How Studying Interactions Between Animal Emotions, Cognition, and Personality Can Contribute to Improve Farm - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 81

events is known to induce long-term stress-related responses such as
depression-like behaviors. For instance, chronic social stress induces behavioral
changes, such as decrease in locomotor activity, self- and allo-grooming,
feeding behaviors (both appetitive and consummatory components), and physi-
ological changes, such as altered circadian rhythm, body temperature or body
weight in various animal species ( Boissy et al., 2001; Carere et al.,2001;
Coutellier et al., 2007; Veenema et al.,2003 ). Nevertheless, as noted by
Dawkins (2001) and Dantzer (2002) , research on stress has generally been
limited to indicators of stress and has not linked these indicators to the exis-
tence of long-lasting affective states. Therefore, it is essential to move beyond
the simple description of the emotions/stress-related reactions in farm animals
towards a scientific approach of their own emotional experiences ( D ´ sir ´ et al.,
2002; Mendl and Paul, 2004 ). Recently, attention has been paid to animal cog-
nition and appraisal as a promising approach to scientifically assess sentience
in animals ( Boissy et al., 2007a; Paul et al.,2005 ).
The main objective of this chapter is to highlight the emotions and the
longer-lasting affective states of an animal, and the individual characteristics
by which its emotions are influenced. This chapter follows four complementary
threads. Firstly, we review emotions defined as resulting from their perception
of their own environment, and we discuss the difficulties involved in the assess-
ment of fear and anxiety, the most commonly studied emotions in farm animals,
and the need for better validation of the experimental approaches. Secondly,
we review the interactions between emotions and cognition and present the
relevance of taking into account the cognitive abilities of animals to better
approach their emotions and long-lasting affective states. Thirdly, we discuss
the relevance of the personality concept, as resulting from both genetics and
developmental experience, for better embracing the animal's individuality
in emotional behaviors and stress. Finally, we explore positive emotions in
animals and their interests not only to alleviate fear but also to induce long-
lasting positive states close to the welfare concept and to attempt to mitigate
detrimental stress-induced effects on the welfare and health status.
DO ANIMALS FEEL EMOTIONS?
What is the Nature of Animal Sentience? What is an Emotion?
What is Stress?
There is now a consensus in the scientific community that most animals that
we use for our own purposes, whether for food, for work or for animal experi-
mentation, are acknowledged as sentient beings ( Dawkins, 2001 ). Sentient
animals are
those who experience emotions associated with pleasure and suffering and
who are motivated to promote their evolutionary fitness not as part of a