Judgement bias of group housed gestating sows predicted by behavioral traits, but not physical measures of welfare.

ABSTRACT: Judgement bias testing has emerged as a potential tool for assessing affective states in animals. Researchers infer an animal's affective state based on an animal's response to an ambiguous stimulus that is intermediate to both the rewarded and punished conditioned stimuli. Animals can be classified as "optimistic" or having a positive affective state if the animal displays behaviors that suggest an increased expectation of reward in the face of ambiguous stimuli. Alternatively, animals can be classified "pessimistic" or having a negative affective state if the animal displays behaviors that suggest an increased expectation of punishment in the face of ambiguous stimuli. Recent reports in multiple species question what factors influence performance in judgement bias testing, and which may

SUBMITTER: Horback KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8880926 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature