Implementing the Five Domains Model for Improving Animal Welfare State

Dear Colleagues,

As the thinking in animal welfare science has progressed, new conceptual animal welfare frameworks have been proposed. The Five Domains Model is one such framework, which has evolved since 1994 (see Mellor, 2016a, b; 2017, 2019; Mellor and Reid, 1994; Mellor et al., 2020). It has been gaining traction with livestock industries (Cargill, 2022; Fairlife, 2022; Tyson, 2021) as a potentially more robust framework for assessing animal welfare state.

Historically, determining animal welfare state has been based on physiological functioning, production performance, and economics. Yet, consumers tend to be more concerned about how an individual animal is coping and feeling (Alonso et al., 2020).

The Five Domains Model is broken into physical and functional states, that includes Domain 1: Nutrition; Domain 2: Physical Environment; Domain 3: Health; Domain 4: Behavioral Interaction; and Domain 5: Mental State. The model helps us to organize objective and measurable indicators (i.e., animal behavior, physiology, performance, neuroscience, and pathophysiology) from Domains 1 through 4. Next, the model considers how the animal’s nervous system interprets these measures and relays it into generating both posititve and negative mental experiences.

We acknowledge that mental experiences for both human and non-human animals are subjective, which means that we cannot measure or observe them directly. However, the Five Domains Model allows us, with caution and evidence, to infer and justify what these individual mental experiences are.

This Special Issue will use the Five Domains Model and apply this to managed non-human species (defined as livestock, companion, zoological, and laboratory) to increase agency, enhance postitve mental state and improve overall welfare state. The overall aim is to provide depth and breadth so key persons could consider using the Five Domains Model in future educational, assessment and third-party audit programs. Papers can either be original research or review papers.

Dr. Essam M. Abdelfattah
Dr. Nichole C. Anderson
Prof. Anna K. Johnson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• affective state
• animal welfare/well-being
• five domain model
• welfare assessment
• physical and functional states
• mental state