Definition of criteria for overall assessment of animal welfare
Open accessAbstract
Welfare is multidimensional, comprising good health, comfort, expression of behaviour, and so on. Its overall assessment therefore requires a multicriteria evaluation. The set of criteria shall be exhaustive (no missing item), minimal (only necessary items), agreed by stakeholders, and legible (a limited number of criteria). Furthermore, the interpretation from one criterion shall not depend on that from another. We propose a set of 12 subcriteria grouped into four criteria: feeding, housing, health and optimised emotional states. This work will assist in developing measures to be used on-farm to form a European standard for overall assessment of animal welfare.
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Behaviours such as aggression, avoidance and stereotypies have been used as indicators of negative welfare states, particularly associated with fear and stress.
“Behaviours such as aggression, avoidance and stereotypies have been used as indicators of negative welfare states, particularly associated with fear and stress [30,48,49].”
From The visitor effect on zoo animals: implications and opportunities for zoo animal welfare (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
Cites
Multicriteria Methodology for Decision Aiding
Roy, B. (1996) · Nonconvex Optimization and Its Applications · doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-2500-1 · Cited by 1,350 · see citing works
Why is there no simple way of measuring animal welfare?
Mason, G., & Mendi, M. (1993) · Animal Welfare · doi:10.1017/s0962728600016092 · Cited by 391 · see citing works
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The visitor effect on zoo animals: implications and opportunities for zoo animal welfare
Sherwen, S. L., & Hemsworth, P. H. (2019) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani9060366 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
“Behaviours such as aggression, avoidance and stereotypies have been used as indicators of negative welfare states, particularly associated with fear and stress [30,48,49].”
MethodAn animal welfare risk assessment process for zoos
Sherwen, S. L., Hemsworth, L. M., Beausoleil, N. J., Embury, A., & Mellor, D. J. (2018) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani8080130 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Scientific report updating the EFSA opinions on the welfare of broilers and broiler breeders
de Jong, I., Berg, C., Butterworth, A., & Estevéz, I. (2012) · EFSA Supporting Publications · doi:10.2903/sp.efsa.2012.en-295 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationSchmidt-Burbach, J., Ronfot, D., & Srisangiam, R. (2015) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0139092 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Welfare assessment tools in zoos: from theory to practice
Jones, N., Sherwen, S. L., Robbins, R., McLelland, D. J., & Whittaker, A. L. (2022) · Veterinary Sciences · doi:10.3390/vetsci9040170 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Assessment of behavior and physical condition of shelter cats as animal-based indicators of welfare
Arhant, C., Wogritsch, R., & Troxler, J. (2015) · Journal of Veterinary Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2015.03.006 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Longitudinal improvements in zoo-housed elephant welfare: a case study at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
Finch, K., Sach, F., Fitzpatrick, M., Masters, N., & Rowden, L. J. (2020) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani10112029 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
- Authors
- Botreau, R., Veissier, I., Butterworth, A., Bracke, M., & Keeling, L.
- Affiliations
- Institut de l’Elevage (FR)
- Unité Mixte de Recherche sur les Herbivores (FR)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Botreau, R
- Venue
- Animal Welfare
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2007-05
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 225-228
- ISSN
- 0962-7286 (ISSN-L)
- 2054-1538
- OpenAlex
- W1511454677
- Cited by
- 304
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 12.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.wur.nl
- Locations
- Animal Welfare (publishedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
- Keywords
- animal welfare assessment, multi-criteria decision making, welfare criteria, animal health, animal housing, feeding, emotional state
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