Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN)
Animal welfare is of increasing public interest, and the pig industry in particular is subject to much attention. The aim of this study was to identify and compare areas of animal welfare concern for commercial pigs in four different production stages: (1) gestating sows and gilts; (2) lactating sow...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Animal Welfare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000374/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1797731166818664448 |
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| author | Anne Marie Michelsen Franziska Hakansson Vibe Pedersen Lund Marlene Katharina Kirchner Nina Dam Otten Matthew Denwood Tine Rousing Hans Houe Björn Forkman |
| author_facet | Anne Marie Michelsen Franziska Hakansson Vibe Pedersen Lund Marlene Katharina Kirchner Nina Dam Otten Matthew Denwood Tine Rousing Hans Houe Björn Forkman |
| author_sort | Anne Marie Michelsen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Animal welfare is of increasing public interest, and the pig industry in particular is subject to much attention. The aim of this study was to identify and compare areas of animal welfare concern for commercial pigs in four different production stages: (1) gestating sows and gilts; (2) lactating sows; (3) piglets; and (4) weaner-to-finisher pigs. One welfare assessment protocol was developed for each stage, comprising of between 20 and 29 animal welfare measures including resource-, management- and animal-based ones. Twenty-one Danish farms were visited once between January 2015 and February 2016 in a cross-sectional design. Experts (n = 26; advisors, scientists and animal welfare controllers) assessed the severity of the outcome measures. This was combined with the on-farm prevalence of each measure and the outcome was used to calculate areas of concern, defined as measures where the median of all farms fell below the value defined as ‘acceptable welfare.’ Between five and seven areas of concern were identified for each production stage. With the exception of carpal lesions in piglets, all areas of concern were resource- and management-based and mainly related to housing, with inadequate available space and the floor type in the resting area being overall concerns across all production stages. This means that animal-based measures were largely unaffected by perceived deficits in resource-based measures. Great variation existed for the majority of measures identified as areas of concern, demonstrating that achieving a high welfare score is possible in the Danish system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:55:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-85e8d9736acb4ddd9c5098a523e58724 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0962-7286 2054-1538 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:55:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Welfare |
| spelling | doaj.art-85e8d9736acb4ddd9c5098a523e587242023-08-31T04:24:28ZengCambridge University PressAnimal Welfare0962-72862054-15382023-01-013210.1017/awf.2023.37Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN)Anne Marie Michelsen0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5939-9616Franziska Hakansson1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4544-6079Vibe Pedersen Lund2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4157-5364Marlene Katharina Kirchner3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1321-4342Nina Dam Otten4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1004-1474Matthew Denwood5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5212-4273Tine Rousing6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8619-6996Hans Houe7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7040-5586Björn Forkman8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0153-6240Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkFour Paws International, Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University, Tjele, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkDepartment of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, DenmarkAnimal welfare is of increasing public interest, and the pig industry in particular is subject to much attention. The aim of this study was to identify and compare areas of animal welfare concern for commercial pigs in four different production stages: (1) gestating sows and gilts; (2) lactating sows; (3) piglets; and (4) weaner-to-finisher pigs. One welfare assessment protocol was developed for each stage, comprising of between 20 and 29 animal welfare measures including resource-, management- and animal-based ones. Twenty-one Danish farms were visited once between January 2015 and February 2016 in a cross-sectional design. Experts (n = 26; advisors, scientists and animal welfare controllers) assessed the severity of the outcome measures. This was combined with the on-farm prevalence of each measure and the outcome was used to calculate areas of concern, defined as measures where the median of all farms fell below the value defined as ‘acceptable welfare.’ Between five and seven areas of concern were identified for each production stage. With the exception of carpal lesions in piglets, all areas of concern were resource- and management-based and mainly related to housing, with inadequate available space and the floor type in the resting area being overall concerns across all production stages. This means that animal-based measures were largely unaffected by perceived deficits in resource-based measures. Great variation existed for the majority of measures identified as areas of concern, demonstrating that achieving a high welfare score is possible in the Danish system.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000374/type/journal_articleAnimal welfareassessment protocolnational levelpigpigletsow |
| spellingShingle | Anne Marie Michelsen Franziska Hakansson Vibe Pedersen Lund Marlene Katharina Kirchner Nina Dam Otten Matthew Denwood Tine Rousing Hans Houe Björn Forkman Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) Animal Welfare Animal welfare assessment protocol national level pig piglet sow |
| title | Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) |
| title_full | Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) |
| title_fullStr | Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) |
| title_short | Identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in Danish pig herds using the Danish Animal Welfare Index (DAWIN) |
| title_sort | identifying areas of animal welfare concern in different production stages in danish pig herds using the danish animal welfare index dawin |
| topic | Animal welfare assessment protocol national level pig piglet sow |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0962728623000374/type/journal_article |
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