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## IntechOpen Book Series Veterinary Medicine and Science Volume 15

## Aims and Scope of the Series

Paralleling similar advances in the medical field, astounding advances occurred in Veterinary Medicine and Science in recent decades. These advances have helped foster better support for animal health, more humane animal production, and a better understanding of the physiology of endangered species to improve the assisted reproductive technologies or the pathogenesis of certain diseases, where animals can be used as models for human diseases (like cancer, degenerative diseases or fertility), and even as a guarantee of public health. Bridging Human, Animal, and Environmental health, the holistic and integrative "One Health" concept intimately associates the developments within those fields, projecting its advancements into practice. This book series aims to tackle various animal-related medicine and sciences fields, providing thematic volumes consisting of high-quality significant research directed to researchers and postgraduates. It aims to give us a glimpse into the new accomplishments in the Veterinary Medicine and Science field. By addressing hot topics in veterinary sciences, we aim to gather authoritative texts within each issue of this series, providing in-depth overviews and analysis for graduates, academics, and practitioners and foreseeing a deeper understanding of the subject. Forthcoming texts, written and edited by experienced researchers from both industry and academia, will also discuss scientific challenges faced today in Veterinary Medicine and Science. In brief, we hope that books in this series will provide accessible references for those interested or working in this field and encourage learning in a range of different topics.

## Meet the Series Editor

Rita Payan Carreira earned her Veterinary Degree from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1985. She obtained her Ph.D. in Veterinary Sciences from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal. After almost 32 years of teaching at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, she recently moved to the University of Évora, Department of Veterinary Medicine, where she teaches in the field of Animal Reproduction

and Clinics. Her primary research areas include the molecular markers of the endometrial cycle and the embryo–maternal interaction, including oxidative stress and the reproductive physiology and disorders of sexual development, besides the molecular determinants of male and female fertility. She often supervises students preparing their master's or doctoral theses. She is also a frequent referee for various journals.

## Meet the Volume Editors

Dr. Shao-Wen Hung is a veterinarian, researcher, and chief of the animal industry division. He is actively engaged in academic research in Taiwan, including cancer medicine, animal welfare, veterinary medicine, and fish disease. He has participated in research on antibacterial light-emitting diodes and the application and development of the Raman rapid detection method. He has published more than 120 journal papers, 130 conference papers,

12 patents, and 20 books. He has also served as a journal peer reviewer. Dr. Hung has successfully assisted animal drug factories and food factories to obtain animal drug and health food certificates.

Dr. Chung-Lun Lu graduated from the Institute of Fisheries Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, and is a researcher at Aquaculture Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute. Dr. Chung-Lun Lu is a pioneering researcher in aquaculture sciences. He published many papers and books in aquaculture science. He is actively engaged in academic research in Taiwan, including the development of high-value agricultural

materials and assay platforms, etc.

Dr. Tseng-Ting Kao graduated from the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan and is a researcher at the Animal Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute. Dr. Tseng-Ting Kao is a pioneering researcher in cell science. She holds some registered patents in life science. She is actively engaged in academic research in Taiwan, including the development of skin care products, high-value agri-

cultural materials, cell detection platforms, etc.

Associate Researcher Chia-Chi Chen graduated from the Institute of Chemistry, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan and works in the Animal Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute. Associate Researcher Chia-Chi Chen is a pioneering researcher in animal science. She published many articles and books on life science. She is actively engaged in academic research in Taiwan, including the development of high-value

agricultural materials and in vivo efficacy platforms, etc.

## Contents



## Preface

Animal welfare is a significantly important issue worldwide. However, the public's idea of animal welfare is usually formed from animal epidemic news or food scandals; it is not usually viewed as an urgent issue to be solved in the world.

Achievements made by scientists in the last several years have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of animal science. Experimental animals play a very important role in scientific research.

Pigs, rodents, and aquaculture animals are important experimental animals. To obtain accurate experimental data and meet the basic quality requirements of biological experiment materials, the experimental animals used should be specifically pathogenfree (SPF). These SPF animals are not only used to meet the demand for biomedical research but are also used to research and develop drugs and vaccines. Animal testing is an important verification stage before bringing it to market biomedical products.

As animal welfare has attracted attention in recent years, the most important issues to arise are reduced animal pain and quantity and increased experimental refinement, or what is referred to as the 3Rs of animal research (replacement, reduction, and refinement).

*Animal Welfare - New Insights* presents new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of animal welfare.

### **Shao-Wen Hung, Tseng-Ting Kao and Chia-Chi Chen** Division of Animal Industry,

Animal Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute, Xiangshan, Hsinchu, Taiwan

### **Chung-Lun Lu**

Aquatic Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute, Xiangshan, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Section 1 Introduction

### **Chapter 1**

## Introductory Chapter: Animal Welfare - New Insights

*Chia-Chi Chen, Tseng-Ting Kao, Chung-Lun Lu and Shao-Wen Hung*

### **1. Introduction**

Animal welfare (AW) has been a significantly important issue in the world [1]. The idea of AW for the public usually comes from animal epidemic news or food scandals, and it has not been taken as an urgent issue to be solved in the world. Intensive farming has been considered as a sufficient way to operate in agriculture around the world because of the limited space. The government has been doing research projects on farm AW and encouraging researchers to conduct more research in this area.

AW is well organized in some countries such as Sweden and has been taken care of by the government and the responsible industries. Since these countries are the most advanced in the field of farm AW. Thus, how to improve the AW and solve the main AW problem in other countries according to the AW-concerned countries' approaches. At present, especially in the last years, the achievements made by scientists have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of animal science. Therefore, experimental animals play a very important role in scientific research [2].

Pigs, rodents, and aquaculture animals are important experimental animals. In order to obtain the accuracy of the experimental data and meet the basic quality requirements of biological experiment materials, the quality of the experimental animals for the biological experiments should reach the level of specific pathogenfree (SPF) [2]. These SPF animals are applied not only to meet the demand for biomedical research but also can be used to provide for research and development of drugs and vaccines. Furthermore, as AW has gradually attracted attention in recent years, the reduced animal pain and quantity and the increase of the experimental refinement are the important issues in the 3R (replacement, reduction, and refinement) of AW [3–5].

### **2. Animal welfare in various species**

This book, "Animal Welfare: New Insights," is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of AW.

### **2.1 AW in fungi and oomycetes: allies in eliminating environmental pathogens**

The chapter provides information regarding the mechanism of action of these natural constituents and updates information on the species of fungi and oomycetes that have been studied so far. Thus, readers can have a base in this field and can further exploit what they have discovered to continue to improve the welfare of animals, addressing an ecological and healthy vision.

### **2.2 AW in overview of animal welfare aspects of Bali cattle with confined typology in Sumbawa regency, NTB, Indonesia**

The chapter points out that the quality of life of cattle will affect their productivity, where productivity is an indicator of animal welfare. The recommendation is that there is a need for government policy intervention in the context of implementing animal welfare in Sumbawa as an effort to increase the productivity of Bali cattle.

### **2.3 AW in aiming to improve dairy cattle welfare by using precision technology to track lameness, mastitis, somatic cell count, and body condition score**

The chapter aims to highlight the most recent advances in precision livestock farming (PLF) in this area. Finally, a discussion is presented on the possibility of integrating the information obtained by PLF into a welfare assessment framework.

### **2.4 AW in nerve injury model in rabbits: Benefits and pitfalls**

The chapter outlines the risks and benefits of using this animal model in sciatic nerve injury studies. It also proposes treatment methods for common postoperative complications that can substantially reduce future study costs. To preserve ethical animal care standards in research, the recommended alternative models can be used instead of rabbits to study sciatic nerve injuries.

### **2.5 AW in human-wild animal conflict**

The chapter deals with various human-animal conflicts and their mitigation strategies. Despite of these problems, conservation is likely to become increasingly utilized as biodiversity becomes increasingly threatened and methods of ameliorating threats lag behind.

### **2.6 AW in application of conservation and veterinary tools in the management of stray wildlife in Zambia**

The chapter discusses animal migrations and some of the key reasons why they occur. Further, some conservation and veterinary measures are discussed that could be applied to address potential human conflicts with stray wildlife, which we believe are applicable to the Zambian situation.

### **2.7 AW in amphibian fauna of Manipur, north East India**

The chapter shows that 27 different species of amphibian fauna reported from the region, along with conservation strategies and their importance, have been discussed.

### **2.8 AW in effect of agricultural pesticides and land use intensification on amphibian larval development**

The chapter presents that the increase in human population had increased the demand for vital resources, including food, generating intensive and extractive exploitation and impacting natural ecosystems and biodiversity. These animals have special ecophysiological conditions because they have biphasic life cycles composed of an embryonic and larval aquatic development stage and the adult stage in humid terrestrial environments. For these reasons, amphibians have been observed with increased mortality rates, reduced prey availability, and affected growth rates.

### **2.9 AW in anti-arthritic activity of some** *Boswellia* **ssp. extracts in experimentally induced animals**

The chapter explores that arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Rat-induced rheumatoid arthritis was applied in this study to study *Boswellia serrata*, which is a gum resin extracted from a tree. It appears to be a novel inhibitor of a pro-inflammatory enzyme and may possess other anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, it is recommended to use *B. serrata* methanol extract to alleviate inflammation and oxidative stress caused by rheumatoid arthritis in rats.

### **3. Conclusion and future prospect**

At present, AW has become a topic of very serious discussion worldwide. Humane breeding has become an issue that has been given international attention in recent years. However, many people are still very unfamiliar with this concept. The foundation of humane feeding is based on AW. The main appeal is to allow animals to have five freedoms. When animal feeding meets these conditions, it can be regarded as meeting the basic requirements of humane feeding. The basis for the sustainable implementation of humane breeding is actually consumers. If consumers do not support the concept of humane feeding and do not agree with the price difference that should be paid for the production of humane products, then producers have no resources to put humane concepts into the production process. Therefore, when consumers pay attention to humane production in terms of consumption behavior, then only more producers are willing to raise livestock and poultry in a humane way. As long as the insistence of both consumers and producers is satisfied, animals can be treated better.

*Animal Welfare - New Insights*

### **Author details**

Chia-Chi Chen1 , Tseng-Ting Kao1 , Chung-Lun Lu2 and Shao-Wen Hung1 \*

1 Division of Animal Industry, Animal Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute, Xiangshan, Hsinchu, Taiwan

2 Aquatic Technology Research Center, Agricultural Technology Research Institute, Xiangshan, Hsinchu, Taiwan

\*Address all correspondence to: 1032169@mail.atri.org.tw

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Introductory Chapter: Animal Welfare - New Insights DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110193*

### **References**

[1] Grady AW, Borkowski GL, Bayne K. A word from AAALAC international. Lab Animal (NY). 2019;**48**:37

[2] Hung YC, Chen CC, Chen HY, Fang WD, Lin CY, Lai SQ, et al. Surveillance of pig infectious diseases and increase animal welfare in the specific pathogen-free pig farms in Taiwan. United Journal of Veterinary Science Technology. 2020;**1**:1-3

[3] Leblanc Maridor M, Denis M, Lalande F, Beaurepaire B, Cariolet R, Fravalo P, et al. Experimental infection of specific pathogen-free pigs with Campylobacter: Excretion in faeces and transmission to non-inoculated pigs. Veterinary Microbiology. 2008;**131**:309-317

[4] Schukat S, Kuhlmann A, Heise H. Fattening pig Farmers' intention to participate in animal welfare programs. Animals (Basel). 2019;**9**(12):E1042

[5] Swearengen JR. Common challenges in safety: A review and analysis of AAALAC findings. ILAR Journal. 2018;**59**:127-133

Section 2
