• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.91-99
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• 2009

The concept about zoo is changing from the animal exhibition which simply contained the animals to the ecological zoo which has the function of preserving the animal species. At the central point of maintaining such role, the basic principle called the animal welfare lies obviously. Korea has applied the animal welfare principles such as carrying out the enrichment in the zoos since 2003, but there has not been any institutional device to evaluate and examine the application of the animal welfare so far. This study aims to confirm the level of animal welfare in Korea and suggest a developmental direction. For the purpose of the study, 12 zoos in Korea were evaluated according to 68 evaluating categories. 'Five Principles of Animal Welfare' in the Secretary of State's Standards of Modern Zoo Practice were selected and carried out as the evaluation categories, and the result, from the highest to lowest score given, was 'provision of food and water', 'provision of protection from fear and distress', 'provision of health care', 'provision of an opportunity to express most normal behaviours', and 'provision of a suitable enrichment' with the overall score of the entire Korean zoos being 2.86 (${\pm}$ 0.56). It was also confirmed that in order to improve the animal welfare of the Korean zoos, the animal management system must be standardized and organized. The evaluation and feedback, the active practice of animal welfare and its legislative support should be provided to establish an effective institutional device as well.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1499-1506
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• 2012

Animal welfare has become a growing concern affecting acceptability of agricultural systems in many countries around the world. An earlier Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible (1982) that dominion over animals meant that any degree of exploitation was acceptable has changed for most people to mean that each person has responsibility for animal welfare. This view was evident in some ancient Greek writings and has parallels in Islamic teaching. A minority view of Christians, which is a widespread view of Jains, Buddhists and many Hindus, is that animals should not be used by humans as food or for other purposes. The commonest philosophical positions now, concerning how animals should be treated, are a blend of deontological and utilitarian approaches. Most people think that extremes of poor welfare in animals are unacceptable and that those who keep animals should strive for good welfare. Hence animal welfare science, which allows the evaluation of welfare, has developed rapidly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.145-150
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate farmers' field survey to improve animal welfare certification standards and to obtain basic data on the animal welfare level for certified farmers to develop evaluation methods of animal welfare level suitable for domestic farm environment. The subjects of the study were selected 10 animal welfare laying certified farmhouses. The farming certified farming facility survey collected breeding form, head, feed and drink space, breeding density, length and shape of perch. Animal welfare was assessed by the presence of sand bath, spawning, enrichment measures, free range, feathers pecking. The results of the study showed that most the certified animal welfare laying hens complied with the certification standards. All the farms were providing the nest box, but there were farms with more than 20% of the spawning rate. The perches were provided in sufficient length, but only three of ten farms were using rounded perches. Feather damage has been identified in most survey farms, which is likely to be due to feather damage caused by roosters producing both fertilized eggs. In this study, 10 farm households were surveyed. It was not possible to represent the whole certified farmhouse. Therefore, it should be analyzed thoroughly to evaluate the level of animal welfare.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1817-1826
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• 2022

Public concern on the methods of raising food-producing animals has increased, especially in the last two decades, leading to voluntary and mandated changes in the animal production methods. The primary objective of these changes is to improve the welfare of farm animals. The use of gestational stalls is currently a major welfare issue in swine production. Several studies assessed the welfare of alternative housing systems for gestating sows. A comparative study was performed with gestating sows housed in either individual stalls or in groups in a pen with an electronic sow feeder. This review assessed the welfare of each housing system using physiological, behavioral, and reproductive performance criteria. The current review identified clear advantages and disadvantages of each housing system. Individual stall housing allowed each sow to be given an individually tailored diet without competition, but the sows had behavioral restrictions and showed stereotypical behaviors (e.g., bar biting, nosing, palate grinding, etc.). Group-housed sows had increased opportunities to display such behavior (e.g., ability to move around and social interactions); however, a higher prevalence of aggressive behavior, especially first mixing in static group type, caused a negative impact on longevity (more body lesions, scratch and bite injuries, and lameness, especially in subordinate sows). Conclusively, a more segmented and diversified welfare assessment could be beneficial for a precise evaluation of each housing system for sows. Further efforts should be made to reduce aggression-driven injuries and design housing systems (feeding regimen, floor, bedding, etc.) to improve the welfare of group-housed sows.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.219-228
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• 2018

This study was conducted twice to investigate egg purchase behavior and perception on animal welfare of Korean consumers. This study included women, who were the main decision makers and caretakers in the household, and men with one-person household. This survey was conducted with by the Computer Assisted Web Interview and Gang Survey methods. On the key considerations factor, the highest response rate was considered to be 'price', and the response rate of considering 'packing date' increased in the second survey. At a reasonable price based on 10 eggs, the response rate was the highest at 53.8% and 42.9% in both the first and second surveys and the appropriate price averages were 2,482 won and 2,132 won, respectively. The highest rate of purchase of egg consumers from 'Large Mart' followed by 'Medium sized supermarket' and 'Chain supermarket'. As for the awareness about animal welfare, the recognition ratio (73.5%) was higher in the result of the second survey than the first. The cognitive period of animal welfare was 59.0% before the insecticide egg crisis and 41.0% thereafter. Regarding whether or not they have ever seen an animal welfare certification mark and an animal welfare animal farm certification mark, 59.6% of respondents said that they saw it for the first time and 37.6% answered that they knew the animal welfare certification mark. On the animal welfare system, the 'free-range' response rate was the highest at 85.8%. The 'free-range' fit response decreased by 34.2%p, while the 'barn' and 'European type' fit response increased by 13.2%p and 24.1%p, respectively. The number of 'I have never seen' and 'I have ever eaten' responses to the recognition and eating experience of animal welfare certified eggs decreased while the number of those who answered 'Have ever seen' and 'Have eaten' increased. The answer of purchasing animal welfare certified eggs at department stores, organic farming cooperatives, and internet shopping malls was higher than that of buying conventional eggs. Of the total respondents, 92.0% were willing to purchase an animal welfare egg before the price was offered, but after offering the prices of animal welfare eggs, the intention to purchase was 62.7%, which was about 30%p lower than before. The reason for purchasing an animal welfare certified egg was the highest score of 71.0% for 'I think it is likely to be high in food safety', and 38.1% for 'I think the price is high' for lack of intention to purchase. In the sensory evaluation of animal welfare eggs, egg color and skin texture of conventional eggs were significantly higher than those of certified welfare eggs (P<0.05), and boiled eggs showed that egg whites of animal welfare certified eggs were more (P<0.05). As a result, the results of this study will contribute to the activation of the animal welfare certification system for laying hens by providing basic data on consumer awareness to animal welfare certified farmers.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.159-168
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• 2014

Pesticides have provided significant benefits including plant disease control and increased crop yields since people developed and utilized them. However, pesticide use is associated with many adverse effects, which necessitate precise toxicological tests and risk assessment. Most of these methods are based on animal studies, but considerations of animal welfare and ethics require the development of alternative methods for the evaluation of pesticide toxicity. Although the usage of laboratory animals is inevitable in scientific evaluation and alternative approaches have limitations in the whole coverage, continuous effort is necessary to minimize animal use and to develop reliable alternative tests for pesticide evaluation. This review discusses alternative approaches for pesticide toxicity tests and hazard evaluation that have been used in peer-reviewed reports and could be applied in future studies based on the critical animal research principles of reduction, replacement, and refinement.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.95-109
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• 2021

Consumer's interest in sustainable livestock farming methods has grown in response to concerns for the environment and animal welfare. The purpose of this study is to examine the different influences of sustainability product information on sensory characteristics and purchase behaviors. To accomplish this aim, the study used salami, which is an Italian-style sausage processed by fermentation and drying. Three different types of information were provided: salami made from the pork of an antibiotic-free pig (SMAFP), of an animal welfare pig (SMAWP), and of a grazing pig (SMGP). This study was conducted as an off-line experiment with Korean participants (n=140). As a result, there were sensory differences according to the sustainability information. For the SMAFP, it had a significant difference in, sourness (p<0.05). With the SMAWP, there was a difference in gumminess (p<0.10), and the SMGP had significant differences in sourness (p<0.01), sweetness (p<0.01), andmoisture (p<0.05). Moreover, the purchase intention and willingness to pay were significantly higher when the sustainability information was given. Especially, among the three types of salamis, participants were willing to pay the most for the SMAWP. This is one of the first consumer studies to investigate sensory evaluation and purchase behavior for various types of sustainable livestock production. These results contribute by helping sustainable meat producers and marketers become aware of the kind of sustainable information to which consumers are sensitive.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.366-370
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• 2019

Overweight and obesity induce serious health problems that exert negative effects on dog's welfare. Body condition score (BCS) is a common method to evaluate the body fat mass in animals. By palpating and observing fats under the skin it is possible to predict animal's body fat accumulation condition. BCS is also a useful tool to estimate body fat composition in dogs. However, BCS can be subjective when it was performed by non-professionals like pet's owners. To develop a method to avoid the misevaluation of BCS twenty-four Beagles were enrolled and performed BCS evaluation. In addition, the length of chest and abdominal girths were measured. In correlation analysis, the sizes of chest and abdominal girth were significantly correlated with BCS. Especially, the difference and ratio of the chest and abdominal length were highly correlated with the BCS. With that, we suggested that this simple measurement of chest and abdominal girths by a measuring tape would be an effective method to estimate BCS scores in dogs that helps non-professionals to manage their own dog's nutritional condition by monitoring body fat accumulation condition.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.1111-1123
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• 2023

This study aims to present a more systematic and developmental research direction by classifying animal-mediation related research trends published in Korea. We analyzed the research trends of 68 domestic animal-mediation programs published in 26 journals over the past 24 years under the premise of the necessity of animal-assisted therapy, which considered a very effective intervention method in the practice areas of various subjects. Therefore, this study examines the year of publication of animal-mediation related research conducted in various academic fields from 1998 to 2022, research data sources, characteristics of research subjects, types of interventions and research topics, research design and intervention sessions, intervention methods, and ethical consideration statements. The results of this study are as follows: First, in the source of research and research trends by year, the number of papers published in animal-related societies was the highest at 34 (50%); the number of studies has been steadily increasing since the mid-2000s. Second, regarding research trends by subject, 45 (66%) were general subjects, 23 (34%) were medically diagnosed, 60 (88%) were selected through pre-evaluation, and 8 (12%) were requested. Third, regarding research trends by method, 27 (40%) of the pretests were conducted before and after the experiment-control group, and only 3 (4%) of the 68 papers were examined later. Fourth, regarding research trends by content, depression (25%) was the most frequently applied variable, and regarding intervention sessions, 53 (78%) were less than 12 sessions. Fifth, regarding research trends and ethical consideration statements by treatment approach method, 58 cases (85%) of individual treatment approaches and 10 cases (15%) of intervention approaches integrated with individual treatment approaches, and 23 cases (34%) of studies with ethical consideration statements or the Institutional Review Board's (IRB) approval. Based on the study results, the implications and research directions of animal-assisted therapy related research are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.927-936
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• 2022

The effects of seasonal differences and crating densities on the preslaughter losses, breast meat quality, and physiological indices of broilers were determined. A total of 600 broilers aged 35 days were divided into 10 treatment groups based on five crating densities (10.3, 11.5, 12.8, 14.1, 15.4 birds·m^-2) with two seasons (i.e., summer and winter) to give six replicates and were placed at various locations in the truck. The birds were transported in crates having dimensions of 1.0 m × 0.78 m × 0.26 m. The transportation distance was 20 km for 40 minutes (average 30 - 50 km·h^-1) during the early morning. The results revealed that broilers transported at densities of 14.1 and 15.4 birds·m^-2 recorded lower (p < 0.05) pH, water-holding capacity (WHC), and muscle redness compared to those at densities of 11.5 birds·m^-2. Furthermore, higher (p < 0.05) cooking loss was found in birds stocked at more than 14.1 birds·m^-2 compared to the other treatments. However, no effect (p > 0.05) with different crating densities on body weight loss, carcass traits, glucose, lactate, or muscle yellowness was observed. Crating density of 14.1 birds·m^-2 showed lower (p < 0.05) cortisol contents compared with birds at 10.3 and 15.4 birds·m^-2. Winter transportation had higher (p < 0.05) relative breast meat weight, cooking loss, muscle redness, and cortisol contents whereas summer transportation had higher (p < 0.05) glucose and lactate contents in the blood plasma of broilers. In conclusion, the stocking of 12.8 birds·m^-2 is recommended to minimize stress responses and undesirable changes that could negatively affect muscle quality.