspection of networks which often helps inspire ideas for testable hypotheses. Network
analysis itself provides a multitude of novel statistical tools that can be used to characterise social patterns in animal
populations. Among the important insights that networks have facilitated is that indirect social connections matter. Interactions
between individuals generate a social environment at the population level which in turn selects for behavioural strategies
at the individual level. A social network is often a perfect means by which to represent heterogeneous relationships in a
population. Probing the biological drivers for these heterogeneities, often as a function of time, forms the basis of many
of the current uses of network analysis in the behavioural sciences. This special issue on social networks brings together
a diverse group of practitioners whose study systems range from social insects over reptiles to birds, cetaceans, ungulates
and primates in order to illustrate the wide-ranging applications of network analysis.
This contribution is part of the special issue “Social Networks: new perspectives” (Guest Editors: J. Krause, D. Lusseau and
R. James). 相似文献
We introduce a new index for measuring perpendicularity of animal movements with respect to a boundary (e.g., a habitat patch edge), and provide a computer algorithm for its calculation. Our index, η, improves on an approach that measures perpendicularity with respect to a fixed boundary direction. This is because η accounts for moment-to-moment trajectories relative to nearest-neighbor boundary attributes at the scale of an animal's movement. Our algorithm prp calculates η efficiently and accurately with both synthetic data and large telemetry datasets. In addition, we have included routines in prp which account for scenarios inherently problematic to perpendicularity estimators. 相似文献