Human-animal interactions in livestock production

Research in a number of livestock industries has shown that interactions between stockpeople and their animals can limit the productivity and welfare of these animals. While many of these interactions are routinely and, at times, habitually used by stockpeople, the frequent use of some of these routine behaviours can result in farm animals becoming highly fearful of humans. It is these high fear levels, through stress, that appear to limit animal productivity and welfare. This research has also shown that an important antecedent of stockperson behaviour is the attitude of the stockperson towards interacting with his or her farm animals. Intervention studies in the dairy and pig industries have shown the potential of cognitive-behavioural intervention techniques designed to specifically target those attitudes and behaviours of stockpeople that have a direct effect on animal fear, welfare and productivity. It is recommended that such cognitive-behavioural training programs for stockpeople are introduced in the livestock industries. Selection tools targeting the important human characteristics that affect work performance may also be valuable not only to select stockpeople but also to identify experienced and inexperienced stockpeople that require training. More extensive research is also required to identify the full range of stockperson interactions that have implication for farm animals. In addition to identifying the aversive elements of handling, the rewarding elements of human-animal interactions for animals should be identified and the opportunities to utilise these rewarding elements to alleviate some of the aversive interactions, that are at times necessary in livestock production, should be explored. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.