Development of the ‘animal welfare’ dimension within the Greenwell sustainability assessment model. 1.: Justification of the selection of indicators

Abstract

The current report describes the development of the 'animal welfare dimension' ('welfare assessment model') within the overall Greenwell sustainability model. As we apply the framework of Welfare Quality®, in which animal health is considered one of the aspects of animal welfare, the model also includes health indicators. The model has been developed according to two steps: definition of longlists of indicators for the broiler breeder, hatchery, broiler on-farm and broiler end-of-life stage, and the selection of key indicators from these long-lists, as well as whether these need to be measured real-time or can be estimated by a representative sample or literature value. Samenvatting NL. Dit rapport beschrijft de ontwikkeling van de dimensie 'dierenwelzijn' binnen het Greenwell duurzaamheid beoordelingsinstrument (ook wel 'welzijnsmodel' genoemd). Omdat het raamwerk van Welfare Quality® wordt toegepast, waarbinnen diergezondheid wordt beschouwd als onderdeel van dierenwelzijn, bevat het welzijnsmodel ook diergezondheidsindicatoren. Het model is in twee stappen ontwikkeld: eerst volledige lijsten van mogelijke indicatoren voor de ouderdierenfase, broederijfase, vleeskuikenfase primair bedrijf en vleeskuikenfase wat betreft vangen/transport/slachten, en vervolgens de selectie van de belangrijkste indicatoren uit deze lijst. Daarbij wordt tevens aangegeven of de indicatoren continu gemonitord moeten worden of dat een inschatting op basis van de literatuur of een steekproef kan volstaan.

Development of the ‘animal welfare’ dimension within the Greenwell sustainability assessment model: 2. Data for all production stages andcalculation of scores for the broiler on-farm stage

“…Two adjustments were made in comparison to the welfare model developed in de Jong [6]. Because elevated platforms are included in the total enrichment score, a score for broilers resting on an elevated area has not been developed, as this could result in a double-counting.…”

“…Secondly, antibiotics usage has been proposed to be included in the welfare model [6]. This is a management-based measure rather than an animal-based measure.…”

“…Because we did not find a high correlation between indicators, simplification of the broiler on-farm assessment model was not possible (see results section for correlation coefficients). We thus continued with all indicators according to the developed model [6] for which we had received data.…”

“…The development of the welfare assessment model, i.e. the selection of indicators for the broiler breeder, hatchery, broiler on-farm and end-of-life stage, within the Greenwell sustainability model has been reported in [6]. The aim of the current report is two-fold:…”

“…(2) Secondly, we will apply and develop calculations to score the various welfare indicators of the broiler on-farm stage on a similar scale, i.e., from 0 (lowest welfare level) to 100 (highest welfare level), so that these can be compared for the different indicators. To this end, we will use the Welfare Quality method [7] to assign scores to each welfare indicator, according to the welfare model for broilers on-farm as described in [6].…”