Emanuela Dalla Costa

University of Milan | UNIMI · Department of Veterinary Medicine (DiMeVet)

The Italian pig sector requires heavy pigs (raised for at least nine months and slaughtered at >160 kg). In order to avoid boar taint and lower the impact on welfare, immunocastration provides an alternative to surgical castration. This study investigated the effects of immunocastration compared to surgical castration on the chemical composition an...

People working in the field of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs) often state that they perceive animal welfare as a matter of paramount importance; nevertheless, most scientific literature focuses on the effectiveness of interventions from the user’s perspective. Before focusing on the animals’ management and welfare during their interactions wi...

People working in the field of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) often state that they perceive animal welfare as a matter of paramount importance, nevertheless most of scientific literature focuses on the effectiveness of interventions from the user's perspective. Before focusing on animals’ management and welfare during the interaction with use...

Simple Summary We explored the application of infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-invasive method to measure the eye’s lacrimal caruncle temperature in sheep, specifically focusing on its potential to detect negative emotions such as fear. Fourteen ewes, divided into two study groups according to the exposed emotional (positive n = 7 and negative...

Biosensors applied in veterinary medicine serve as a noninvasive method to determine the health status of animals and, indirectly, their level of welfare. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been suggested as a technology with this application. This study presents preliminary in vivo time domain NIRS measurements of optical properties (absorption...

Riding schools play an essential role in the equestrian industry and in education. These establishments are reliant on horses to work for numerous hours, often with riders of different abilities. However, little is known about the impact workload has on the well-being of these horses and effective monitoring of welfare is required for animal-based...

Mastitis is major health issue compromising the welfare of dairy cows. Individual behaviour of dairy cows few days before mastitis is a potential tool for higher detection accuracy. However, little is known about the existence of behavioural patterns usually expressed by cows in healthy conditions that are associated with the subsequent onset of ma...

Acidosis is a major health and welfare issue, especially in high-producing dairy cows. During acidosis, rumination is affected, as early as a few days before diagnosis. For this reason, behavioral patterns can be considered as promising indicators for the early detection of acidosis. However, the power of behavior analysis to predict acidosis can g...

Background: According to EU legislation, animal-based indicators (ABMs) are used to evaluate the efficacy of stunning methods to ensure that animals do not regain consciousness. EFSA has provided a list of ABMs for electrical and mechanical stunning in sheep; however, there is still a lack of information on their feasibility. We aimed to identify...

Outdoor group housing is generally reported as being beneficial to the welfare of horses compared to single boxes, being considered to show greater similarities with the living conditions of feral horses, allowing full expression of behaviours such as grazing, social interactions and free movement. However, concerns persist regarding the ability to...

To identify feasible indicators to evaluate animals’ emotional states as a parameter to assess animal welfare, the present study aimed at investigating the accuracy of free choice profiling (FCP) and fixed list (FL) approach of Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) in horses during the loading phase of transport. A total of 13 stakeholders were tr...

Behaviour is recognized as an important indicator of health and welfare of dairy cattle. In dairy cows, changes in behavioural patterns can be automatically monitored by PLF technology and used to early detect diseases such as mastitis, the most crucial health issue of high-producing dairy cows. The aim of the present study was to identify whether...

The present study aimed to evaluate if changing in lying behavioural time-budget can be correlated to milk production, SCC and a panel of salivary analytes including analytes of stress (cortisol, total esterase (TEA), alpha-amylase and lipase), immunity (ADA total and isoenzymes) and tissue damage (CK). Lying time of 15 cows, housed in a commercial...

Horses with a low level of tameness are at higher risk for transport-related disease and injury; hence, European regulations for the protection of animals during transport (EC 1/2005) are stricter for unhandled (unbroken) horses. However, the regulation does not provide adequate tools for unhandled horse identification. The Broken/Unbroken Test (BU...

Immunocastration has been pointed out as an alternative to surgical castration; though, most of the scientific studies were performed in light pig production. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of immunocastration on animal welfare in heavy pig production through the evaluation of behaviour and body lesions. A total of 188 commercial-hybrid pi...

Noise anxiety is an over-reaction to loud noises commonly detected among pets and can greatly impact on their welfare and on their management. When exposed to noisy events, horses can show intense escape attempts, which may cause severe accidents for the horse and the rider/handler. The aim of the present study was to investigate, through a web sur...

Horses preparation for competition may cause psychological and physical stress. Physical vascular therapy BEMER® is reported to increase vasomotion and microcirculation, supporting body healing. This study aimed at assessing whether BEMER® physical vascular therapy in horses influences recovery rate of hematological and biochemical blood parameters...

Regulation EC 1/2005 has stricter rules for transportation of unbroken (untamed) vs. broken (tamed) horses, but does not provide adequate tools for their identification. This study aimed to develop and validate such a tool. A behavioural test (Broken/Unbroken Test (BUT)) based on approaching, haltering, and leading was applied to 100 horses. Physio...

The satisfaction of leisure horses’ behavioral needs has begun to be considered a priority, linked to the awareness that horses kept in single boxes may be deprived of social contact and the possibility to perform natural behaviors. Several factors may influence horses’ quality of life also in the paddock, and there are very few data on the effects...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a zoonotic disease primarily caused by pathogens belonging to the genus of Mycobacterium. Programs of control and eradication for bovine TB include a screening using single intradermal tuberculin (SIT) test with Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis)-purified protein derivatives (PPD-B) single or concurrent with Mycobacterium avium (M....

The donkey population has increased in the last 10 years, with an estimated 50 million donkeys currently worldwide. Donkey welfare, meanwhile, is an increasing global concern that receives close public scrutiny. However, multiple challenges are surrounding how donkey welfare is assessed and recorded. The Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) project is...

In order to base welfare assessment of dairy cattle on real-time measurement, integration of valid and reliable precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies is needed. The aim of this study was to provide a systematic overview of externally validated and commercially available PLF technologies, which could be used for sensor-based welfare assessm...

Background. Pain in horses is an emergent welfare concern and its assessment represents a challenge for equine clinicians. This study aimed at improving pain assessment in horses through a convergent validation of existing tools: we investigated whether an effective analgesic treatment influences the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) and the concentration...

The microbiome is now seen as an important resource to understand animal health and welfare in many species. However, there are few studies aiming at identifying the association between fecal microbiome composition and husbandry conditions in sheep. A wide range of stressors associated with management and housing of animals increases the hypothalam...

Adopting proper animal management strategies, including training, might reduce to a substantial extent the adverse effects of transport-related stress in animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of habituation to transport on stress-related behaviors and physiological indicators during loading and unloading in donkeys. Fourteen don...

The aim of this work was to critically assess if functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be profitably used as a tool for noninvasive recording of brain functions and emotions in sheep. We considered an experimental design including advances in instrumentation (customized wireless multi-distance fNIRS system), more accurate physical model...

The Dually™ is a control headcollar designed to improve equine behaviour during handling challenges by applying greater pressure than a standard headcollar. Previous research indicated it did not improve compliance in naïve horses but did result in higher Horse Grimace Scale scores (HGS) indicative of discomfort. However, subjects had not been trai...

Road transport is known to be a stressful animal husbandry procedure as it induces the activation of two main physiological stress-related pathways: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis and the sympathetic-adrenal medulla axis. This preliminary study aimed to investigate whether salivary chromogranin A (CgA) concentration, known as a biom...

The Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) is a facial-expression-based pain coding system that enables a range of acute painful conditions in horses to be effectively identified. Using valid assessment methods to identify pain in horses is of a clear importance; however, the reliability of the assessment is highly dependent on the assessors’ ability to use it....

Pig cryptorchidism is a congenital anomaly, which requires surgical intervention. Pain assessment in pig farming has some limitations and consumers are increasingly concerned about suffering linked to on-farm procedures. The PGS seems to be a promising tool for pain assessment in piglets, although it has not been investigated whether this tool is a...

Effective management of pain is critical to the improvement of animal welfare. For this to happen, pain must be recognised and assessed in a variety of contexts. Pain is a complex phenomenon, making reliable, valid, and feasible measurement challenging. The use of facial expressions as a technique to assess pain in non-verbal human patients has bee...

Effective management of pain is critical to the improvement of animal welfare. For this to happen, pain must be recognised and assessed in a variety of contexts. Pain is a complex phenomenon, making reliable, valid, and feasible measurement challenging. The use of facial expressions as a technique to assess pain in non-verbal human patients has bee...

Welfare of animals significantly depends on how stakeholders perceive their needs and behave in a way to favor production systems that promote better welfare outcomes. This study aimed at investigating stakeholders’ perception of the welfare of equines, small ruminants, and turkeys using text mining analysis. A survey composed by open-ended questio...

The organization of the motor cortex of the sheep is a gateway to understand quadrupedal locomotion, and a possible point of reference for comparison with other terrestrial Cetartiodactyla and hoofed mammals in general. The cortical structure, its laminar subdivision and projections, received scarce attention in the past. Since recent data using mo...

Anticipatory behaviour to an oncoming food reward can be triggered via classical conditioning, implies the activation of neural networks, and may serve to study the emotional state of animals. The aim of this study was to investigate how the anticipatory response to a food reward affects the cerebral cortex activity in sheep. Eight ewes from the sa...

Donkey milk is a valuable product for babies suffering from multiple-allergies and cosmetic production; therefore, new dairy donkey farms are opening around Europe. Little information is available for farmers on sustainable production of donkey milk, including animal welfare, milk production, and processing. Targeted dissemination of information on...

Simple Summary The ability to non-invasively measure fear is an essential component of animal welfare assessment. Infrared thermography (IRT) was used to obtain images from five Sarda breed ewes during restraint and immediately after two voluntary animal approach (VAA) tests. Our preliminary results suggest that IRT, combined with behavioral data,...

Pain recognition is fundamental for safeguarding animal welfare. Facial expressions have been investigated in several species and grimace scales have been developed as pain assessment tool in many species including horses (HGS) and mice (MGS). This study is intended to progress the validation of grimace scales, by proposing a statistical approach t...

Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) dataset. (TXT)

Mouse Grimace Scale (MGS) dataset. (TXT)

This study aimed to apply qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) to horses farmed in single boxes, in order to investigate their emotional state and explore its association with indicators of human-animal relationship. A fixed list of 13 QBA descriptive terms was determined. Three assessors experienced with horses and skilled in measuring animal be...

This Research Paper aimed to investigate donkey welfare in dairy husbandry systems and to identify the potential factors affecting it at animal level. In 2015, twelve dairy donkey farms (19–170 donkeys per farm, mean = 55 ± 48), distributed throughout Italy, were visited. On each farm, the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment protoco...

Conflict of interest statement Within an international collaboration for a MSc research project, 8 working horses belonging to 7 different Uruguayan owners were evaluated using the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment protocol for horses. The individual assessment included body condition score (BCS), ocular/nasal discharge, skin lesi...

Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as promising biomarkers for several disorders and related pain. In equine practice, acute laminitis is a common disease characterised by intense pain that severely compromises horse welfare. Recently, the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS), a facial expression-based pain coding system, was shown to be a valid welf...

The Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) is a facial-expression-based pain coding system that incorporates six Facial Action Units (FAUs), independently scored. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether HGS score changed in response to emotional states other than pain. Seven riding school horses were exposed to different experimental conditions tha...

Le bien-être des équidés occupe une place significative dans les préoccupations sociétales et il est nécessaire de disposer de protocoles d'évaluation fiables, simples et utilisables par un large public. La présente étude avait pour objectif de tester la fiabilité, la faisabilité et la reproductibilité du protocole AWIN Horse, au cours de deux phas...

Limited information is available about the actual management characteristics of dairy donkeys in Southern Europe. The aim of the present study is to describe animal management of dairy donkey farms in Italy. Twelve farmers were asked to answer a questionnaire on the management of their animals and their farms distributed over the Italian territory....

Donkey's milk is a valuable product for paediatric patients with allergy to cow milk proteins. As the donkey milk qualifies as a product intended primarily for consumers with special needs, it should be of good quality and therefore the donkeys must enjoy good health and welfare. To better understand how dairy donkeys' welfare is assured around Eur...

The Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) project promoted the development of protocols centred on animal-based indicators to assess welfare in goats, sheep, donkeys, horses and turkeys. An important feature of the project was the adoption of a simple and practical approach to the dissemination of scientific results to general public and stakeholders su...

The European Animal Welfare Indicators Project (AWIN) addressed the development, integration and dissemination of animal-based welfare indicators, with an emphasis on pain assessment and pain recognition. In this framework, AWIN researchers developed practical and science-based welfare assessment protocols for sheep, goats, horses, donkeys and turk...

The EU-funded Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) research project (2011-2015) aimed to improve animal welfare through the development of practical on-farm animal welfare assessment protocols. The present study describes the application of the AWIN approach to the development of a welfare assessment protocol for horses (Equus caballus). Its developmen...

Acute laminitis is a common equine disease characterized by intense foot pain, both acutely and chronically. The Obel grading system is the most widely accepted method for describing the severity of laminitis by equine practitioners, however this method requires movement (walk and trot) of the horse, causing further intense pain. The recently devel...

A truthful snapshot of horse welfare conditions is a prerequisite for predicting the impact of any actions intended to improve the quality of life of horses. This can be achieved when welfare information, gathered by different assessors in diverse geographical areas, is valid, comparable and collected in a harmonized way. This paper aims to present...

Simple This paper aims to present the first outcomes of data collected using the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for donkeys in 20 EU donkey facilities. Three assessors evaluated 278 donkeys. The authors found recurrent issues: tendency to obesity, lack of hoof care and irregular positive interactions with humans. The protocol proved to be applic...

Consequences of a long stay in dog shelter have particular significance, because, since 1991, the Italian law (14/08/1991, n.281) prohibits euthanasia of dogs unless “they are seriously ill, incurable or proven dangerous”. Caught dogs are recovered for a quarantine period in the sanitary kennel, if they are not returned to the owner, they are moved...

The adaptability of horses and donkeys to different types of activity has seen the European equine industry become an important economic sector, giving rise to increasing concern regarding equine welfare. As part of the AWIN (Animal Welfare Indicators) project, this review focuses on scientific literature to find potential animal-based welfare indi...

The assessment of pain is critical for the welfare of horses, in particular when pain is induced by common management procedures such as castration. Existing pain assessment methods have several limitations, which reduce the applicability in everyday life. Assessment of facial expression changes, as a novel means of pain scoring, may offer numerous...

Introduction: If the interaction between pet owners and cats is not managed properly some behavioral problems might arise, for example aggression and house soiling. Gonadectomy is often recommended as a solution for these undesired behaviours. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of gonadectomy on feline behaviour. Materials and met...