We aimed to study the gaps between the law and sheep farmer and citizen opinions regarding animal maltreatment by discussing the risk of sheep maltreatment in regular farming practices in Southern Brazil. We surveyed the perception of 56 farmers and 209 citizens regarding general animal and specific on-farm sheep maltreatment issues. The main themes from these two groups about the key components of animal maltreatment were similar: failing to provide for the basic animal needs (27.0%; 96 of 355 total quotes) and aggression or physical abuse (23.9%; 85/355). However, citizens (19.8%; 60/303) were more sensitive than farmers (9.6%; 5/52) to animal stress, suffering, fear, pain or painful procedures (p < 0.05). The perspective of citizens was closer than that of farmers to expert definitions for three situations: emaciation, movement restriction and tail docking without anesthetic use (p < 0.05). More citizens (71.6%; 116/162) than sheep farmers (49.0%; 24/49) believed that animal maltreatment occurs in sheep farming (p < 0.05), but nearly half of the farmers recognized sheep maltreatment within regular production practices. Most citizens (86.4%; 140/162) and all farmers (100.0%; 0/51) were unaware of any Brazilian animal protection law. Most citizens (79%; 131/167) stated that they would not purchase products from animals exposed to maltreatment. We suggest painful procedures as a major risk of animal maltreatment in sheep farming and a priority issue. With the many decades of animal protection laws and scientific recognition of animal sentience and welfare requirements, the level of cognitive dissonance and practical contradictions observed in our results indicate that mitigation policies are urgently needed.
Faecal soiling is one of the welfare indicators in the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for sheep (Ovis aries) and is measured by dag scores. Studies on dag scoring for ewes with docked and undocked tails have given rise to contradictory results. The aim of this study was to compare faecal soiling between ewes with docked and undocked tails and evaluate inter-rater reliability for faecal soiling of ewes. This study was conducted on a farm in Southern Brazil and included 66 undocked and 94 docked ewes. Dag score was recorded by three assessors on a scale of 1 to 5. There was no significant difference on faecal soiling for docked compared to undocked ewes and the median dag score was 3 (1–5). Repeatability amongst assessors by intra-class correlation coefficient of dag scores on docked and undocked ewes was 0.49 and 0.40, respectively; however, these repeatabilities showed no significant differences. The modest repeatability between three assessors on dag scoring indicates caution as regards the use of faecal soiling as an indicator and suggests a need for further studies. The best field results may be obtained by increasing the assessment sample to at least 160 ewes or by raising the number of assessors to five to promote better inter-observer repeatability. Results suggest that taildocking did not promote cleanliness on the breech area. Considering the negative impact on welfare, it seems reasonable to reverse the burden of proof and desist from recommending tail-docking in the absence of clear scientific evidence of any benefit.
This study aimed to refine bird-soiling as a broiler chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) welfare indicator, and to develop and test two additional indicators, namely contact dermatitis on the breast and abdominal areas and carcase scratches. We constructed a questionnaire with pictures of birds presenting different indicator levels for classification as absent, low, moderate or severe. The questionnaire was sent to 146 invited experts for the first round and 88 for the second, in a Delphi process. Visual scales were built for the target indicators, which were tested by three assessors in ten flocks on-farm (n = 1,303 birds) and at the slaughterhouse (n = 1,631 birds). High concordance was observed among groups of Delphi respondents and among assessors. A total of 90.7% of the birds were either moderately or severely soiled, 99.9% were poorly feathered, 73.4 and 90.0% presented erythaema and carcase scratches, respectively. The correlations between litter quality and all outcomes assessed on-farm, and between bird-soiling and contact dermatitis on the breast and abdominal areas, were moderate. Results suggest that adoption of the proposed scales may improve our ability to assess broiler chicken welfare, since relevant problems were prevalent and measurement consistency acceptable. Substantial concordance observed among assessors encourages application of these animal-based indicators to assess broiler chicken welfare in a wide range of poultry houses, in a variety of different countries, thereby allowing the scales to be tested in a host of animal welfare conditions.
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