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ABSTRACT. The concept of natural behavior is a key element in current Dutch policy-making on animal welfare. It emphasizes that animals need positive experiences, in addition to minimized suffering. This paper interprets the concept of natural behavior in the context of the scientific framework for welfare assessment. Natural behavior may be defined as behavior that animals have a tendency to exhibit under natural conditions, because these behaviors are pleasurable and promote biological functioning. Animal welfare is the quality of life as perceived by the animal. Animals have evolved cognitive-emotional systems (''welfare needs'') to deal with a variable environment. Animals do not only have so-called physiological needs such as the need for food, water, and thermal comfort. They also need to exercise certain natural behaviors such as rooting or nest-building in pigs, and scratching or dust-bathing in poultry. All needs must be taken into account in order to assess overall welfare. The degree of need satisfaction and frustration can be assessed from scientific information about the intensity, duration, and incidence of (welfare) performance criteria such as measurements of behavior and/or (patho)physiology. Positive welfare value relates to how animals are inclined to behave under natural conditions, in preference tests, and in consumer-demand studies. Negative welfare value relates to stress, frustration, abnormal behavior, aggression, and reduced fitness. Examples are given to illustrate how the need to perform natural behaviors can be assessed following the general principles for welfare assessment, providing a first approximation of how different natural behaviors affect animal welfare.

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A comparative study was performed to evaluate the differences in behavioral and physiological stress responses during milking between cows that were milked by an automated milking system (AM-cows) and cows that were milked in a conventional tandem parlor (TM-cows). In a randomized design, 36 primiparous Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were observed and blood sampled (1-min intervals) individually during milking. AM-cows spent less time standing with their heads outside the feeding trough than TM-cows and had a lower heart rate. In addition, AM-cows had lower maximum plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations during milking. No differences were found in the number of steps. After tactile stimulation of the teats either by hand or by the cleaning brush, mean oxytocin concentrations did not differ. In AM-cows, however, elevated oxytocin levels were prolonged at the end of milking. Averaged over the first five blood samples, AM-cows tended to have higher plasma cortisol concentrations than TM-cows, but median fecal concentrations of the cortisol metabolite dioxoandrostane were comparable. Maximum quarter milk flow, maximum udder milk flow and residual milk as a percentage of the total milk volume was comparable. From this study it is concluded that behavioral and physiological responses, both in automatically and in conventionally milked cows, were relatively low and were typical for cows being milked. We therefore conclude that, as far as the welfare of the dairy cow during milking is concerned, automatic milking and conventional milking are equally acceptable.

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