Animal Welfare Assessments PDF

ANIMAL WELFARE ASSESSMENTS Science-based Measures of Animal Welfare ANIMAL WELFARE AND ETHOLOGY  CORE AW LESSONS WELFARE SCIENCE WELFARE LAW WELFARE ETHICS SUPPLEMENTAL LESSONS WELFARE SCIENCE WELFARE ETHICS WELFARE LAW AW APPLICATION Welfare in Focus Presentation Coverage: ❑ Session 8...

ANIMAL WELFARE ASSESSMENTS Science-based Measures of Animal Welfare ANIMAL WELFARE AND ETHOLOGY  CORE AW LESSONS WELFARE SCIENCE WELFARE LAW WELFARE ETHICS SUPPLEMENTAL LESSONS WELFARE SCIENCE WELFARE ETHICS WELFARE LAW AW APPLICATION Welfare in Focus Presentation Coverage: ❑ Session 8 Welfare Assessments ❑ Session 9 Physiological Measures ❑ Session 10 Behavioral Measures ❑ Session 11 Disease and Production Measures  ❑To meet standards of care (Grandin, 2010a) WHY CARRY ◦ Because animals are sentient OUT WELFARE ◦ Not suffering, but functioning well, feeling well and can ASSESSMENTS? perform important species-typical behaviours ◦ To prevent ‘bad’ becoming normal ❑To comply regulatory standards ◦ Essential for registration of animal facilities ◦ To ensure that the facility does not cause pain and suffering to the animals  Standard of Care Refers to the reasonable degree of care or level of attentiveness a person should provide to animals. Standards set minimum requirements which include but not limited to: ✓ humane handling, ✓ shelter or housing, ✓ space requirements, ✓ feeding and provision of water ✓ veterinary care, ✓ transport, ✓ etc.  Types of Animal Welfare Standards ❑ International – OIE ▪ Animal Welfare Section - Terrestrial Animal Health Code ❑ National legislation/guidelines ▪ AO 12 Code of practice and minimum standards for the welfare of chickens ▪ AO 41 - Code of practice and minimum standards for the welfare of pigs. ▪ AO 54 - Code standards for veterinary clinics and hospitals for small companion animals ❑ Private standards Practice Standards Schemes (Clinical Practice) Who is responsible for welfare assessment? Owner Overall responsibility Formulates plan for procedures Maintains records Veterinarian Advises on plans and record system Reviews performance Advises on corrective action Assessor Gives feedback only, not advice  How you carry out welfare assessments in different contexts Individual level ◦ Veterinary practice: clinical examination Group context ◦ Veterinary practice: farm planning ◦ Quality assurance schemes: on-farm ◦ Quality assurance schemes: slaughterhouse ◦ Laboratory animals research  Welfare Assessment Delivery 1. Quality assurance schemes 2. Benchmarking 3. Veterinary practices helping their clients 4. Veterinary practices’ own standards ▪Practice Standards Schemes (Standards of care)  ANIMAL WELFARE ASSESSMENT SCHEMES Welfare Science ANIMAL WELFARE ASSESSMENT SCHEMES ❖Five Freedoms Framework ❖Welfare Inputs – Welfare Outputs ❖Quantifying welfare compromise (Severity-Duration-Number) ❖Welfare Quality® project ❖Animal / Outcome-based measures ◦ Physiological measures ◦ Behavioral measures ◦ Production and Disease (Clinical Health) measures The Five Freedoms and animal welfare (Brambell, 1965; FAWC, 1992)  The Five Freedoms and welfare inputs and outputs Freedom from hunger and thirst Inputs: ready access to fresh water, and a diet that maintains full health and vigour, e.g. how often stockperson delivers feed Outputs: body weight; body condition score; evidence of dehydration on the skin-pinch test Freedom from discomfort Inputs: an appropriate environment, including shelter and a comfortable resting area Outputs: pressure sores on the skin  The Five Freedoms and welfare inputs and outputs Freedom from pain, injury and disease ◦ Inputs: veterinary advice  disease prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment ◦ Outputs: prevalence of coughing, etc. Freedom to express normal behaviour ◦ Inputs: sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind ◦ Outputs: signs of injury from fighting; abnormal behaviours Freedom from fear and distress ◦ Inputs: conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering, e.g. stockperson’s training ◦ Outputs: behavioural tests, e.g. avoidance distance  Using the Five Freedoms to assess welfare Welfare outputs - For each freedom, estimate: percentage of animals affected (NUMBER) how badly they are affected (SEVERITY) how long the problem has been going on for (DURATION)  Group assessment: quality assurance schemes Welfare Quality® project (www.welfarequality.net) ◦ Collaboration between researchers in 19 countries ◦ Four in Latin America: Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil ◦ 15 in Europe ◦ Laying hens and broilers, pigs, beef and dairy cattle, water buffalo AWIN Animal Welfare Indicators project developing concepts further for these and other species and provide on-line information about animal welfare education. Areas of welfare (Welfare Quality® project) Steps on Welfare assessment How to assess welfare (Butterworth et al., 2011) 1. Welfare outputs (physiology and behaviour including production and disease) 2. Welfare inputs – information about animal management and any associated risk factors 3. Inform the farmer/owner 4. Support him/her in making changes SESSION 9 PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES SESSION 10 B E H AV I O R A L M E A S U R E S SESSION 11 DISEASE AND PRODUCTION MEASURES Animal / Outcome based measures Animal / Outcome-based Measures Responses Physiological responses Many are not visible Many are non-specific and do not indicate if the experience is positive or negative Behavioural responses (Olsson et al., 2011) Easy to observe More complex level of functioning than physiological responses − how animals change and control their environment More specific measure of emotional state and experience Physiological responses ❑ Stress response ◦ Measures: Glucocoticoids ❑ Immune responses (e.g. white blood cell count) ◦ Innate response ▪ Cells, e.g. phagocytic cells such as neutrophils, macrophages ◦ Adaptive response ▪T cells − cell-mediated immunity ▪B cells – humoral immunity (antibodies) ❑ Neurobiological responses ◦ Brain activity (MRI) ◦ Learning and memory ◦ Neurotransmitters, e.g. Opioids, Dopamine, Prolactin Physiological responses ❑ Metabolic responses ◦ Glucose ◦ Lactic acid ◦ Beta-hydroxy-butyrate (ketone) ◦ Haematocrit (total rbc count) ◦ Muscle enzymes, e.g. creatine kinase ◦ Hormones, e.g. insulin, thyroid hormones ❑ Other, e.g. reproductive hormones  Behavior and welfare (1) ❑ Welfare includes physical functioning, feelings, and the performance of important behaviours o Behaviour can be used to assess each of these areas ❑ Vets already use behaviour (‘clinical signs’) oTo diagnose disrupted physical functioning (disease) oTo identify and treat negative feelings (e.g. pain, ) ❑ Why vets haven’t considered the performance of important behaviours o Animals may function well even when they cannot perform those behaviours o Owners are not aware of them and do not ask (e.g. nausea)  Behavioural repertoire Repertoire in the wild e.g. oReproductive behaviours: courtship, mating, parturient, maternal oFeeding behaviours: seeking and consuming food Time budget oHow animals allocate their time to different behaviours  “Having a good understanding of an animal’s behavioural repertoire provides us with the basis for understanding which specific behaviours are important for the animal to perform. An animal having the opportunity to perform certain behaviours that are important to the animal (also referred to as ‘behavioural needs’) is an essential requirement for good welfare. Examples of important behaviours “Behavioural needs” (Widowski, 2010) ◦ Animals suffer if deprived of the opportunity to perform them Examples ◦ Laying hens: nesting in a secluded place (Nicol, 2011) ◦ Pigs: rooting (Nicol, 2011) ◦ Calves: sucking (de Passillé & Rushen, 2006) ◦ Polar bears: walking long distances (Clubb & Mason, 2003) ◦ Hamsters: burrowing (Hauzenberger et al., 2006) Substitute or Abnormal behaviours Stereotypies: repetitive behaviours, unchanging pattern, serve no obvious purpose Redirected behaviours: ❑ not abnormal but directed to an abnormal substrate ❑ related to a stimulus, but is misdirected (e.g. an attack upon an inanimate object by an animal that cannot or dare not attack another animal which is the true target of its aggression). ❑ When a normal route is blocked, some behaviours may be redirected towards another goal. Quantitative behavioural assessment Frequency Duration Number of animals showing the behaviours Examples ◦ Pigs fighting ◦ Percentage of animals who vocalise during handling and stunning  Markers of disease Clinical signs Clinical pathology Changes in behaviours: sickness Laboratory tests – haematocrit, behaviours, pain behaviours, biochemistry, urinalysis, faecal eg lameness culture, histopathology Physical changes: pale mucous membranes, swollen limb, elevated body temperature, reduced production, etc. Production measures: body condition score, body weight, fertility measures, etc.  Measures of disease Incidence Prevalence Number of new cases in a Proportion of animals fixed time period divided by affected by the disease at the number of animals at any point in time risk Usually annual  Disease and production measures of welfare Examples Welfare Inputs Welfare Outputs Genetics Incidence/prevalence of Biosecurity lameness, mastitis, Vaccinations bruised carcasses, metabolic disease, culling, etc. Helminth control Amount of antibiotics used Nutrition Visits from the vet Transport Somatic cell counts Group size Production: fertility, growth rate, Dairy hygiene milk yield etc. Use of analgesics for routine procedures