Animal Welfare
The Ethical and Welfare Implications of Large Litter Size in the Domestic Pig: Challenges and Solutions
By Kenneth M.D. Rutherford, Emma M. Baxter, Birgitte Ask, Peer Berg, Richard B. D’Eath, Susan Jarvis, Karsten K. Jensen, Alistair B. Lawrence, Vivi A. Moustsen, Sheena K. Robson, Rainer Roehe, Flemming Thorup, Simon P. Turner & Peter Sandøe.
Frederiksberg & Edinburgh: Danish Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment & SAC (Scottish Agrigultural College). Danish Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment Project report 17. 2011.
Abstract
Driven by production efficiency, increasing litter size has long been a goal of pig producers, although this trend has accelerated in the past 15 years, particularly in Denmark and in other countries such as Holland, Germany and France.
This report aims to review the pertinent scientific and practical evidence on sow and piglet welfare in relation to large litter size, and discusses the relevant ethical issues in order to inform a societal debate about the ethical acceptability of large litter size. In addition, possible approaches to mitigating health and welfare issues associated with large litter are identified.
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Welfare Assessments Based on Lifetime Health and Production Data in Danish Dairy Cows
By H. Houe, P. Sandøe & P. T. Thomsen
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. Taylor & Francis. 2011
Abstract
The objective of this study was to describe how information about the whole lifetime of the cow can be used when defining nonhuman animal-based criteria of the welfare of animals on the farm. Often measured over a short period, disease occurrence provides information relevant for assessing the current welfare state of the herd. Arguably, however, if disease records are to be used as ethically relevant welfare indicators, it is also important to record disease occurrence over the individual animal's entire life span.
Thus, it matters ethically whether the burden of an outbreak of disease or other condition affecting animal welfare is carried by a few individuals or is distributed more evenly. To illustrate this principle, the study obtained data on disease treatment records and production from 392,287 cows from the Danish Cattle Database. The average cow had lived for 5 years and produced more than 22,000 L of milk. The medium number of treatments a cow had received for any disease was 2, but 10% of the cows had received more than 8 treatments for a disease. The study concluded that lifetime description provides a measure of disease occurrence that gives added value of ethical relevance to single-point prevalence or short-term incidence.
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Investigating the importance of vision in poultry: comparing the behaviour of blind and sighted chickens
By S. Collins, B. Forkman, H. H. Kristensen, P. Sandøe & P. M. Hocking
Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Elsevier. 2011
Abstract
Behaviour in poultry is predominately visually mediated and vision is important to the welfare of poultry. The relationship between vision, behaviour and welfare has primarily been investigated in relation to artificial lighting. Genetically blind chickens provide an alternative experimental paradigm for further investigating the importance of sight. The primary aim of the study was to investigate the importance of vision in the development and maintenance of behaviour in poultry by comparing the behaviour of 20 genetically blind chicks with that of 20 normally sighted chicks.
Behaviour was assessed in a social isolation test post hatch and at 28-30 days old, and in the chicks’ 8 home pens (4 blind; 4 sighted) at 42 days old. All birds were weighed at 0, 14, 28 and 42 days old. Analysis of home pen behaviour indicated that, compared to normally sighted chicks, blind chicks displayed increased preening and sitting behaviour, but reduced environmental pecking, behavioural synchrony and group aggregation. Blind chicks also exhibited abnormal behaviours - namely air pecking, star gazing, circle walking. Blind chicks weighed less than sighted chicks at 14, 28 and 42 days of age and appeared to be less stressed by social isolation compared to sighted chicks. It was concluded that blind chicks, as expected, have difficulty expressing behaviours that are normally visually mediated, and that their welfare is likely to be compromised as a result.
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Conflicting goals of welfare assessment schemes: A case study
By R. Ingemann, P. Sandøe, P. Enemark & B. Forkman
Animal Welfare. UFAW. 2009
Abstract
The aim of this article is to discuss the farming industry's development and use of welfare assessment schemes. A welfare assessment scheme developed by the Danish Cattle Federation (DCF) is used as a case study. The declared aim of the DCF scheme is to improve animal welfare, farm profitability and dialogue with the public. It is the purpose of this article to attempt to understand the dilemmas arising from this broad aim.
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Farm animal welfare: The interaction between ethical questions and animal welfare science
By P. Sandøe, S.B. Christiansen & M.C. Appleby
Animal Welfare. UFAW. 2003
Abstract
Farm animal welfare has now been studied, within a scientific framework, for several decades. The framework does not include ethical issues, but unless measurements of animal welfare at farm level are embedded in an ethical context, there is a danger that these measurements will not be properly utilised. This paper considers the relationship between ethical questions and animal welfare assessment. In it, the following four key ethical questions are identified. What is the baseline standard for morally acceptable animal welfare? What is a good animal life? What farming purposes are legitimate? What kinds of compromise are acceptable in a less-than-perfect world? The authors suggest that animal welfare scientists need to reflect carefully on these questions if welfare assessments are to be properly interpreted and put to practical use. Such reflection will lead to a more transparent appreciation of the values underlying welfare assessment. In this way, it will both offer welfare scientists a greater awareness of their own value-assumptions and enable the same scientists to communicate effectively with the wider audience — farmers, consumers, pressure groups, policy-makers and so on — for which the results of animal welfare assessments are of concern.
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Animal Welfare as One among Several Values to be Considered at Farm Level: The Idea of an Ethical Account for Livestock Farming
By J. T. Sørensen, P. Sandøe & N. Halberg
Agriculturae Scandinavica. Taylor & Francis. 2001
Abstract
A proposal as to how to combine animal welfare with other goals using an ethical account for livestock farming is presented. The purpose of an ethical account is to report on the consequences of individual events and routine methods on the farm for all affected parties, and to ensure that the farmer is conscious of his ethical priorities. A procedure for an annual account is presented and the concepts involved in it are explained. Welfare assessment involves information from four sources: the system, the system’s application, animal behaviour and animal health. Welfare assessment is an aid for operational management as well as for strategic planning. This ethical account was developed in collaboration with twenty livestock farms over a period of three years. In the course of its evaluation farmers were interviewed by a social scientist who was not directly involved in the project. It was concluded from these interviews that the implementation of welfare assessment, in this way, in the ethical account was a success.
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Assessment of Farm Animal Welfare at Herd Level: Many Goals, Many Methods
By P. F. Johnsen, T. Johannesson & P. Sandøe
Agriculturae Scandinavica. Taylor & Francis. 2001
Abstract
This paper describes and compares nine methods of assessing the welfare of farm animals at herd level. A distinction is made between two types of welfare parameter: the environmental and the animal-based. The relative weight of these parameters, together with variation in their measurability, explains many of the differences between the methods with which the paper is concerned. To discuss the merits of a given method it is necessary to look at the goal it is intended to serve. Some methods compare production systems well. Others are better used in assisting the individual farmer to improve the welfare of animals within his production system.
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Sara Kondrup, - last update:6 September 2011