The sensitivity of QBA assessments of sheep behavioural expression to variations in visual or verbal information provided to observers.

Qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) is based on observers' ability to capture the dynamic complexity of an animal's demeanour as it interacts with the environment, in terms such as tense, anxious or relaxed. Sensitivity to context is part of QBA's integrative capacity and discriminatory power; however, when not properly managed it can also be a source of undesirable variability and bias. This study investigated the sensitivity of QBA to variations in the visual or verbal information provided to observers, using free-choice profiling (FCP) methodology. FCP allows observers to generate their own descriptive terms for animal demeanour, against which each animal's expressions are quantified on a visual analogue scale. The resulting scores were analysed with Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA), generating two or more multi-variate dimensions of animal expression. Study 1 examined how 63 observers rated the same video clips of individual sheep during land transport, when these clips were interspersed with two different sets of video footage. Scores attributed to the sheep in the two viewing sessions correlated significantly (GPA dimension 1: r s =0.95, P<0.001, GPA dimension 2: r s =0.66, P=0.037) indicating that comparative rankings of animals on expressive dimensions were highly similar, however, their mean numerical scores on these dimensions had shifted (RM-ANOVA: Dim1: P<0.001, Dim2: P<0.001). Study 2 investigated the effect of being given different amounts of background information on two separate groups of observers assessing footage of 22 individual sheep in a behavioural demand facility. One group was given no contextual information regarding this facility, whereas the second group was told that animals were moving towards and away from a feeder (in view) to access feed. Scores attributed to individual sheep by the two observer groups correlated significantly (Dim1: r s =0.92, P<0.001, Dim2: r s =0.52, P=0.013). A number of descriptive terms were generated by both observer groups and used in similar ways, other terms were unique to each group. The group given additional information about the experimental facility scored the sheep's behaviour as more 'directed' and 'focused' than observers who had not been told. Thus, in neither of the two studies did experimentally imposed variations in context alter the characterisations of animals relative to each other, but in Study 1 this did affect the mean numerical values underlying these characterisations, indicating a need for careful attention to the use of visual analogue scales.

Qualitative behavioral assessment of transport-naive and transport-habituated sheep.

Objective and issue-neutral qualitative assessments of livestock behavior could provide a powerful assessment of welfare, augmenting quantitative measures such as autonomic and endocrine changes, which are often difficult to assess under many commercial livestock conditions. We set out to validate the use of qualitative behavioral assessment (QBA) in sheep using controlled experimental conditions (transport as a challenge) and comparing assessments against physiological variables. The behavioral expression of 14 Merino wethers, which had never experienced land transport, were assessed during their first road event (naïve to transport), and then again on their seventh event, 8 d later (habituated to transport). Blood samples were collected immediately before loading and after unloading, and heart rate and core body temperature were measured continuously throughout each event. Continuous video footage recorded during each event was used to provide clips of individual animals that were shown to observers for QBA. There was significant consensus (P < 0.001) amongst 63 observers in terms of their assessment of the behavioral expression of the sheep. Transport-naïve sheep were assessed as being more 'alert', 'anxious', and 'aware', whereas transport-habituated sheep were more 'comfortable', 'tired', and 'confident' (P = 0.015). Heart rate and heart rate variability, core body temperature and a stress leukogram were greater (P < 0.05) in sheep during the first (naïve) event compared with the habituated event, and were significantly correlated with the QBA scores (P < 0.05). In conclusion, QBA is a valid, practical and informative measure of behavioral responses to transport.