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Poultry welfare assessments: Where do we go from here
Recent attention has been given to developing welfare assessment tools for research purposes and for use directly on poultry farms. Historically, most of these tools have relied on resource- and management-based measures, but it is unclear how well they correlate with outcomes indicative of positive animal welfare. The subjective nature of many of these tools also makes it difficult to generalize across studies and farms without extensive training. More recently, the European Union Welfare Quality® project set out to design assessment tools that were scientifically based and combined resource- and management-based measures with animal-based measures. Adding these measures was especially important for farm-level comparisons where farms may be utilizing different housing systems with inherent differences affecting the utility of resource- and management-based measures. The Welfare Quality® Assessment protocol for poultry offers researchers a tool that has been validated, tested for repeatability, and standardized across farms. This tool has been used in the United States and Canada both at the experimental and farm levels. However, assessment tools were only developed for layer-type hens and broiler chickens. There is a vast need for the development of assessment tools for other poultry species such as ducks, turkeys, quail, and game birds. Tools are continuing to be developed, but many have measures that need validation and benchmarking and creating tools that can be used by producers without needing training to use successfully is important on a go-forward basis. Tools must be designed for North American commercial production with a better understanding of the appropriate sample size, as well as their utility for use in alternative and extensive housing systems. These tools show promise in helping to understand the influence of genetics, housing design, and management factors on the welfare of poultry.
Keywords:
assessment tools, poultry, welfare