Abstract
The increased requirements for animal welfare have raised the need for a comprehensive on-farm assessment system. This paper is a first step to analysing the reliability and feasibility of the on-farm welfare assessment with regard to the animal-related measures of Welfare Quality© in intensive fattening pig husbandries. Based on the 2009 Welfare Quality® assessment protocols for pigs, six analyses were undertaken by one observer on three farms. It became apparent that the system in essence, fulfils the requirements of a sound assessment of animal welfare under intensive production with low on-farm variability. The behaviour-based measurements had a higher degree of within-farm variability than clinical- and resource-based measurements as the assessment involves a greater degree of subjectivity. Some measurements seemed to be of low sensitivities as there were no or very low variations in many of the indicators being assessed. Despite this, this preliminary study indicates that the assessment system is a reliable and feasible tool for the evaluation of animal welfare status in intensive pig production for fattening pig. Key words: Welfare Quality©, animal welfare, intensive livestock production
Highlights
The welfare of animals used for food production has increasingly become an area of interest at all levels of the value-added chain (Blokhuis et al, 2008)
The food industry has reacted to this situation and is at present discussing the introduction of numerous different labels to guarantee high standards of animal welfare
Three intensive fattening pig farms were each analysed by six repeats (08.12.2011 to 24.12.2011 at weekly intervals (9:00 a.m. to 14:00 a.m.) using the Welfare Quality® assessment protocols for pigs (Welfare Quality®, 2009)
Summary
The welfare of animals used for food production has increasingly become an area of interest at all levels of the value-added chain (Blokhuis et al, 2008). The food industry has reacted to this situation and is at present discussing the introduction of numerous different labels to guarantee high standards of animal welfare. A large body of approaches has been developed, none of them could be establish in practice so far. Against this background, the Welfare Quality® system was developed within the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme on Food Quality and Safety (2006 to 2010).
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