An epidemiological analysis of equine welfare data from regulatory inspections by the official competent authorities

Abstract

Determining welfare status in a population is the first step in efforts to improve welfare. The primary objective of this study was to explore a new epidemiological approach for analysis of data from official competent authorities that pertain to compliance with animal welfare legislation. We reviewed data already routinely collected as part of Swedish official animal welfare inspections for 2010 to 2013, using a checklist containing 45 checkpoints (CPs). These covered animal-, resource-and management-based measures of equine welfare. The animalbased CPs were measures that directly related to the animal and included social contact, body condition, hoof condition and cleanliness. Non-compliance with one or more of the animalbased CPs was used as a binary outcome of poor equine welfare; 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using the exact binomial distribution. Associations were determined using multivariable logistic regression, adjusting for clustering on premises. Resource-and management-based CPs (model inputs) were reduced by principal component analysis. Other input factors included premises characteristics (e.g. size, location) and inspection characteristics (e.g. type of inspection). There were 30 053 premises with horses from 21 counties registered by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. In total 13 321 inspections of premises were conducted at 28.4% (n=8 532) of all registered premises. For random inspections, the premises-prevalence of poor equine welfare was 9.5% (95% CI 7.5, 11.9). Factors associated with poor equine welfare were non-compliance with requirements for supervision, care or feeding of horses, facility design, personnel, stable hygiene, pasture and exercise area maintenance, as well as the owner not being notified of the inspection, a previous complaint or deficiency, spring compared to autumn, and not operating as a professional equine business. Horses at premises compliant with stabling and shelter requirements had significantly better welfare if they also complied with documentation requirements. We present a novel approach for analysis of equine welfare data from regulatory inspections by the official competent authorities, and propose on-going analyses and benchmarking of trends in animal-based measures over time. We also suggest how such a database could be further improved to facilitate future epidemiological analyses of risk factors associated with poor equine welfare. The study has implications for other competent authorities and researchers collaborating in the area of animal welfare epidemiology.Key Words: horse, legislation, animal-based measures, welfare indicators, risk assessment 1 Implications: This study illustrates that analysis of routinely collected data from official horse welfare inspections can give us insights into where efforts should be targeted to have the greatest impact in improving animal welfare. Specifically, our study suggests that targeting education strategies at personnel responsible for supervising, caring for, and feeding horses is likely ...

Assessment of Welfare Problems in Finnish Cattle and Pig Farms Based on Official Inspection Reports

“…The information on whether the inspection was pre-informed or not is not included in the inspection report, thus it is not known how well the Finnish inspectors obey the EC Regulation No 882/2004 [4] prohibiting of pre-informing about the inspections. This also has influence on the evaluation and comparison of the inspection results, as pre-informing is likely to affect the inspection result [3,7].…”

“…According to the European Food Safety Authority, an assessment verifying compliance with legislative standards usually focuses on factors that can prevent poor animal welfare, e.g., floor type or provision of water [2]. The need for the assessment of these factors in highlighting the potential risk of reduced welfare and identifying the underlying reasons for current animal welfare problems has been previously recognized [3].…”

“…In Finland, the data obtained have not been thoroughly evaluated and utilized for the development of animal welfare inspection system. In Sweden, the inspection data have been used to determine the incidence of specific welfare conditions and risk factors for poor welfare [3,6,7]. In France it has been used to improve compliance with EU animal welfare legislation and the efficiency of the inspection system [8], and in Great Britain to establish whether farm membership of a voluntary assurance, organic or welfare scheme has an impact on compliance with animal welfare legislation [9,10].…”

>b<Avaliação do queratam sulfato e ácido hialurônico presentes no líquido sinovial como biomarcadores das principais enfermidades articulares em equinos>/b<

“…Tais elementos interagem intimamente direta e/ou indiretamente por meio do LS que ocupa o espaço articular (HUI et al, 2012;POURAN et al, 2017). O metabolismo tecidual articular é modulado por cargas mecânicas que ativam as vias de transdução de sinais, os quais traduzem o estimulo mecânico em sinais bioquímicos que orquestram as funções celulares e o remodelamento da matriz extracelular (MEC) (HITCHENS et al, 2017;KHAN;SCOTT, 2009;MA et al, 2018).…”

“…Também, as articulações com OA apresentaram menor expressão genica e menor concentração de IL-10, e maior concentração de IL-1 e IL-6.Consequentemente, ocorre intensa reabsorção focal do osso subcondral e cartilagem calcificada(MARTIG et al, 2014;JEFFERY, 2016;PINILLA et al, 2017; TRANQUILLE; MURRAY; PARKIN, 2017) acompanhada de baixa perfusão sanguínea, culminando em alterações isquêmicas progressivas(MIYAKOSHI et al, 2017;PINILLA et al, 2017;TURLEY et al, 2014) que modificam as propriedades mecânicas de ambos, permitindo o acumulo de lesões(FRAZER et al, 2017). Neste caso, as fraturas patológicas ocorrem pela fadiga do osso subcondral, caracterizada pela coalescência de microfraturas iniciadas na superfície articular da cartilagem calcificada(DUBOIS et al, 2014;HITCHENS et al, 2017; HOPPER; SINGER; HENSON, 2018).Este projeto de pesquisa foi aprovado pela Comissão de Ética no Uso de Animais (CEUA) da Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo, conforme o protocolo de número 2562060214. As análises foram realizadas no Laboratório de Pesquisa do Departamento de Clínica Médica da Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo, no Laboratório Especializado em Análises Científicas (LEAC) e no Departamento de Bioquímica da Escola Paulista de Medicina da Universidade Federal de São Paulo.…”