Document type: scientific article published in Animals
Authors: Mareike Pfeifer 1, Armin O. Schmitt, Engel F. Hessel
Preview: The welfare of farm animals is discussed in society and politics. In Germany, the Association for Technology and Structures in Agriculture developed a new guideline for the animal welfare assessment of fattening pigs. It is called ANIMAL WELFARE INDICATORS: PRACTICAL GUIDE - PIGS and contains 13 characteristics by which the welfare of an animal is assessed, so-called indicators, as well as instructions on how to collect those indicators. For reasons of feasibility, six of the indicators should not be collected for all fattening pigs in a herd, but for a sample. The question arises whether then the herd's level of animal welfare is assessed with sufficient precision. For this reason, this study examines five strategies for collecting samples of the fattening pigs in a herd. The aim is to identify a feasible strategy that collects samples of high validity. However, the study shows that the result of the animal welfare assessment based upon samples can partly deviate considerably from the result of the assessment of the entire herd. Further studies are needed to identify the most feasible and valid method for collecting samples of pigs from a herd.
