June 20, 2024

A new paper by our Physiology Researcher, Michaël Beaulieu, was published this month in BioEssays. It explores how markers of oxidative stress — an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants — can be used to assess the welfare of wild animals exposed to unpleasant conditions like predation, isolation, and noise. Because they’re present in all sentient animals and are directly connected to the nervous system, markers of oxidative stress are great candidates for welfare indicators. But a literature review shows that researchers have so far made little use of them. By applying an objective validation procedure to some of these markers based on the available scientific literature, Michaël’s paper paves the way for researchers to use these markers to answer new questions about wild animal welfare. As you’ll read in the paper, the consistent variation of some of these markers across unpleasant conditions suggests that they might be valid indicators of poor welfare.

This new paper is a pioneering example of how physiological and behavioral markers can be validated using existing research, rather than conducting new empirical studies. Using this approach, researchers can advance knowledge about animal welfare without having to subject any animals to potentially distressing experiments — a win-win for all animals.

You can read the full paper here, or you can read a summary of it in our library.