Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds

Animal welfare assessments that measure welfare outcomes, including behavior and health, can be highly valid. However, the time and skill required are major barriers to their use. We explored whether feasibility of welfare outcome assessment for dairy herds may be improved by rationalizing the numbe...

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Autores principales: Sophie Collins, Charlotte C. Burn, Christopher M. Wathes, Jacqueline M. Cardwell, Yu-Mei Chang, Nicholas J. Bell
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Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/0e47ccc9c11345d3ae8eca8fd7ae3b3d
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:0e47ccc9c11345d3ae8eca8fd7ae3b3d2021-11-17T05:39:32ZTime-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds2673-622510.3389/fanim.2021.703380https://doaj.org/article/0e47ccc9c11345d3ae8eca8fd7ae3b3d2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fanim.2021.703380/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2673-6225Animal welfare assessments that measure welfare outcomes, including behavior and health, can be highly valid. However, the time and skill required are major barriers to their use. We explored whether feasibility of welfare outcome assessment for dairy herds may be improved by rationalizing the number of measures included. We compared two approaches: analyzing whether strong pairwise associations between measures existed, enabling the subsequent exclusion of associated measures; and identifying possible summary measures—“iceberg indicators”—of dairy herd welfare that could predict herd welfare status. A cross-sectional study of dairy herd welfare was undertaken by a single assessor on 51 English farms, in which 96 welfare outcome measures were assessed. All measures showed at least one pairwise association; percentage of lame cows showed the most (33 correlations). However, most correlations were weak–moderate, suggesting limited scope for excluding measures from protocols based on pairwise relationships. A composite measure of the largest portion of herd welfare status was then identified via Principal Component Analysis (Principal Component 1, accounting for 16.9% of variance), and linear regression revealed that 22 measures correlated with this. Of these 22, agreement statistics indicated that percentage of lame cows and qualitative descriptors of “calmness” and “happiness” best predicted Principal Component 1. However, even these correctly classified only ~50% of farms according to which quartile of the Principal Component 1 they occupied. Further research is recommended, but results suggest that welfare assessments incorporating many diverse measures remain necessary to provide sufficient detail about dairy herd welfare.Sophie CollinsCharlotte C. BurnChristopher M. WathesJacqueline M. CardwellYu-Mei ChangNicholas J. BellFrontiers Media S.A.articleanimal welfarefarm animalson-farm welfare assessmentdairy cattlelamenessqualitative behaviour assessmentVeterinary medicineSF600-1100ENFrontiers in Animal Science, Vol 2 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic animal welfare
farm animals
on-farm welfare assessment
dairy cattle
lameness
qualitative behaviour assessment
Veterinary medicine
SF600-1100
spellingShingle animal welfare
farm animals
on-farm welfare assessment
dairy cattle
lameness
qualitative behaviour assessment
Veterinary medicine
SF600-1100
Sophie Collins
Charlotte C. Burn
Christopher M. Wathes
Jacqueline M. Cardwell
Yu-Mei Chang
Nicholas J. Bell
Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
description Animal welfare assessments that measure welfare outcomes, including behavior and health, can be highly valid. However, the time and skill required are major barriers to their use. We explored whether feasibility of welfare outcome assessment for dairy herds may be improved by rationalizing the number of measures included. We compared two approaches: analyzing whether strong pairwise associations between measures existed, enabling the subsequent exclusion of associated measures; and identifying possible summary measures—“iceberg indicators”—of dairy herd welfare that could predict herd welfare status. A cross-sectional study of dairy herd welfare was undertaken by a single assessor on 51 English farms, in which 96 welfare outcome measures were assessed. All measures showed at least one pairwise association; percentage of lame cows showed the most (33 correlations). However, most correlations were weak–moderate, suggesting limited scope for excluding measures from protocols based on pairwise relationships. A composite measure of the largest portion of herd welfare status was then identified via Principal Component Analysis (Principal Component 1, accounting for 16.9% of variance), and linear regression revealed that 22 measures correlated with this. Of these 22, agreement statistics indicated that percentage of lame cows and qualitative descriptors of “calmness” and “happiness” best predicted Principal Component 1. However, even these correctly classified only ~50% of farms according to which quartile of the Principal Component 1 they occupied. Further research is recommended, but results suggest that welfare assessments incorporating many diverse measures remain necessary to provide sufficient detail about dairy herd welfare.
format article
author Sophie Collins
Charlotte C. Burn
Christopher M. Wathes
Jacqueline M. Cardwell
Yu-Mei Chang
Nicholas J. Bell
author_facet Sophie Collins
Charlotte C. Burn
Christopher M. Wathes
Jacqueline M. Cardwell
Yu-Mei Chang
Nicholas J. Bell
author_sort Sophie Collins
title Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
title_short Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
title_full Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
title_fullStr Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
title_full_unstemmed Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds
title_sort time-consuming, but necessary: a wide range of measures should be included in welfare assessments for dairy herds
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/0e47ccc9c11345d3ae8eca8fd7ae3b3d
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