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Welfare assessment of horses: the AWIN approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

E Dalla Costa ,
F Dai ,
D Lebelt ,
P Scholz ,
S Barbieri ,
E Canali ,
AJ Zanella  and
M Minero
E Dalla Costa*
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie e Sanità Pubblica, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
F Dai
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie e Sanità Pubblica, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
D Lebelt
Affiliation:
Pferdeklinik Havelland/Havelland Equine Hospital, Beetzsee-Brielow, Germany
P Scholz
Affiliation:
Pferdeklinik Havelland/Havelland Equine Hospital, Beetzsee-Brielow, Germany
S Barbieri
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie e Sanità Pubblica, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
E Canali
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie e Sanità Pubblica, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
AJ Zanella
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Preventiva e Saúde Animal, Pirassununga, Brazil
M Minero
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie e Sanità Pubblica, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: emanuela.dallacosta@unimi.it
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Abstract

The EU-funded Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) research project (2011-2015) aimed to improve animal welfare through the development of practical on-farm animal welfare assessment protocols. The present study describes the application of the AWIN approach to the development of a welfare assessment protocol for horses (Equus caballus). Its development required the following steps: (i) selection of potential welfare indicators; (ii) bridging gaps in knowledge; (iii) consulting stakeholders; and (iv) testing a prototype protocol on-farm. Compared to existing welfare assessment protocols for other species, the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for horses introduces a number of innovative aspects, such as implementation of a two-level strategy focused on improving on-farm feasibility and the use of electronic tools to achieve standardised data collection and so promote rapid outcomes. Further refinement to the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for horses is needed in order to firstly gather data from a larger reference population and, secondly, enhance the welfare assessment protocol with reference to different horse housing and husbandry conditions.

Keywords

animal-basedanimal welfarehorseindicatormeasureon-farm
Type
Articles
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 481 - 488
Copyright
© 2016 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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