Identifying animal welfare impacts of livestock air transport

Air transport of livestock occurs frequently from most Australian major cities. The total journey time starts with road transport from the farm or pre-export facility to the departing airport where livestock are crated, and ends with the unloading of animals at the premises or farm in the importing country. We reviewed the literature regarding airfreight and conclude that there was minimal information on current practices within this industry, particularly for procedures after arrival at the Australian airport, and during the on-board phase.     

动物福利对动物保健业的影响

1　动物福利理念的提出与发展　　动物福利理念的提出 ,已有 2 0多年历史。1 976年 ,Hughes将饲养于农场的动物福利定义为“动物与它的环境协调一致的精神和生理完全健康的状态”。 1 990年 ,我国台湾学者夏良宙提出 ,就对待动物而言 ,动物福利可以简述为“善待活着的动物 ,减少死亡的痛苦”。自 1 980年以来 ,欧盟及美国、加拿大、澳大利亚等国都进行了动物福利方面的立法 ,在畜禽饲养、运输和屠宰过程中实施。瑞士政府近年来通过立法禁止出售和进口由笼养系统生产的鸡蛋。1 998年 6月 ,丹麦议会通过了一项关于妊娠母猪和青年母猪室内装置…     

Opinions on the raising of pets by animal welfare standards

Keeping of small pet animals is still increasing and, in most cases, has a well-meaning motivation in the sense of a charitable engagement. However, false estimation of the specific requirements of these animals often results in inadequate keeping, feeding and housing conditions. The most frequent mistakes, which finally may cause abnormal behaviour or even illness, are a restricted radius of action, missing of social contacts and absence of adequate sexual partners.     

Development of animal welfare legislation for the European Community

Animal welfare is of increasing importance for the European Community, which is reinforced by the Protocol to the EC Treaty on protection and welfare of animals. After the recent improvements to the legislation on the protection of pigs, the next priority for the Commission is the further development of the standards of animal transportation, particularly since a report of the Commission pointed out shortcomings in the enforcement of the existing rules in this area.     

参照动物福利国际标准,规范兽医临床实践教学

兽医临床实验实训教学在兽医临床课程体系中占有重要地位,而实验动物在教学中起到重要的支撑作用,要在保证实验实训教学质量和学生实践能力培养的基础上,同时兼顾实验动物福利。本文阐述了兽医临床实验实训教学的特点、动物福利的内涵与应用意义及动物福利在教学中的应用,为能在保证教学要求的同时更合理使用实验动物提供参考。     

Compliance rate of livestock vehicles with welfare standards, and behavior of feeder cattle at loading ramp

The objective of the present study was to assess cattle welfare during transportation. Vehicle inspection and observation of cattle behavior during loading operations were conducted at two major livestock markets (T and M) in Japan. Market T provided young feeder cattle (Wagyu and cross‐bred aged 6.8–9.0 months) mainly for regions farther than 1500 km. Market M provided young cattle (Wagyu aged 6.6–11.2 month) and calves (crossbred and Holstein aged 0.7–1.5 month) for nearby regions within 500 km. Market T had loading platforms 1.0 m high, whereas market M had partial allocation of platforms and forced most transporters to load cattle from the ground. Vehicles were inspected according to the welfare standards for beef cattle of the RSPCA. Number of vehicles inspected was 36 and 31 in markets T and M, respectively. Cattle hesitations (kneeling down, slipping, balking, backing down, turning around, jumping and eliminating) were observed at the loading ramp. Vehicles inspected at the markets complied with most requirements of the welfare standards, but non‐compliance was found in two requirements: in market M, 71.0% of vehicles had the loading ramp at a >20% incline, whereas 17.1% of vehicles did in market T (P < 0.001). Slope of the loading ramp was steeper in market M than in market T (33.9 ± 17.3% vs. 14.9 ± 8.9%, P < 0.001). Market M had higher proportion of vehicles that did not comply with the requirement ‘Both loading ramps and tail boards must be appropriately designed and covered with litter, to prevent animals from falling off or slipping’ compared with market T (83.9% vs. 17.1%, P < 0.001). Higher frequencies were observed in two kinds of hesitating behavior in market M than in market T (both P < 0.01): mean frequencies (times/head) of slipping and balking were 1.3 ± 1.2 and 2.0 ± 1.8 in market M, and 0.2 ± 0.2 and 0.7 ± 0.5 in market T, respectively. Steeper loading ramp was correlated with higher frequencies of kneeling down (r = 0.53), slipping (r = 0.59), balking (r = 0.45) and backing down (r = 0.42) (all P < 0.05).     

Content and structure of Swedish animal welfare legislation and private standards for dairy cattle

In this study the animal welfare legislation and three private standards in Sweden, focusing on dairy cows, were analysed. The aim was to investigate to what extent these regulations consisted of resource-, management- or animal-based requirements, to analyse the content and discuss consequences. The results showed a higher proportion of management- and resource-based requirements than animal-based in all regulations. However, the borders between these categories were not as distinct as expected. The private standards put slightly more emphasis on the animal-based requirements and on animal welfare at herd level. It was primarily the organic standard that included higher animal welfare demands than the legislation. Due to vague wording and guideline statements it was not always clear if the welfare level achieved would be the same in practice although the requirements were similar. It will be necessary to clearly distinguish between requirements and measures to make the policy process more transparent.     

Organic livestock production in Europe: aims,rules and trends with special emphasis on animal health and welfare

Organic farming in Europe has increased during the last decade but the market share is still relatively low with less than 3% of farmed arable land and an even smaller proportion of farm animal species raised in organic livestock production systems. In many aspects, the biological and ethological needs of animals in organic farming systems are better met than on conventional farms. Emphasis is placed on high standards in product quality, animal health and welfare. However, limitations due to the strict organic rules place high demands on management qualifications. Practical experience shows that organic livestock production is certainly no guarantee of good animal health and welfare. It is suggested to develop quality assurance programmes for process quality assessment to ensure a certain level of management standard. Epidemiological studies are needed to evaluate health risk factors for health and welfare problems in organic livestock production. The concept of organic animal farming can only fulfil the criteria for sustainability, if all requirements on animal health and welfare, together with product quality and ecological soundness, are strongly considered and controlled.     

Foreign animal disease outbreaks, the animal welfare implications for Canada: risks apparent from international experience

Any outbreak of an Office International des Epizooties List A disease, such as classical swine fever or foot and mouth disease, has severe consequences for animal welfare, livestock production, exports of animals and animal products, and the environment. The public concern with the animal welfare effects of methods of disease eradication that result in the destruction of large numbers of uninfected animals has initiated a reconsideration of disease eradication policy in Europe. In many recent List A disease epizootics, the financial cost of addressing animal welfare concerns in healthy animals has greatly exceeded the cost of stamping out disease in infected herds. In the event of a similar incursion in Canada, the number of animals subject to welfare slaughter will be far greater than the number of infected animals killed. Current national disease eradication plans in Canada do not address the animal welfare component of disease control methods.     

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of traceability among livestock traders in south-western Nigeria: implications for sustainable livestock industry

Livestock diseases and other animal health events are a threat to achieving sustainable livestock industry. The knowledge of trace-back and the practice of providing feedback on diseases encountered in slaughtered animals from the abattoir to the farm can help limit the spread as well as manage potential future incidents of such diseases. We assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of 200 willing livestock traders on traceability in Bodija Municipal Abattoir, south-western Nigeria. The results reveal that the majority of these traders had poor knowledge (79.5 %) and practices (74.0 %) of traceability, though 89.5 % demonstrated good attitudes. While 22.9 % knew that traceability could be an effective means to control diseases, only a lower proportion (9.0 %) knew the health status of the animals being purchased. Though 29.0 % reported the diseases encountered in their animals during slaughter to the farm, only 9.5 % followed up to ensure the farmers take steps at preventing further occurrence of the reported diseases. While age (p?=?0.000; 0.014) and education (p?=?0.000; 0.000) were both significant for good knowledge and attitudes, frequency of condemned cases (p?=?0.000) and length of years in the trade (p?=?0.004) were, respectively, significant for good knowledge and attitudes with none associated with practice. These poor levels of knowledge and practices of traceability are a threat to sustainable livestock industry, food security and human health; hence, there is an urgent need to institute national feedback mechanism on slaughtered animals in order to strengthen interventions against diseases at farm levels.     

实施畜禽福利养殖的必要性及措施

动物福利养殖不仅关系到人们的健康,也严重影响着我国畜禽养殖业的发展。近年来,随着我国畜产品在对外贸易中屡次遭受动物福利壁垒,福利养殖开始受到人们的广泛关注。文章围绕动物福利,集中阐述了畜禽在生产过程中的福利措施,并在此基础上对未来畜牧业的发展提出了展望。     

提醒养殖加工出口企业:动物福利壁垒不可不防

最近，美国一家名为“善待动物协会”的民间组织，号召人们对肯德基采取一场全球性抵制运动。除召开新闻发布会以外，该组织还在一些主要城市的大街上散发传单和招贴画，揭露肯德基的非“鸡”道行为。该动物组织指控肯德基为了降低成本，公司所用的鸡全部被养在拥挤不堪的笼子里。由于鸡笼狭小，饲养员疏于清扫，鸡     

Development and implementation of veterinary anesthesia medical quality standards for primary care

ObjectiveThe provision of general anesthesia is common in veterinary hospitals and procedures include some level of risk, up to and including mortality. A quality initiative was introduced with a focus on reducing canine and feline anesthesia mortality. This paper describes the development and implementation of risk-based medical quality standards (MQS) and resultant impacts on anesthesia mortality.Study designThis was a qualitative observational study. MQS focused on the provision of anesthesia were researched, developed and implemented. Anesthesia mortality rates, captured via an automated process based on the electronic medical record, were recorded before and after implementation. Compliance to standards was determined via hospital auditing.AnimalsClient-owned dogs and cats presenting to Banfield Pet Hospital (a national network of primary care hospitals) for elective and nonelective general anesthesia procedures. Over the course of the study, 2,038,318 dogs and 350,410 cats had a general anesthesia event.MethodsLiterature reviews and analysis of veterinary patient medical records identified risk factors associated with anesthesia mortality. Risk factors informed the development of MQS. Evidence-based standards focused on the provision of general anesthesia were written, reviewed, evaluated and edited. Implementation occurred over 6 months via a robust communication plan. Anesthesia mortality rates were continuously monitored before, during and after the introduction of standards. Compliance with all quality standards was assessed via hospital-based auditing performed on an annual basis.ResultsPrior to quality standards implementation, anesthesia mortality rates for dogs and cats combined was 7.4 deaths/10,000 procedures. At 6 months after implementation, the mortality rate was 6.24 deaths/10,000 procedures, representing a 16% decrease. Compliance with standards improved over time with continued focus and education.Conclusions and clinical relevanceDevelopment, implementation and continued focus on MQS can improve anesthetic safety and reduce anesthesia mortality in primary care veterinary hospitals.     

The process of building a new governmental authority based on public demands for improved animal welfare

Sweden has a long history of detailed and progressive legislation related to animal welfare for laboratory, farm and companion animals. Previously, these issues have been the responsibility of the Swedish Board of Agriculture (SBA). As a growing proportion of the public opinion and the political establishment felt that the animal welfare related issues were not given proper attention at the SBA, a political decision was recently made to separate animal housing, management and welfare from the SBA and create an independent Animal Welfare Agency. This Agency was formally launched on January 1st 2004. The government has commissioned the Agency to improve animal welfare by evaluating, enforcing and developing legislation. The agency should consider scientific evidence when writing new legislation. Also, the Agency incorporates an external Animal Welfare Council, which, among other things, discusses ethical aspects in relation to existing or proposed legislature. The new Agency must deal with a diversity of public expectations. Animal rights groups have high expectations regarding new and stricter legislation, for example related to fur animals, while some farmers fear that production aspects may be completely lost in discussions about improving welfare standards for farm animals.