Research
The focus of our research work is animal welfare. In order to achieve the goal of improving animal welfare, we make use of interdisciplinary approaches and deal on the one hand with methods of recording animal welfare and the influence of husbandry, environment, and humans on animal welfare, and on the other hand with possibilities of breeding livestock in order to better adapt them to the intended conditions of use and thus improve their welfare in the long term. Methodologically, we use classical indicators of stress and behavioural physiology as well as test procedures borrowed from psychology, such as tests for cognitive bias and learning and motivation studies. In addition, we also deal with other current topics such as the interaction between animal husbandry and climate change, environmental protection and resource efficiency.
Specifically, we are currently working on the following topics:
- Further development of methods to assess animal welfare (stress physiology and behavioral physiology such as motivation tests, tests for perceptual bias, digital methods and methods of AI).
- Development of animal-friendly husbandry practices of dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, poultry, rabbits, small ruminants, and horses
- Studies of the impact of husbandry and management practices on animal health and welfare
- Animal-technology interactions
- Development of new animal health and welfare traits and indicators and phenotyping to test suitability for breeding management of these traits
- Behavioural genetics and studies to assess temperament and other personality traits in livestock and especially horses
- Learning behaviour and influence of animal-human interaction on animal welfare