AVA Conference Adelaide 2016

Repetitive behaviours are often related to stress and are potential indicators of poor welfare. Repetitive behaviours include pacing, over-grooming, self-mutilation and fly-biting, among many others. Repetitive behaviours may be caused by a variety of medical conditions and therefore a complete medical check-out must be the first step in the diagnosis. Very often, however, repetitive behaviours are shown by apparently healthy animals and appear to be caused by a sub-optimal environment. Chronic stress, inability to perform highly motivated behaviours and repeated conflict situations can result in animals developing repetitive behaviours. Some individual animals seem to be more predisposed to develop repetitive behaviours when the environment is inadequate and such predisposition results from a combination of genetic factors and early experience. Once initiated, repetitive behaviours may be perpetuated through several mechanisms, including learning. Treatment of repetitive behaviours should include changes in the environment, advising the owner not to reinforce the behaviour and, in some cases, pharmacological treatment. Pharmacological treatment is based on the fact that in some cases repetitive behaviours are associated to changes in serotonin and / or dopamine activity in the brain