Document type: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Measurements and Applications in Veterinary and Animal Sciences (MeAVeAS), April 26-28, 2023, Napoli, Italy
Authors: Federica Raspa, Emanuela Valle,Alessandro Necci, Laura Ozealla, Lorenzo Bertocchi, Nicoletta d'Avino, Marta Panicciaà, Pasquale de Palo, Domenico Bergero, Martina Tarantola, Clara Borin, Claudio Forte
Preview: Despite the availability of a validated welfare assessment protocol for horses at European Union level, this document does not provide the welfare measurement of horses reared on extensive (ES) or confined (CS) system which encompasses resource-, management- and animal-based measures. The aims of the present study were to develop and test a specific welfare measurement protocol for horses reared in ES or CS systems, and to evaluate whether the selected welfare items were influenced by the breeding management (ES vs CS). A focus group selected 82 welfare items that were classified into 6 measurement/thematic areas. The protocol was applied on 26 pastures and 7 confined farms of Mount Catria and neighbouring areas of the Central Apennines (Italy) by evaluating a total of 490 horses. The relative frequencies (%) for the answers were calculated and the Chisquared test was used to identify if there were differences within the selected measurement/thematic areas according to the breeding management (ES vs CS). Differences between the ES and CS were found on training (p= 0.02) and feeding (p= 0.001). The application of the welfare measurement protocol resulted a useful tool to identify the welfare items that need to be improved in field condition and could represent an innovative tool to fill the existing gap of knowledge as well as to support the official controls of veterinarians.
