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Evaluation of Research Results & Suggestions for Future Research Relevant to Farm Animal Welfare

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Book cover Research and Development in Relation to Farm Animal Welfare

Part of the book series: Animal Management ((TH,volume 11))

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Summary

Various approaches have been made in an effort to assess the well-being of farm livestock. Three are outlined in this paper.

  1. a.

    The moral stance argues that the environment and behaviour of ancestral farm stock is normal and desirable. Conversely, intensive conditions are abnormal and not desirable. This approach has proved to be fruitful, especially because it has stimulated further studies, but it ignores the beneficial effects of balanced diet, disease prevention and controlled environment provided in intensive systems for genetic strains which may differ from the primitive stock.

  2. b.

    The ethological approach is concerned with the causes of behaviour in intensive systems, relationships which are not easy to substantiate. Differences in behaviour in extensive and intensive conditions may be due to differences in releasing stimuli or because of frustration behaviour. Such an interpretation has been applied to caged hens.

  3. c.

    The physiological approach attempts to show that some intensive house-ing conditions lead to changes in the neuro-endocrine system indicative of stress. Technical and interpretation difficulties again complicate thepicture.

Even with these inherent research difficulties the authors suggest future efforts should concentrate on:

  1. a.

    Basic behaviour studies in free-range conditions.

  2. b.

    Housing design; particularly by the use of preference tests, letting the animals select their own preference in a choice test, and by the use of deprivation studies where the effect of depriving animals for specific stimuli are checked for “Motivation accumulation” and frustration symptoms

  3. c.

    A combined behavioural and physiological approach, where the effects of environmental influences are measured by simultaneous recording of both behaviour and physiology. Telemetry techniques may be very useful in such studies.

  4. d.

    An epidemiological approach in determining the effects of intensive systems, particularly using the methods of preventive veterinary medicine.

In this paper the various approaches and methods of those interested in assessing farm animal welfare are briefly described. Emphasis is given to problems of interpretation.

In a second section suggestions are offered of areas where it could be profitable to concentrate future research on animal welfare.

Acknowledgements: During the work presented K. Vestergaard was supported by the Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic and State Veterinary Medicine, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark

    K. Vestergaard

  2. Department of Business Administration, Sheffield City Polytechnic, Sheffield, England

    J. R. Bareham

Authors
  1. K. Vestergaard
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  2. J. R. Bareham
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© 1981 Springer Basel AG

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Vestergaard, K., Bareham, J.R. (1981). Evaluation of Research Results & Suggestions for Future Research Relevant to Farm Animal Welfare. In: Research and Development in Relation to Farm Animal Welfare. Animal Management, vol 11. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-6686-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-6686-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-1241-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-6686-6

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