AVA Conference Brisbane 2018

Until recently animal welfare assessment traditionally relied on measures of physical health, and changes in behaviour and physiology related to negative emotional states such as pain and stress. However, it is now widely accepted that good welfare is not simply the absence of disease or negative experiences, but also the presence of positive experiences such as pleasure. Understanding what good welfare is, how welfare can be assessed across a range of environments and uses, and what needs to be done to achieve higher welfare, is considered to be a key priority for ensuring the welfare of animals in their interactions with humans. In order to achieve this, we need to be able to develop reliable methods for recognising and assessing positive emotional states and develop a framework for enabling robust judgements to be made.