Devising & Applying A Welfare Protocol Flashcards
Define welfare assessments
A standardised protocol for describing the welfare of an animal or population of animals
What types of measures do welfare assessments use?
Resource based Animal based Quantitative Qualitative Objective Subjective
What are the 6 purposes of welfare assessments?
1) To be able to assess and monitor welfare in a standardised and appropriate way
2) Regular checks to determine any changes the welfare indicators of the individual or the population show
3) Veterinary examination
4) Assurance schemes
5) Scientific investigation
6) Legal requirements
What are the 3 main components of a welfare assessment?
1) Relevant set of welfare indicators
2) A procedure for measuring the indicators
3) They need a procedure for using the welfare assessments findings to make decisions about the welfare state of the animal
True or false
Some assessments will be tailored to individual animals, while other assessments will be tailored to animal populations
True
What 6 characteristics does a welfare assessment have?
1) They were all made by an author and/or an organisation
2) They should have an aim and/or purpose
3) They should also have aspects of welfare to capture
4) Welfare assessments also need practical considerations
5) Each welfare assessment needs a specific data collection procedure
6) Each welfare assessment needs a way to develop a final outcome
How do you apply a welfare assessment to a population of animals?
You look at a proportion of the population
That proportion of the population will then be used as a representative sample of the entire population to make a generalised assessment of the entire populations welfare state
What 3 things does welfare selection depend on?
1) Species
2) Context of the assessment
3) Time-frame
What’s the first thing you should do when selecting a welfare assessment?
First you need to determine what the welfare assessments aim is
This determines which aspects of welfare you’ll want to look at
True or false
You can do a broad brush overview of all the welfare states of the animal population
True
True or false
You can also look at welfare in a specific way to address a particular issue
True
True or false
No single indicator is perfect
True
True or false
Together the welfare indicators should create an overall profile of an animals (or group of animals) welfare based on the assessments aim
True
What kind of welfare indicators are needed for acute welfare states?
For acute welfare states you need a welfare indicator that is:
Highly responsive
Short-lived
What kind of welfare indicators are needed for chronic welfare states?
For chronic welfare states you need a welfare indicator that is:
Robust
Long-lasting
If you want to use a cross-sectional study for a snapshot of welfare you’ll need to compare your results with what?
A reference
If you want to use a cross-sectional study for a snapshot of welfare you’ll need to compare your results with a reference
If you want to use a longitudinal study to assess changes over time you may compare the data to what?
A reference
The changes over time between each welfare assessment
If you want to use a longitudinal study to assess changes over time you may compare the data with a reference and the changes over time between each welfare assessment
Depending on the aim of the assessment you’ll have what 3 things?
1) Differing indicators to meet the aim
2) Differing labour demands based on the indicator and what needs to happen to ensure they work
3) Differing reliability of the measures in relation to timeframes
It is always important to remember the underlying biology of the indicators in terms of what 3 things?
Predictions of changes you anticipate
Timeframe
The function of what you’re measuring
What 3 things do you need to be aware of in terms of logistics when selecting a welfare indicator?
You need to be aware of how much time you have
You need to be aware of how much money it will cost
You need to be aware of how much technical expertise is needed to do the assessment
What 2 things are important when looking at the ethical considerations and relevance when selecting a welfare indicator?
Invasiveness
Intrusiveness
Causing disruption or annoyance through being unwelcome or uninvited
If the indicator is a surgical implantation for scientific research with no other alternatives the indicator would also need to be assessed under what law?
The Animal Scientific Procedures Act
What can intrusive assessments do?
Change behaviour
Disrupt behaviour and emotional states
Cause fear
If the welfare assessment is intrusive then what needs to be done?
If the assessment is intrusive then the animal needs to be habituated to it
This is done to ensure that the data collected is representative of the welfare in the desired context and not representative of how animals welfare is affected by the assessment itself
What type of welfare indicators can anyone use?
Subjective and low tech indicators
Due to subjective low tech indicators being able to be used by anyone they are what?
Cheaper
Able to capture subtleties that objective measures can’t
Give examples of subjective low tech measures
Scoring scale
Qualitative Behavioural Assessments
Body condition scores
Most objective low tech indicators are what type of indicator?
Resource based indicators
What is a disadvantage of objective low tech behaviour indicators?
They can be time consuming
Give examples of objective low tech indicators?
Resource based indicators
Behavioural indicators
Physical indicators
Visible bodily secretions
For an objective low tech indicator to be objective what must you do?
For these types of indicators to be objective you just measure, or score their presence or absence
Name some objective high tech indicators?
Resource based indicators Behavioural indicators Hormones Biochemistry Neurotransmitters Pathologies
What is the disadvantage of using objective high tech indicators?
They require:
- Expensive equipment
- Delicate equipment
- training to use the equipment
True or false
We can use a combination of subjective and objective methods to measure many indicators
True
What do welfare measurements need?
Welfare indicators should be valid
Welfare indicators need to be reliable
Welfare indicators also need to be sufficiently sensitive to capture changes, or differences, between populations
Who created the Welfare Quality assessment?
The Welfare Quality assessment was created by a European research project focussing on harmonising the animal welfare standards across the human food chain
What were the aims of the Welfare Quality assessment?
The research group looked at the welfare of farm animals during their rearing, transport and slaughter
The research group wanted to be able to give feedback and advice to producers so changes can be made
The researchers wanted to also provide a quality monitoring aspect to the human food chain to provide welfare information for retailers and consumers
What are the 4 domains of the Welfare Principals?
Good feeding
Good housing
Good health
Appropriate behaviour
What are the Welfare Principals good feeding principles 2 sub-principles?
Absence of prolonged hunger
Absence of prolonged thirst
What are the Welfare Principals good housing principla’s 3 sub-principles?
Comfort around resting
Thermal comfort
Ease of movement
What are the Welfare Principals good health principla’s 3 sub-principles?
Absence of injuries
Absence of disease
Absence of pain induced by management procedures
What are the Welfare Principals appropriate behaviour principla’s 4 sub-principles?
Expression of social behaviours
Expression of other behaviours
Good human-animal relationships
Positive emotional state
How do you process data from the Welfare Principals?
First you’d gather data from 30-50 measures
You’ll then convert all the data into sub-principle scores
The different sub-principle scores are then combined to form principal scores
After that an overall assess of welfare is done
How good the welfare standards present are then displayed on a scale of 0-100
0 = worst situation you can find on a unit
50 = neutral
100 = best situation possible
True or false
Decision trees are generally used for data taken on a farm
True
Getting principal scores from sub-principle scores involves the calculation of a type of weighted mean known as a choquet integral
Why do you need choquet integrals?
By converting the data into choquet integrals it makes all the scores equal to each other, so that they won’t affect each other when turned into principle scores
What are the 7 criticisms of Welfare Quality assessment?
It’s time consuming
The larger the herd the longer it takes
Even though the data has been weighted a few severely affected animals can go unnoticed
Some of the data weightings are based on assumptions
Inter-observer reliability can be hard to achieve on farms
Can 1 aspect of welfare truly compensate for poor welfare in another?
How are problems communicated to ensure practical solutions are done to improve welfare standards
With the Welfare Quality assessment what can be classed as a good welfare assessment has a very low baseline
What makes up the Welfare Quality assessment?
Welfare Principals
Qualitative Behavioural Assessments
