Test-retest reliability of the Welfare Quality® animal welfare assessment protocol for growing pigs

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and test-retest reliability of the Welfare Quality® Animal Welfare Assessment Protocol for Growing Pigs. Twenty-three German pig farms were visited repeatedly by the same trained observers; each farm being visited six times during two fattening periods. The entire protocol assessment was carried out during each farm visit, ie a Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA), behavioural observations (BO), a Human Animal Relationship test (HAR) and different individual parameters (IPs), eg bursitis and tail-biting. Test-retest reliability was evaluated by a Wilcoxon signed rank test (W) and by calculation of the Smallest Detectable Change (SDC) and Limits of Agreement (LoA). The QBA presented non-satisfactory agreement between farm visits. However, good agreement, in general, was found for the BO. For the HAR, no reliability could be detected. Most IPs were of acceptable agreement, with the exception of bursitis and manure on the body. Bursitis showed great differences, which can be explained by difficulties in the assessment when the animals moved around or their legs were dirty. The disagreement in the parameter manure on the body can be explained by seasonal effects. Disagreement was further found concerning the parameters coughing, sneezing, pleuritis, pneumonia and milkspots. Feasibility was good; both observers could be well-trained to fulfil the protocol. Furthermore, the time needed for an assessment did not exceed 6 h. The parts of the protocol that proved to be insufficiently reliable need to be addressed in the future in order to enhance and improve the objective measurement of animal welfare.

Test–retest reliability of the Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for pigs applied to sows and piglets. Part 2. Assessment of the principles good feeding, good housing, and good health1

“…These results correspond to the results of other studies, e.g. Temple et al (2011) and Czycholl et al (2016b), who confirmed the feasibility of the Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for pigs applied to growing pigs. Czycholl et al (2016b) numbered the time for a complete protocol assessment to 315 min on average ranging from 270 to Table 5.…”

“…Temple et al (2011) and Czycholl et al (2016b), who confirmed the feasibility of the Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for pigs applied to growing pigs. Czycholl et al (2016b) numbered the time for a complete protocol assessment to 315 min on average ranging from 270 to Table 5. Mean values (%) and SE of the 5 farm visits (1 to 5) for the scores of the assessment of individual indicators in gestating sows with increased number of animals under assessment Temple et al (2011) executed a complete protocol assessment in 381 min on average ranging from 315 to 580 min.…”

“…The goal is to standardize the assessment of animal welfare and thereby to improve animal welfare (Blokhuis et al, 2013). Within the protocols, test-retest reliability had already been tested for beef cattle (e.g., Kirchner et al, 2014b) and growing pigs (e.g., Temple et al, 2013;Czycholl et al, 2016b). However, the Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for pigs applied to sows and piglets had not yet entirely undergone testing for reliability on-farm.…”

The Use of Traditional Fear Tests to Evaluate Different Emotional Circuits in Cattle

“…The PS subjectively evaluates the cattle's willingness to be approached by a human ( Table 3) and may be useful in evaluating the PANIC system. However, the PS has been criticized for lack of objectivity, because different evaluators may have different interpretations of behavior, and several subjective evaluations have suffered from poor inter-rater reliability 26 .…”

An Indication of Reliability of the Two-Level Approach of the AWIN Welfare Assessment Protocol for Horses

“…Thus, not surprisingly, studies concerning the Welfare Quality ® protocols especially have criticised a lack of feasibility, i.e., that an assessment takes too long [ 7 ]. For example, protocol assessments on growing pig farms usually take on average around five hours [ 15 ]. Although the general aim of the Welfare Quality ® project, i.e., that a protocol assessment should be completed within one day, has been reached [ 16 ], this time requirement hinders practical implementation with regard to, e.g., certification purposes or regular self-assessments by the farmers as the question of how to pay for that additional work load remains.…”