Heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic regulation of cardiac activity for assessing stress and welfare in farm animals — A review

Borell, Eberhard von; Langbein, Jan; Desprès, Gérard; Hansen, Sven; Leterrier, Christine; Marchant‐Forde, Jeremy N.; Marchant-Forde, R. M.; Minero, Michela; Möhr, E.; Prunier, Armelle; Valance, Dorothée; Veissier, Isabelle

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.01.007

Cited by 730 publications

(826 citation statements)

References 173 publications

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“…At rest, there is a negative correlation between HR and HRV (Von Borell et al, 2007), which was confirmed in the current study. Parker et al (2009) showed that the reliability of HRV data was good in stationary horses, but much less reliable when horses moved.…”

Section: Horsessupporting

confidence: 90%

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Physiological and behavioral responses of horses during police training

Munsters

Visser

Broek

et al. 2013

Animal

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Mounted police horses have to cope with challenging, unpredictable situations when on duty and it is essential to gain insight into how these horses handle stress to warrant their welfare. The aim of the study was to evaluate physiological and behavioral responses of 12 (six experienced and six inexperienced) police horses during police training. Horses were evaluated during four test settings at three time points over a 7-week period: outdoor track test, street track test, indoor arena test and smoke machine test. Heart rate (HR; beats/min), HR variability (HRV; root means square of successive differences; ms), behavior score (BS; scores 0 to 5) and standard police performance score (PPS; scores 1 to 0) were obtained per test. All data were statistically evaluated using a linear mixed model (Akaike's Information criterium; t . 2.00) or logistic regression (P , 0.05). HR of horses was increased at indoor arena test (98 6 26) and smoke machine test (107 6 25) compared with outdoor track (80 6 12, t 5 2.83 and t 5 3.91, respectively) and street track tests (81 6 14, t 5 2.48 and t 5 3.52, respectively). HRV of horses at the indoor arena test (42.4 6 50.2) was significantly lower compared with street track test (85.7 6 94.3 and t 5 2.78). BS did not show significant differences between tests and HR of horses was not always correlated with the observed moderate behavioral responses. HR, HRV, PPS and BS did not differ between repetition of tests and there were no significant differences in any of the four tests between experienced and inexperienced horses. No habituation occurred during the test weeks, and experience as a police horse does not seem to be a key factor in how these horses handle stress. All horses showed only modest behavioral responses, and HR may provide complimentary information for individual evaluation and welfare assessment of these horses. Overall, little evidence of stress was observed during these police training tests. As three of these tests (excluding the indoor arena test) reflect normal police work, it is suggested that this kind of police work is not significantly stressful for horses and will have no negative impact on the horse's welfare.

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Section: Horsessupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In a study of the way horses cope with challenging circumstances, HR and HRV proved to be the most helpful indices (Von Borell et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological and behavioral responses of horses during police training

Munsters

Visser

Broek

et al. 2013

Animal

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“…Previous studies highlighted either HR (Von Borell et al, 2007;Bitschnau et al, 2010) or eye temperature (Hall et al, 2011;McGreevy et al, 2012;Valera et al, 2012) as good indicators of stress in horses. Specifically, IRT has been used to assess acute stress in the elk during velvet antler removal (Cook et al, 2006) and in calves during disbudding (Stewart et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies have described different factors that could affect horse performance during show jumping competitions (Clayton and Barlow, 1989;Bartolomé et al, 2008). When the influence of any of these factors (or a combination of them) induces activation of the sympatho-adrenal (ANS) medullary system, the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and/or an emotional reaction, they induce a stress response (Dantzer and Mormède, 1983;McMillan, 2005;Von Borell et al, 2007) and thus they can be termed as stressors (Minton, 1994). Hence, stress may be defined as the homeostatic, physiological and behavioural responses detectable in an animal as a result of interactions with environmental stressors (Stephens, 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of the most remarkable non-invasive ways of measuring how the HPA axis works in horses are HR, HR variability, salivary cortisol, cortisol in faeces or urine cortisol (von Borell et al, 2007;Schmidt et al, 2010;Peeters et al, 2011) and most recently, eye temperature (ET) measured with infrared thermography (IRT) technology (Cook et al, 2001;Hall et al, 2011;McGreevy et al, 2012). ET has been shown to be a more consistent measure of temperature changes in response to stress than other anatomical areas such as the nose (Nakayama et al, 2005), ear (Ludwig et al, 2007), head (McGreevy et al, 2012) or body surfaces (McCafferty, 2007) and it has been also used for detection of inflammatory processes in extremities in horses (Eddy et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using eye temperature and heart rate for stress assessment in young horses competing in jumping competitions and its possible influence on sport performance

Bartolomé

Sánchez

Molina

et al. 2013

Animal

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The aims of this study were, first, to evaluate eye temperature (ET) with infrared thermography and heart rate (HR) to measure stress in horses during show jumping competitions and their relationship with competition results, and second, to evaluate the influence of different extrinsic and intrinsic factors of the horse on the stress measurements analysed. One hundred and seventy-three Spanish Sport Horses were analysed for ET and HR, and these measurements were taken 3 h before the competition, just after and 3 h after it. Two interval measurements were also assessed for each parameter. Positive significant correlations were found between ET and HR, measured before (r = 0.23), just after competition (r = 0.28) and for the later interval (r = 0.26), whereas negative correlations with competition results were found only for ET when measured just after competing (r =− 0.25). Two intrinsic factors (genetic line and age) and no extrinsic factors showed significant differences for ET, whereas one intrinsic factor (age) and two extrinsic factors (journey duration and number of training hours) showed significant differences for HR. The marginal means showed significantly higher ET values for the Anglo-Arab genetic line and for 5-year-old animals. HR values were significantly higher for 4-year-old animals, for horses which had travelled 4 to 6 h and for horses that had 3 to 6 h of daily training. This study suggests that, although ET and HR seemed to share a similar physiological basis, the factors that most influenced each parameter were different. Finally, ET seems to be a suitable tool for assessing stress during show jumping competitions in horses.

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Brief introduction to welfare assessment: a ‘toolbox’ of techniques

Lofgren

2024

The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals

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Heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic regulation of cardiac activity for assessing stress and welfare in farm animals — A review

Cited by 730 publications

References 173 publications

Physiological and behavioral responses of horses during police training

Physiological and behavioral responses of horses during police training

Using eye temperature and heart rate for stress assessment in young horses competing in jumping competitions and its possible influence on sport performance

Brief introduction to welfare assessment: a ‘toolbox’ of techniques

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