Welfare: All affective states (negative and positive) experienced over a period of interest.
Welfare Footprint Framework: a structured, transparent, and standardised approach for quantifying welfare over a period of interest using a universal and biologically meaningful metric: time spent in affective states of different intensities.
Welfare Footprint: A quantitative measurement of the impact that actions or processes across different sectors have on animal welfare. These sectors include, but are not limited to, industrial, commercial, agricultural, research, and natural processes.
Welfare Assessment (Guiding Principle): The guiding principle underlying the welfare assessments is a primary focus on the measurement of affective experiences. Aspects such as health, function and natural living are only important in this framework to the extent that they influence the subjective affective experiences of individuals. For example, subclinical health conditions, growth impairment or physical disabilities not associated with any type of unpleasantness (physical or psychological) in the short- or long-run are not considered relevant. Nor is the loss or deprivation of resources, or natural behaviors, that are not missed or valued by the animal (Dawkins, 2023). Affective experiences are taken as what matters to welfare.
Welfare indicators: discernable traits and signals that, based on evidence, are deemed to be correlated to a greater or lesser extent with an individual’s affective state. Indicators are often specific to a species or group of animals. They can include neurological, physiological, behavioral, environmental, pharmacological, immune and anatomical factors. Welfare indicators are typically characterized as resource-based, such as environmental factors like food and water availability, temperature, and space available, and animal-based, which include, among others, spontaneously occurring behaviors specific to pain, changes in activity, social interaction patterns, attention and cognitive performance, vocalizations, facial expressions, neuroendocrine hormones, and autonomic responses (see more here).
Welfare metrics: quantitative constructs used to evaluate and compare animal welfare across different situations or over time. They are informed by welfare indicators and are often combined to create composite scores or indices that provide a more comprehensive assessment of animal welfare. Unlike welfare indicators, welfare metrics should be as universal and comparable as possible. Welfare metrics can be used to assess animal welfare in the field, inform decisions, or track progress. Examples of welfare metrics include the Cumulative Pain, the welfare risk scores developed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and in semantic models such as COWEL and SOWEL. Metrics used in assessments of animal welfare at the farm level include the scoring system of the Welfare Quality Protocol, AWIN Protocol and Animal Needs Index (see more here).
This figure illustrates the animal welfare assessment process, from initial hazardous conditions through to the observable coping responses of organisms (e.g., behavioral and physiological indicators of pain). It categorizes indicators and links them to specific stages of the process leading to affective experiences. ‘Resource-based’ (upstream) indicators, represented by a tree symbol, correspond to four of the Five Domains. Numerous additional indicators are associated with different stages of the response process (with the mental state domain linked to the ‘Affective State (Pain)’ box). These indicators are essential for informing metrics and frameworks used in animal welfare assessments.
[Living Conditions Framework]: A hierarchical framework designed to organize and map information about the welfare conditions of sentient organisms into five distinct levels:
[Species]: The sentient species under examination or care.
[System] and [Production System]: The conditions in which the population of interest lives, encompassing everything from farming systems (e.g., intensive, semi-intensive, extensive), environments like zoos and sanctuaries, laboratory settings, natural habitats (wild animals) to socio-economic environments (in the case of humans).
[Life-Fate]: The roles or destinies of individuals within a species, characterized by the commonalities in critical life events and hazards they face (Alonso and Schuck-Paim 2017). For example, in a pig production system, different life-fates could include: (1) breeding females (sows): female pigs kept for reproductive purposes, (2) Market pigs: raised primarily for meat, (3) male breeders: male pigs kept for breeding purposes.
[Life-Phases]: The major life stages of a Life-Fate of interest, each presenting unique challenges and welfare implications. For example, in the case female breeding pigs, the following phases are present: (1) Suckling, (2) Postweaning, (3) Growth, (4) Pre-puberty, (5) Breeding Cycle: repetitive cycle involving conception, gestation, and farrowing, (6) Transportation, (7) Slaughter.
[Circumstance] : Covers both ‘external factors’—attributes of the environment like housing, climate, feeding practices, management—and ‘internal factors’ which include biological traits such as genetics, personality, and health. These factors collectively influence the backdrop against which an individual’s life unfolds, with negative influences termed ‘Hazards’ and positive influences termed ‘Resources’.
[Hazard]: Factors that detrimentally impact an animal’s well-being. These include conditions like inadequate shelter, extreme temperature, high stocking densities and insufficient food (external factors), as well as genetic conditions and immunosuppression (internal factors). Hazards typically emerge as an interaction between internal and external factors.
[Resource]: Factors that beneficially impact an animal’s well-being. These include conditions like adequate shelter, suitable climate, optimal feeding practices, and effective management (external factors), as well as favorable genetic traits, robust personality, and strong immune function (internal factors). Resources often emerge from a harmonious interaction between internal and external factors, contributing to the health, resilience, and overall welfare of the animal
[Conditions]: the immediate conditions resulting from an organism’s interaction with ‘Hazards’ or ‘Resources’ in its environment, serving as precursors to affective states.
[Biological Harm]: Detrimental physical effects on an organism that arise from adverse living conditions or internal imbalances, leading to negative affective states.
[Psychological Threat]: Perceived risks or potential for harm that can provoke negative psychological responses, such as fear, stress, or anxiety.
[Biological Benefit]: Favorable physical effects on an organism resulting from conducive living conditions or internal well-being, contributing to positive affective states.
[Psychological Treat]: Positive psychological opportunities or experiences provided by an organism’s environment or internal state, leading to feelings of satisfaction, contentment, or joy.
[Affective State]: The emotional states resulting from specific primary biological consequences. Affective experiences can be positive or negative.
Affective Harm: Direct negative affective experiences resulting from exposure to hazards. Affective harms are synonymous with ‘pain’, as broadly defined in the Cumulative Pain method (any negative affective experience). They reflect the actual impact of hazards on an animal’s well-being and are often identifiable by reliable welfare indicators and measurable through metrics like Cumulative Pain. Affective harms have been categorized into diseases, injuries, social/environmental/sensorial stressors, perceived threats, and deprivation of behaviors, space and physiological needs.
Pain (Operational Definition): Any felt negative affective state. States with a somatic origin are referred to as ‘physical pain’ (e.g. aches, hunger, injuries, thermal stress), while those related to the primary emotional systems are referred to as ‘psychological pain’ (e.g. fear, frustration, boredom).
Pain (Proposal for a New Definition): Pain is a conscious experience, evolved to elicit corrective behavior in response to actual or imminent damage to an organism’s survival and/or reproduction. It is affectively and cognitively processed as an adverse and dynamic sensation that can vary in intensity, duration, texture, spatial specificity, and anatomical location. Pain is characterized as ‘physical’ when primarily triggered by pain receptors and as ‘psychological’ when triggered by memory and primary emotional systems. Still, some manifestations, such as neuropathic pain, can be maladaptive. Depending on its intensity and duration, pain can override other adaptive instincts and motivational drives and lead to severe suffering.
Cumulative Pain: total burden of pain (measured in time spent in negative affective states of different intensities) that an organism (or population) experiences over a specific period or as a consequence of exposure to a ‘Hazard’.
Pain-Track: A notation method for describing negative affective experiences based on their temporal evolution. It considers both the intensity and duration of pain for each phase of a pain episode, allowing for the integration of available scientific evidence .
Pain Intensity: Intensity, when referred to in relation to pain, denotes the subjective measure of unpleasantness or aversiveness experienced by an individual. This measure is not directly tied to the physical stimuli’s magnitude but rather to the personal, subjective experience of the pain’s severity or distress.
Annoying. Experiences of pain perceived as aversive, but not intense enough to disrupt routine in a way that alters adaptive functioning or affects the behaviors that individuals are motivated to perform. Similarly, Annoying pain should not deter individuals from enjoying pleasant experiences with no short-term function (e.g., play) and positive social interactions. Sufferers can ignore this sensation most of the time. Performance of cognitive tasks demanding attention are either not affected or only mildly affected. Physiological departures from expected baseline values are not expected to be present. Vocalizations and other overt expressions of pain should not be observed.
Hurtful. Experiences of pain in this category disrupt the ability of individuals to function optimally. Different from Annoying pain, the ability to draw attention away from the sensation of pain is reduced: awareness of pain is likely to be present most of the time, interspersed by brief periods during which pain can be ignored depending on the level of distraction provided by other activities. Individuals can still conduct routine activities that are important in the short-term (e.g. eating, foraging) and perform cognitively demanding tasks, but an impairment in their ability or motivation to do so is likely to be observed. Although individuals may still engage in behaviors they are strongly motivated to perform (i.e., exploratory, comfort, maintenance), their frequency or duration is likely to be reduced. Engagement in positive activities with no immediate benefits is not expected. Reduced alertness and inattention to ongoing stimuli may be present. The effect of (effective) drugs (e.g., analgesics if the pain is physical, psychotropic drugs in the case of psychological pain) in the alleviation of symptoms is expected.
Disabling. Pain at this level takes priority over most bids for behavioral execution and prevents most forms of enjoyment or positive welfare. Pain is continuously distressing. Individuals affected by harms in this category often change their activity levels drastically (the degree of disruption in the ability of an organism to function optimally should not be confused with the overt expression of pain behaviors, which is less likely in prey species). Inattention and unresponsiveness to milder forms of pain or other ongoing stimuli and surroundings is likely to be observed. Relief often requires higher drug dosages or more powerful drugs. The term Disabling refers to the disability caused by ‘pain’, not to any structural disability.
Excruciating. All conditions and events associated with extreme levels of pain that are not normally tolerated even if only for a few seconds. In humans, it would mark the threshold of pain under which many people choose to take their lives rather than endure the pain. This is the case, for example, of scalding and severe burning events. Behavioral patterns associated with experiences in this category may include loud screaming, involuntary shaking, extreme muscle tension, or extreme restlessness. Another criterion is the manifestation of behaviors that individuals would strongly refrain from displaying under normal circumstances, as they threaten body integrity (e.g. running into hazardous areas or exposing oneself to sources of danger, such as predators, as a result of pain or of attempts to alleviate it). The attribution of conditions to this level must therefore be done cautiously. Concealment of pain is not possible.
Pleasure (Proposal for a New Definition): Pleasure is a conscious experience, evolved to elicit or reinforce behaviors beneficial to an organism’s survival and/or reproduction. It is affectively and cognitively processed as a positive and dynamic sensation that can vary in intensity, duration, texture, spatial specificity, and anatomical location. Pleasure is characterized as ‘physical’ when primarily triggered by stimuli that are directly rewarding or enjoyable, and as ‘psychological’ when triggered by cognitive processes, memories, and emotional states. Depending on its intensity and duration, pleasure can override other adaptive instincts and motivational drives, leading to states of dependency and self-damage.
Cumulative Pleasure: total amoung of pleasure (measured in time spent in positive affective state of different intensities) that an organism (or population) experiences over a specific period or as a direct consequence of exposure to a ‘Resource’.
Pleasure-Track: a notation method for describing the positive affective experiences based on their temporal evolution. It considers both the intensity and duration of pleasure for each phase of a pleasure episode, allowing for the integration of available scientific evidence.
Satisfaction. Low-intensity positive states, where an individual shows subtle signs of comfort or satisfaction associated with a physical sensation or meeting a non-essential need. These might include comfortable bedding conditions, grooming or basking in the sun. Engagement is present but not overwhelming, allowing the individual to easily shift attention to other stimuli or activities as needed.
Joy. Positive states involving greater engagement in rewarding activities. Individuals may display enhanced vigor in play, stronger social bonding, or more or active engagement in highly preferred activities, such as foraging. Behaviors indicative of joy suggest a greater focus on these positive experiences, although they do not exclusively dominate the individual’s attention. The individual’s behavior is noticeably directed towards maintaining or enhancing the positive experience. Physiological indicators may include heightened autonomic responses (e.g., heart rate).
Euphoria. Experiences in this category are intense and the primary focus of attention. Everything else might seem secondary. Euphoria might be observed in immersive play, mating rituals, or the pursuit and enjoyment of highly favored resources, such as a successful hunt. In some situations, this intense state might lead to spontaneous expressions of pleasure, such as vocalizations.
Bliss. At the peak of positive experiences, bliss represents a profound level of pleasure that pervades the individual’s sensory and emotional experience. It’s a sensation that transcends the ordinary. When experiencing bliss, the sensation of pleasure is so overwhelming that it eclipses other immediate needs or environmental stimuli for the duration of the experience. The world outside fades away as the individual is consumed by this all-encompassing state. Examples could be orgasmic states, reuniting with socially significant partners that are long missing, or the encounter of extremely positive conditions after prolonged periods of stress and hardship. Blissful states are expected to be rare and of short duration.
Average Population Member. Although pain inherently concerns individuals, we operationally accept that the collective welfare of the members of a population can also be determined. Measurement at the population level is also necessary to account for the heterogeneity in the exposure of population members to different hazards. For example, while lameness is experienced by a large fraction of broiler chickens, fatal cases of ascites are only experienced by a few. Therefore, measurement efforts must consider the prevalence of each affective harm, so that pain is determined for the average member of the population (which may not necessarily correspond to any real organism). In the Cumulative Pain framework, the time spent at each level of pain intensity by the ‘average population member’ as a result of each harm is determined by multiplying it by its prevalence. For example, if a harm causes 10 hours of Disabling pain and 70% of the target population are affected, then the average member of this population could be said to experience 7 hours of Disabling pain due to this harm. Measurements at the population level enable comparing the impact of different practices and conditions across demographics, geographies, and time.
Target Population: A population considered in a risk assessment, where a population is a group of animals defined by a set of common characteristics (EFSA, 2012).
[Freedom Evaluation Questions]: specific questions designed to evaluate aspects of the conditions in which organisms live that impact its welfare. These questions are structured around the Five Freedoms [6] framework and address various circumstances, such as environmental conditions, social needs, and health care.
[Specific Freedom]: One component of the Five Freedoms framework for animal welfare [6], which includes freedom from hunger and thirst; discomfort; pain, injury, or disease; to express normal behavior; and from fear and distress. Each freedom addresses one fundamental aspect of animal well-being.
[Life Interval of Interest, in days]: The number of days under consideration for a specific analysis. This can either encompass the entire lifespan of an organism or a designated period of interest, such as a specific life-phase. This interval is set based on the study’s scope or the data’s availability.
[Total Hours in Pain in Life Interval of Interest]: The cumulative number of hours an organism spends in pain during the ‘Focused Life Interval’. This is calculated by multiplying the days during which a condition persists within the focused interval by the number of hours of pain experienced on each of those days.
[Days that the Condition Lasts in Life Interval of Interest]: The total number of days within the ‘Focused Life Interval’ during which the organism experiences a specific condition that causes pain.
[Hours in Pain within Days with the Condition]: The average number of hours per day an organism experiences pain when the condition is active. This measure accounts for the variability in the duration of pain across different days.
[Proportion of Life Interval of Interest in Pain]: The fraction of the ‘Focused Life Interval’ during which the organism is in pain, expressed as a percentage. This is calculated by dividing the ‘Total Hours in Pain in Focused Life Interval’ by the total hours in the entire ‘Focused Life Interval’ (which is the product of the number of days in the interval and 24 hours per day).
