Finnish Research centre for animal welfare

We are organizing a free scientific mini-seminar (hybrid) on sleep on domestic animals on 2-3 October. Registration is open till 20.9.! The aim of the mini-seminar is to bring together researchers (from all career paths) working on non-invasive sleep research in domestic animals from all over the world to discuss, share their experiences and make new contacts.

The seminar is particularly aimed at PhD students, but senior researchers, specialized veterinarians and undergraduate students interested in the topic are also welcome. The seminar will consist of lectures and presentations. We particularly welcome short (about 15min) presentations by participants about their own sleep-related projects from project design to preliminary or final results. Don't do as I did either - presentations are more than welcome!

The keynote speakers will be assistant professor Emma Ternman, PhD, who developed modern sleep research on dairy cows in her doctoral thesis. Emma is currently working on animal welfare at Universitet Nord in Norway. And Dr Henna-Kaisa Wigren, a sleep biologist fascinated by the universality of sleep across species. Henna works as a University Lecturer in Neurobiology at the University of Helsinki.

Registration-link for those coming outside the Helsinki University:
https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/125316/lomakkeet.html

A link to submit a title for your own presentation (if we receive a large number of willing presenters, we will give preference to first-come, first-served and PhD students).
https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/125317/lomakkeet.html

Link to course page:
https://studies.helsinki.fi/courses/course-implementation/hy-opt-cur-2324-d7d08547-7f1d-4ed9-8fcf-1229b86c3b74

photo: Aldo Houtkamp

Fresh news at the end of the holiday month: The background education of people who care for wild animals will influence how they approach the euthanasia and rehabilitation of animals in their care.

The article is freely available via the link below.

The article is part of DVM Kati White's European specialised veterinary education in animal welfare, ethics and law.

https://www.frontiersin.org/.../10.../fvets.2023.1207930/full

Image by Gary Bendig Unsplash

DVM Elli Valtonen identified two distinguishable animal welfare offense types in her work: large-scale and violent offenses. Large-scale offenses, defined as recurrent or long-lasting and involving at least 15 animals, were often located in small municipalities and led frequently to the animals’ death. They were typically committed by middle-aged or elderly women and their family members who rarely confessed to the charges even partially, which may refer to animal hoarding. In contrast, violent offenses were often committed by young men also charged with other crimes and targeted against other people’s animals, which is in line with previous research on intentional animal cruelty.

The official veterinarians’ contribution to the criminal procedure varied according to the offense type. The assessment of the severity of the animal welfare offenses, imposition of a ban on the keeping of animals, and the forfeiture of the animals appeared to pose a challenge to the prosecutors and judges.

Elli and her co-authors argue that to prevent and expose crimes against companion animals, there is a need to recognize the diverse nature of animal welfare offenses, strengthen the education of and cooperation between authorities, and efficiently utilize the ban on the keeping of animals as a precautionary measure to prevent further offenses.

Defining Crimes Against Companion Animals in Finland – Passive Neglect and Active Maltreatment Our aims were to describe the specific features of animal welfare offenses against companion animals in Finland, to study whether evidence provided by veterinarians was associated with the outcome ...

Our researcher Hanna Nurmi presented her PhD study in Tarandus seminar in Norway on the use of NSAIDs on castrated reindeer. Very useful results now, when the use of pain alleviation will be mandatory in painful procedures in Finland by the new animal welfare law. This project is funded by the ministry of agriculture and forestry.

We got to present our work at the Viikki Science day event to colleagues and students. The event was the first of its kind and will hardly be the last. Even an old dog learns something new, so we learned how to use the Prezi tool. See the Prezi- video from our presentation in comments.

Saara Junttilas’ 1st doctoral research article showed with 13 breeds and over 1000 dogs, that breeds do differ in their cognitive traits.

See more:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26991-5

Sleepless in the Stable? Horse owner or caretaker, please participate to survey!

A questionnaire targeted to horse owners is launched to discover the prevalence and factors associated with sleep disturbances. The questionnaire is open 27.12.2022–28.2.2023 and can be answered in Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and English. Two gift cards to a horse accessory store is drawn among the respondents.

Horse resting behavior and sleep disturbances are studied in a project together with University of Helsinki, Nord University and Finnish Equine Information Centre. The study is funded by the Finnish ministry of agriculture and forestry
https://helsinkihorse.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2b03H8QgcEIx3a6

After some years we finally can participate in live congresses! Pack of us participated in the European veterinary congress for behavioural medicine and animal welfare in Palma. In connection to congress, special equine education program was organized for specialing vets. From our pack DVMs Kati White and Kirsi Swan are specializing on animal ethics, welfare and law.

DVM Hanna Nurmi and her colleagues show here that reindeer as prey animals show modest castration pain, in this study mainly by contracting their abdominal muscles and closing their nostrils. Local lidocaine anaesthesia failed to significantly reduce pain-related behaviours, and longer handling times meanwhile caused a significant rise in re**al temperature, especially if combined with other stressors such as NSAID injection. Further research is needed with more delicate measures of pain related to castration and the proper means of pain alleviation. This study is part of DVM Hanna Nurmi’s PhD study.

The impact of clamp castration on the behaviour and body temperature of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) – effects of local anesthesia and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Yearly, 2500–4000 reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) bulls are castrated in Finland, mostly without pain alleviation. No previous research exists c…

We did it! The first study ever on reindeer NSAID pharmacokinetics. Worth for freezing working conditions in Lapland at winter.

We show here that meloxicam administered by IV or oral route is a promising option for reindeer in field conditions.

Wintertime pharmacokinetics of intravenously and orally administered meloxicam in semidomesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) To investigate the pharmacokinetics of orally and intravenously (IV) administered meloxicam in semidomesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus).

How Finnish producers manage to rear non-docked pigs. Prof Anna Valros wrote a scientific review on subject: Several features of Finnish pig production might have a preventive role regarding the tail biting risk: these include, among others, a comparably larger space allowance, partly slatted flooring, use of manipulable materials, a good animal health status and meal feeding from long troughs. In addition, Finnish producers are motivated to rear non-docked pigs, which is possibly one of the most important prerequisites for success.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731121001968?fbclid=IwAR1Go2VC3V-n2ps8K6EshLLDjqiCz8LPcjjw4QogXq6FYyiVnew2RaHQIxQ

Review: The tale of the Finnish pig tail – how to manage non-docked pigs? Tail biting is a serious behavioural problem in modern pig production, causing impaired animal welfare and economic losses. In most countries, the det…

Fresh article out! Elli Valtonen and her co-authors studied animal welfare inspections performed by the official municipal veterinarians in the Finnish Capital Region. They found that insufficient basic maintenance and care of companion animals was the most common form of non-compliance with the animal welfare legislation; this was followed by insufficient veterinary care. The official municipal veterinarians detected most non-compliances when the following factors were present: an inspection was performed, the case was assessed using the information from the police or an animal shelter, or a complaint was received concerning insufficient veterinary care. The detection of violence against animals often resulted in a request for a police investigation. However, detecting violence appears to be a challenge. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.736084/full