Developing a Methodology to Assess Positive Animal Welfare Using Behaviour-analytic and Ethological Approaches

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The purpose of this call for tenders is to identify a tenderer in order to combine expertise in the field of animal welfare science (ethology, animal sciences) and behaviour analysis (experimental and applied behaviour analysis, behavioural pharmacology) to develop a scientifically robust methodology to assess animals’ preferences and choice (‘asking the animal’), assess the reinforcing properties of these preferences, and use the animal’s viewpoint expressed by those choices to develop indicators for positive animal welfare on farm. A second objective is to recommend a methodology to assess the effect of feed additives on animal welfare, for example applying experimental protocols applied in behavioural pharmacology to the effect of substances (drugs or dietary) on behaviour.