Assessing Animal Welfare – a guide to the valid use of indicators of affective states
Georgia Mason, Birte Nielsen, Michael Mendl
Published August 2026
Assessing Animal Welfare is a clear, practical guide on how to use validated indicators of affective states to assess the welfare of animals. The basis for this book is construct validity: how we can validate different indicators that are commonly used to assess animal welfare and apply this knowledge when using these indicators.
Written by leading experts in their respective fields, Assessing Animal Welfare presents:
- Five key approaches to assessing the construct validity of a welfare indicator: using humans as models; observing how indicators change in rewarding or punishing situations, or when in the presence of threats to/promoters of ancestral fitness; taking a pharmacological approach; and assessing co-variance with already validated indicators
- Indicators of emotion, focusing on preference/avoidance, vocal signals, acute corticosteroid responses, body temperature and heart rate, ideal for assessing short-term events like handling, transport, etc.
- Indicators of cumulative welfare focusing on abnormal repetitive behaviour, cellular aging, and hippocampal plasticity
- Indicators of mood, focusing on judgement biases, play, the hormone DHEA, and measures of reward responsiveness, ideal for assessing effects of long-term situations such as housing conditions
- How each valid indicator may sometimes yield false leads (suggesting affective states that are absent) or false null results (overlooking affective states that are present), and ways to avoid these pitfalls.
Assessing Animal Welfare serves as a clear and practical guide for animal welfare researchers, veterinarians, and students of animal welfare science, helping them evaluate and use the most accurate affective state indicators for a given situation.
Once published, the book can be ordered at Wiley. Please note that Science for Animal Welfare Members are entitled to a 40% discount of this publication until 30th November 2026.
From 1 December members are entitled to a 35% discount off all books in the Science for Animal Welfare/Wiley Blackwell book series and off virtually all other Wiley Blackwell books. If you are a member, please contact Science for Animal Welfare for the discount code.
