Acknowledgements Book of abstracts - Publicaties - Vlaanderen.be

Francoise Wemelsfelder presents Oral paper 24
In session 5: Development and improvement of welfare assessment protocols
Friday, 12 September 2008 from 11h15-11h30 in the Aula chaired by Linda Keeling
52
Oral paper 24
THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITATIVE BEHAVIOUR ASSESSMENT AS
AN ON-FARM WELFARE INSPECTION TOOL
F. Wemelsfelder 1 , U. Knierim 2 , G. De Rosa 3 , F. Napolitano 4 , S. Haslam 5
1
Sustainable Livestock Systems, Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK
2
Department of Farm Animal Behaviour and Husbandry, University of Kassel, Witzenhausen, Germany
3
Department of Soil, Plant, Environment and Animal Production Sciences, University of Naples "Federico
II", Portici, Italy
4
Department of Animal Production Science, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
5
School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford, UK
The aim of this collaborative project was, as part of EU-project Welfare Quality®, to develop fixed
scoring-lists for the Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) of pigs, cattle, and poultry, and to
test the inter-observer reliability of these lists. QBA is a method for the assessment of animal body
language using descriptors such as ‘relaxed’, ‘anxious’, ‘content’ or ‘distressed’. Previous work
with pigs, cattle, poultry and sheep has demonstrated the scientific validity of this approach, for
both individual and grouped animals.
Based on previous research and consulted expert opinion, six QBA scoring-lists of 20 speciesspecific
terms were selected for pigs, laying hens, broilers, dairy cattle, beef cattle, and veal calves.
The lists for hens, dairy, beef and veal were tested by teams of 3-4 assessors on 21-23 farm-units
spread throughout Germany (hens), Italy (dairy/veal) and Scotland (beef). The lists for broilers,
pigs, and dairy were tested by 4, 11 and 14 assessors respectively, from 15-17 video-clips of
animals in different housing systems. Individual assessor scores were analysed using Principal
Component Analysis (PCA - covariance matrix, no rotation), and assessors’ main PCA-dimensions
were correlated using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W).
Correlations between assessors’ separate qualitative descriptors showed variable strength, however
assessors’ main PCA-dimensions showed remarkably similar emergent patterns of animal
expression. PCA-1 generally distinguished between positive and negative mood, with W-values of
0.74 (pigs), 0.83 (hens), 0.78 (broilers), 0.38 (dairy-onfarm), 0.73 (dairy-video), 0.73 (beef), and
0.64 (veal), all significant at p