Infrared Thermography as a Tool for Assessing Animal Welfare and Its Usefulness in Veterinary Research

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, entitled “Infrared Thermography as a Tool for Assessing Animal Welfare and its Usefulness in Veterinary Research”, was conceived to gather and publish leading research papers on advances in infrared thermography (IRT), thermal imaging processes, and related methods that foment the use of thermal images to evaluate modifications of temperature in domestic or wild animals (poikilothermic and homeothermic populations) as they deal with such environmental challenges such as cold, heat, pain, fear, hunger, anxiety, and boredom, natural processes such as illness, growth, aging, weight gain or loss, exercise, courtship, mating, agonistic behavior, suckling, imprinting, stages of physiological development (estrus, pregnancy, parturition, lactation, etc.), and other factors can that modify or interfere with thermal equilibrium.

IRT systems have proven useful in assessing the thermal status of animals by measuring the radiation emitted from a body that is subjected to changes in superficial microcirculation, which can increase or decrease these emissions. In addition, the IRT technique has the potential to be an effective screening method for clinical research to detect local inflammatory processes, wounds, neoplasms, pain, emotions and neuropathies. Indeed, in animal science and veterinary medicine, thermography has several benefits for animals in terms of evaluating lesions, diseases, and surgical procedures. Applications in veterinary medical science focus on its use as a general diagnostic tool in areas such as oncology, orthopedics, reconstructive surgeries, and rehabilitation. Furthermore, this can be utilized effectively to assess the impact of climate change, heat stress, physiological and behavioral responses associated with external and internal factors, and their interactions in many kinds of animals: farm, companion, laboratory, and wild.

I invite and encourage researchers in these fields to submit original or review manuscripts that address one or more of these diverse topics in these key fields of research. Suggestions include, but are not limited to:

• Diagnostic use of infrared thermography in animals that are experiencing pain;
• The advantages of IRT for the assessment of the thermal status of zoo animals;
• The role of IRT in studies of wild or domestic animals (poikilotherms and homeotherms);
• Climate change and its varied impacts on farm and wild animals;
• Importance and advantages of using IRT to evaluate adaptive behavioral and physiological responses of animals during transport, mating, pregnancy, parturition, lactation, weaning, growth and development, and death (including stunning and euthanasia);
• Clinical Importance of IRT for assessing the health status of wild animals under human care;
• IRT as a method for clinical research to detect local inflammatory processes;
• Evaluation of IRT as a non-invasive method for measuring autonomic nervous responses;
• Potential applications of IRT in the human–animal relationship (HAR);
• Insights into the use of IRT with birds and mammals;
• Applications of IRT in veterinary medical science;
• Latest news on the use of thermography in sport science and veterinary medicine;
• Effects of heat stress on animal reproduction;
• Infrared thermal imaging and the emotions and behaviors of animals;
• Clinical usefulness of infrared thermography to detect sick animals;
• Applications of IRT in poikilothermic populations;
• Heat stress in homeothermic populations;
• IRT as a tool for assessing animal health and welfare;
• Importance of IRT for identifying reproductive disorders;
• IRT in relation to heat loss or gain in hot and cold environments;
• Efficacy and function of feathers, hair, fur, coats, and skin in thermoregulation strategies;
• Usefulness of IRT to assess behavioral and physiological mechanisms of thermoregulation in nonhuman mammals (central and peripheral vasomotor control);
• Neurophysiological mechanisms of vasomotor responses and thermogenesis;
• Advances in the use of IRT within relation to farm animal production (milk, meat, eggs);
• IRT and the assessment of the health and thermostability of laboratory animals;
• Recent advances in thermal imaging technology in animal science.

Please receive my best wishes. I look forward to receiving your proposals.

Dr. Daniel Mota-Rojas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• IRT imaging technology
• infrared imaging
• thermal imaging
• pain assessment
• climate change
• zoo animals
• inflammatory processes
• heat stress and thermoregulation
• surgery, anesthesiology
• emotional responses
• behavioral thermoregulation
• immunosuppression
• neoplasia
• neuropathies
• infectious neonatal diseases
• thermoregulatory capacity
• behavioral and physiological responses
• reproductive disorders
• diagnosing disease
• burn patients
• estrus identification
• diagnosing pregnancy