Lecture 9/10 - Assessing Animal Welfare Flashcards
what is the most important factor forcing intensive production
Economic pressures
What are some recommendations from the brambell report
Training, empathy of caretakers, hiring policy
What were the original five freedoms
Stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves and stretch limbs
What was missing from the original five freedoms?
Mental health
What are the cons of the five freedoms
Means “as free as possible”
What are the five freedoms
Hunger, thirst
Discomfort
Pain, injury, disease
Normal behaviour
Fear and distress
How did the five freedoms evolve
Freedoms to domains
Freedoms to provisions to animal welfare aims
What are the five domains
Nutrition, environment, health, behaviour, mental state
What are the five provisions
Good nutrition, environment, health, behaviour, mental experiences
Animal welfare aims use the word
Minimize
When are animals feed restricted
Molting of chickens, breeding stock
What can feed/drink affect
Survival, performance, reproductive success
What is pain
Unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage
What is nociception vs pain
Nociception = ability to feel negative stimuli
Pain = includes emotional experience, CNS process
How do you determine if an animal is in pain
Physiology, behaviour, sensory testing, grimace scale, lameness score, posture, gait, vocalization, activity
What does the grimace scale measure
Orbital tightening, cheek tension
Main concerns of pain?
Animal welfare issue
Metabolic changes
Immunosuppression
What are motivational states. Example?
States in brain that determine likelihood/intensity of behavioural pattern (e.g. pregnant sow making nest)
What does being unable to satisfy motivational states lead to
Frustration, aversive
Why assess animal welfare?
Required by retailers/restaurants
Required for research
Transparency
Credibility
Point of assessing animal welfare? Improve/identify…
Improve it
Identify best practices
Identify areas of opportunity
Assess with how animals are managed
Certify a facility
Who assesses animal welfare
Producers, vets, auditing orgs, scientists
What are the two forms of assessment
Internal, external (second/third party)
What is the critical level in animal welfare
Separates acceptability from unacceptability
What is a random audit
Unplanned or unannounced
What is a second party assessment
Performed by customer/other body that gains from assessment (e.g. retailer
What is a third party audit
Performed by auditing/certification body, independent body
What is a trigger audit
Follows a trigger (complain/non-compliance)
Benefits of self assessment?
Measure continuous improvement
Measure benefits of efforts
Self assessment negatives?
Bias, “barn blindness”
Benefits of second party assessment?
Promote partnerships, understanding
Prep for third party
Verify requirements are followed
Goal of third party audit?
Validate program
Evaluate care/welfare
Tool for processors, retail
No education
What are the different tiers of business benchmark
Gold: leading in commitment (3 policies) and transparency
Silver: significant C and T
Bronze: some C and T
Fourth: significant C, no T
Fifth: some C, no T
Sixth: no C, some T
Seven: none of either
What Canadian food brands are in tier two
Only Cargill and Maple leafs
Three types of AW assessment?
Input/resourced based measures (environment)
Animal/outcome based measures
Management based measures
What is the animal/outcome based measure? Advantage/disadvantage?
Assess stage of the animal
Body condition scores
Adv: directly related to AW, easy/reliable, diversity
Dis: costly, time, training, no indication of cause
What is the input/resource based measures? Advantages/disadvantages?
Assess animals environment
Adv: easy, useful if factor affects welfare, well chose criteria can prevent welfare problems
Dis: no flexibility
What is the management based measure? Advantages/disadvantages
assess overall level of management
Adv: assess practices
Dis: not direct measure of AW, extensive record keeping
How do we rank which disease most affects AW
Severity, duration, incidence
What are the four questions when developing AW measures
Practical?
Does it tell you something important?
Can you get the same answer another way?
Influence by weather, season, time, day?
Steps to establishing measures?
- Measure (gait score, body condition)
- Risk factors (genotype, history, stocking density, conditions, nutrition)
- Inform
- Improve (restriction, breeding)
Two scores for assessing cow welfare?
Body condition, hindquarter cleanliness
Other methods: what are the minimalistic and comprehensive approaches to AW assessment
Minimalistic: identify small # of indicators to predict AW
Comprehensive: several indicators/protocols to predict AW = truer assessment
Stress vs distress?
Stress= causes change in physiological homeostasis or psychological wellbeing
Distress= aversive state in which coping does not return organism to homeostasis
Causes of stress?
Physical, physiological, psychological
