Animal welfare in organic production

Directives and settings for organic production in Europe are set by the EU. In addition, each country has their own national laws and decrees, which detail the EU laws. Organic production is a farm management practice, which combines

• production of high-quality food
• respect for animals and their behavioral needs
• eco-friendliness
• sustainability.

Animals are essential in organic production. Growing animal feed diversifies the crop rotation, animals recycle nutrients, promote natural diversity, produce foodstuffs, create income and  tend to the landscape.

Welfare of animals in organic production

A miniature horse treated for leg deformity
(c) University of Pennsylvania

IFOAM has stated that "All management must aim for good animal health and welfare and must be governed by the physiological and basic ethological needs of the animal in question". (Basic standards for organic production and processing, 2002). Preventive health care is the key: producers select the best suitable breeds, feed them with high-quality feed, enabling them with access to outdoors and avoiding too high an animal density. There are strict regulations to the use of medicide for animals, which guarantees that animals are medicated only when needed, not "just in case". However, sick animals are and must be treated accordingly. Veterinarians may prescipt preventive medication, such as deworming. Vaccinations, Phytotherapeutical and homepathic treatments are allowed. Still, any animal must be removed from organic production if they are medicated more than three times a year (if the animal lives longer than 12 months) or more than once (for animals which live less than 12 months).

Some common breeding practices are banned in organic production. Artifial insemination (AI) is allowed, even though it is recommended that all breeding is based on natural methods. Embryo transfer is not allowed, but semen from embryo-transferred bulls may be used in AI. If an animal is bought to an organic production farm, that animal may be embryo transferred.

Allowed and banned animal handling procedures
A capable person may mark a goat, sheep, pig or a cow with ear marks, ear notching, tattooing or with an ID chip. Lambs can be castrated. Piglet canines may be rasped only if they cause problems to the sow, and the problems cannot be solved in another manner. Veterinarians are allowed to castrate goats, horses and cows, but the usage of pain killers is mandatory. Same applies for burning or removal of horns from lambs, goats and calves, and installing a nose ring to a cow or bull.

Producers are not allowed to keep animals chained, although some exceptions apply. Chaining a birthing animal is not allowed under any circumstances. Sows must be kept in groups until the end of pregnancy and during lactation: sow crates are not allowed. Birthing crates are also banned.

Usage of hormones  or other medication to increase growth, fertility or production is strictly forbidden.

Feeding

(c) Sneeuberg

The feeding of cattle, sheep, horses and goats must be based on grazing. 60 % of their daily feed must be roughage, but for the first three months of a cow's lactation period this percentage can be lowered to 50 %. Rearing of anemic animals (for example for production of white veal) is banned.

Feed should be produced on the same farm they are used. 50 % of the feed for herbivore animals must  be endemic. All feed must be organically produced, but in an emergency normal feeds can be used with a special permit.

Feeding of young animals must be mainly milk from their mother or a female of the same species, until the animals are at the age of

• 3 months (cattle and horses)
• 8 weeks (goats)
• 45 days (lambs)
• 40 days (pigs).

Milk powder or other liquid feed can be used only during the 2-year transition phase to organic production, and even then only within limits.

Requirements for animal shelters

Animal shelters for cattle, goats, pigs and sheep must have good, non-slippery flooring, and a maximum of 50 % of the floor may be grated. Resting area must be on solid floor and have litter. All shelters must have windows, which cover an area equivalent to 1/20 of the floor area.

Poultry must have at least 8 hours of darkness in their lighting program, and at least 1/3 of the flooring must be solid (not grated). Broiler chickens must be reared a minimum of 81 days and turkeys for 100 days (females) or 140 days (males). In normal production broilers are slaughtered at the age of ~50 days. Each section of the henhouse may have a maximum of 4800 broilers or 3000 egg-laying hens.
 

(c) mother Earth news

Outing
When national laws don't state otherwise, animals must be able to go out at any time. Harsh weather conditions or low-quality ground are an exception. Maximum of 75 % of the outdoor pen may be roofed.  During the grazing seasons, goats, sheep and cattle must be allowed to pasture daily. The outdoor pen for pigs must have litter to nose and root. Poultry must be able to spend at least 1/3 of their life outdoors in an outdoor pen with at least 50 % covered in undergrowth.

How well do organic animals fare?

Feeding of animals in organic production has many limitations, but it does not appear to affect to milk yield of cows. Cattle in organic farm does not seem to have less udder or hoof problems compared to traditional production.

Broiler chickens suffer slightly less in organic production, but using slow-growing broiler breeds in organic production has clearly improved animal welfare. In some studies hens show slightly more pecking and cannibalism in organic production, perhaps due to increased light and flock size (egg-laying hens in traditional production are often in cages with 2-7 other birds). In other studies the beaviour of hens was similar in organic and traditional farms.

For pigs the results of actual welfare in organic vs traditional production are mixed. Organic pigs seem to have more joint injuries and liver parasites, but less lung sac inflammations and lung infections. They have less tail damange than traditionally reared pigs, likely due to more stimuli and lower animal density.  All in all, organic farms seem to suffer from the same welfare problems than traditional farms.

Behaviour and welfare of pigs

Pigs differ from other ungulates in many aspects: they give birth to many offspring at once, they are omnivorous, they build a nest, sleep for 12-14 hours straight and they prefer to rest close to other members of the pack. Pigs were originally domesticated from wild boars 9000 years ago in Turkey. Like chickens, pigs have changed in phenotype, but they still share instincts with their wild ancestors. Pigs are omnivorous: they eat vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, fruit, insects, worms, small animals and even carcasses.

Senses and social behaviour

Pigs rely strongly on their sense of smell and hearing. Sows recognize their piglets by smell, and boars smell the sows to check their heat. Voice and hearing are very important in the social behaviour of pigs. Pigs "chat" nearly constantly in quiet grunts to stay in contact with their pack. Warning signals and cries for help are high-pitched and loud. Boars sing a "love song" to attract sows, and the sow's voice signals tell the piglets when milk is available.

(c) Daily Mail. Check their article about pig slaughtering.

Pigs can't see very well. Thus their gestures are not subtle and small, but require a lot of space. For example, a dog recognizes a slight turn of the head as a calming signal. If a pig needs to calm a stronger animal, it turns away completely and then runs away for a short distance. In piggeries this is often impossible, so fights and injuries are common. Naturally pigs live in peaceful groups with stable social structure. In piggeries groups are often mixed, so the structure changes a lot and the animals have to create the "pecking order" over and over again.

Unlike many other animals, pigs are contact animals. A sow does not lick its piglets, nor do pigs lick one another. Instead, they eat in groups and sleep side by side, close together. Even mating behaviour is rather straightforward: instead of courting, the boar can just mount the sow. Sows have a standing reflex, which means that in heat it will stand still when pressure is applied to it's loins. In addition to sleeping, eating is also synchronized. Pigs wake up at sunrise, and spend most of their time nosing the ground for food. They eat for 8 hours, and sleep 12-14 hours a day.

(c) visualphotos.com

Cleanliness: Contrary to popular belief, pigs are very tidy animals. They always separate a sleeping area from eating area and "bathroom" area. In piggeries this is not possible, and pigs are forced to sleep in their feces and eat in a dirty environment.

Skin care: Pigs have two ways for skin care: wallowing in mud and scratching themselves against walls. Wallowing in mud is not just fun, it also cools the animal on a hot day, rubs away dead skin and removes parasites.

Thermoregulation: Piglets under 3 weeks of age cannot thermoregulate, and in piggeries they depend on heat lamps. In the wild piglets live in a nest built by the sow, so they stay warm. Adult pigs have almost no fur and no sweat glands, so they can thermoregulate only by changing their behaviour.

Parturition and weaning

One or two days before giving birth, sows start to look for a place for a nest. They may wander several kilometers searching for a good spot. 6-12 hours before parturition the sow begins the actual nest building. It digs a shallow hole, and then collects branches, hay, turf and other materials, which it uses to build a nest. 1-2 hours before parturition the sow lays down on her nest. When the piglets are born, the sow lays passively. Domesticated pigs give birth to 10-15 piglets, which are born about 15 minutes from one another. After birth piglets instinctively crawl to the udder and start suckling. If a piglet doesn't get colostrum within few hours of birth, it will die. Colostrum is vital, for the piglets have no antibodies. If the sow is vaccinated before parturition, the piglets will get immunity as well.

For the first three days the piglets fight for teats, but they then develop a clear "teat order": each piglet has its own teat. This is important, because after 12 hours the sow gives milk only once every 45 minutes. It announces milk letting by grunting, and every piglet has about 10 minutes to find a teat and suckle.

(c) Keith Weller / Shutterstock

The sow stays in her nest for the first 1-2 days, after which she leaves the nest for a short time as she goes eating. On 4th - 5th day the piglets leave their nest to follow the sow, and learn to find solid food. After 10-14 days the sow and her litter leave the nest and return to the herd. If the piglets do not follow the sow at this time, she may abandon the whole litter. The sow starts weaning her litter from the first week by slowly introducing the piglets to solid food and by regulating her milk letting. Final weaning will happen when the piglets are 10-25 weeks old, depending on the availability of food.

In piggeries sows are not allowed to build nests, and they are often confined to tiny parturition crates for weeks. The crates don't allow the sow to turn around, sometimes not even to stand up. Crates are used so the sow wouldn't lie down on the piglets. Naturally the sow has an anti-crushing behaviour, but in piggeries the sow often cannot hear if a piglet screams when sat on. Studies show that parturition is faster, more piglets are born alive and the sow lets more milk when giving birth freely, compared to birthing crate. Building a having a sest also calms the sow, calms the parturition and improves the relationship beween the sow and the piglets.

Welfare of pigs

The welfare of pigs consists of several basic building blocks:

• health
• air quality and temperature
• Pen structure (size of pen, flooring material)
• availability of litter and  other stimuli
• social environment (stable groups)
• feeding (appropriate feed, enough space for all pigs to eat at the same time, enough roughage)
• Attitude and skills of the caretaker

Pigs would eat for 8 hours every day. In a piggery this isn't possible, so the animals need plenty of modifiable litter and other objects which they can nose, chew, eat or otherwise modify. Straw, tree branches or hemp / sisal ropes are very good for this purpose. Problems with any of the factors of pig welfare may lead to the most serious behavioral prolem in any piggery: tail biting. Tail biting has been discussed in the entry about pig diseases.

In piggeries, pigs are moved from one department or piggery to one another several times. Each department should take into consideration the needs pigs have at that particular age.

Parturition dept: Since piglets are very sensitive, clean, dry and warm environment is vital for them. During the first few days piglets are castrated, ear-marked, given a tattoo and an iron injection, and their canines are filed. All these cause pain and risk for infections. Parturition dept must have clean space available for these operations. Flooring material is important, so the feces and urine can be cleaned, but the floor isn't too hard or cold for the piglets.

Intensive piggery, a "hog lot"(c) Wikipedia

Weaning dept: High-quality and clean water and feed are important to young pigs, who still have no stomach acids to kill any bacteria they ingest. Stable groups and temperature are needed, and stimuli help the pigs to relieve stress and pass the time.

Meat pig farm: For adult pigs, stable groups and enough space are important. They must be able to sleep together and eat together, have separate areas for eating, sleeping and defecating/urinating, and they need space for social behaviour. Stimuli are also important. Temperature can vary more than in previous departments.

Department for pregnant sows: Like the meat pig farm, but pregnant sows need even more space than meat pigs.

Behaviour and welfare of poultry

A red junglefowl male. (c) James Warwick

Modern chicken was domesticated from the red junglefowl, gallus gallus, approximatey 8000 years ago. The junglefowl lived in a flock in the protection of a thick undergrowth. Even though breeding has increased the growth and egg-laying capacity of modern chickens, they still share many behaviours and needs with their ancestor.

Flock and social behaviour

Naturaly, chickens form flocks of 20 chickens and 1-3 roosters. Flock size can vary from 5 to 30 chickens. The rooster tends to his chickens, ensuring their safety and mating with them every night during the egg-laying season. Young birds live on the edges of the flock. Even though chickens rest tightly side by side, during daytime they keep some distance between each others.

Chicken flocks have a rather strict social order, where the oldest and largest birds with the largest comb (the red thing on the top of a chicken's head is called a comb) dominate. Young chicks begin finding their place in the pecking order at the age of 6-8 weeks, and the order is all settled in 1-2 weeks. Chickens can recognize only up to 80 other members of the flock. When the flock size is larger, like in most henhouses, the pecking order is never stable. Fights are common in such circumstances. Roosters have a calming effect on flocks of chickens. Some producers keep roosters in their henhouse just to keep the peace.

Senses and daily schedule

Chickens have an excellent eyesight, and they can see 330º around them. In the dark chickens can barely see, so they climb up to roost or trees to spend the night, safe from predators. However, chickens can see UV-light, and in fact recognize one another by sight. Roosting during the night is a strong need for chickens, and the roost must be about 1,5 metres from the ground. The most dominating birds fly to the top, while other birds settle close together to the lower branches. In a henhouse, where the light program is controlled, "night" has to come slowly after a period of "twilight". This serves as a warning to the chickens, and they can make their way to the roost while they still can see. The roosts actually also help young chickens to develop 3D visualisation, if they are allowed to roost when very young. Chickens allowed roosting later in life never learn to use them, and have poor 3D visualisation.

After a night's rest the chickens wake up at sunrise, and lay eggs. After laying an egg the chickens eat, and would spend 90 % of the day searching for food. In midday the birds rest and bathe in sand, and afternoon is dedicated for tending to their feathers and mating. Right before night time chickens eat as much as possible, storing energy for the night. Chickens' diet consists of seeds, green feed, insects, worms, larvae and even mice. Chickens prefer to search for their food by pecking at litter or ground, instead of eating for a full bowl. 

Dust bathing. (c) The Daily Dish

Bathing is an important need for chickens. Chickens bathe in dust every other day, throwing sand on their back and flapping their wings. Sand helps to keep parasites away from the bird's skin, and keeps the feathers healthy. Chickens bathe also in sunlight, opening their wings and sometimes laying down on their backs. The reason or benefits of sunbathing are still unknown. Like other birds, chickens also arrange their feathers and stroke them with their beaks, spreading the fat from their skin to the feathers. This nsures the feathers' insulating capacity.

Reproduction

Egg-laying hens in henhouses are bought from breeding farms, where fast-growing but infertile hybrids are created for production use. These animals simply lay eggs until they are culled and the meat is either destroyed or used as animal feed. Naturally, a chicken would lay eggs once a year, during springtime. The chicken leaves the herd to build a nest. She walks to her nest each morning, lays one fertilized egg, and returns to mate with the rooster in the afternoon. Egg-laying stops when she sees about 10 eggs in her nest. She will then incubate the eggs, occasionally turning them around, for 21 days.

(c) Quaker Anne

The chicks recognize their mother from her sound right after hatching. Their yolk sac has enough nutrition for two days, after which they need to start picking food on their own. The mother teaches the chicks where to find food. Chicks develop fast: they run at the age of 2 days and fly short distances at the age of 10 days. For the first three weeks the chicks cannot thermoregulate well, and must sleep under their mother's wings. At 1,5 months of age they already sleep on roosts. Until three months of age the chicks stay with their mother. After that the chicken drives male chicks off to another flock or to the borders of the current flock.
 

Production environment creates behavioural problems

Chickens in modern henhouses live either in small cages or in flocks of tens of thousands of birds. They rarely have any litter to peck, and their food is served from a bowl. Roosts are rare, and often too low. Bathing behaviour is often impossible due to lack of space and bathing material. If chickens are not allowed to roost or to search for their food, they will get frustrated and stressed. This leads to disruptive behaviour, which can be very serious. Frustrated chickens often peck one another, tearing away feathers and causing wounds. Chickens are omnivorous, so seeing blood excites them to peck on the target even more, possibly killing the victim even if it is a chicken of the same flock. Cannibalism among production chickens is not rare, but it is abnormal.

In production henhouses, the eggs are collected daily. The visual stimuli of "enough eggs in the nest" never occurs, and the chickens continue to lay eggs indefinitely. Their metabolism is thus under heavy stress: it is meant to create 15 eggs a year instead of 300. To meet the production requirements, the chickens are fed heavily, so they may grow too fast. Fast growth combined with small cramped spaces (cages) causes leg injuries and weak muscle strength.

When chickens are reared on floor  instead of cages they have better chance of exercise, bathing and searching for food. Flock sizes are often huge, so fights, cannibalism, feather pecking and injuries are more common than in cages. Free movement may also increase the risk of sickness. Individua chickens are more difficut to check when they're on the floor

How to reduce disruptive behaviour?

• Using red light prevents the chickens from seeing blood, thus decreasing their instinct to peck an already injured bird.
• Dimming the lights
• Observing the birds more closely, and removing those who peck others
• Most importantly: allowing the animals access to roosts, bathing material and to search for food

Broiler production

Packed chickens. (c) Antaryamin's blog

 Broilers are hybrid birds reared on floor in flocks of tens of thousands. They are bred to grow incredibly fast and to become large, so each animal would produce the maximum amount of meat. A broiler lives only five weeks. It is sold from the commercial breeded as an egg or small chick to the broiler farm. Because their fast growth and cramped space, leg injuries, heart and circulatory problems are very common. Many broilers die suddenly of heart failure, and are simply removed from the poultry house. When the birds are five weeks old, they are gathered to crates using a "hoover", a chicken catcher. Gathering and transporting the animals often leads to immensely painful broken legs and wings in addition to stress and fear.


Chickens breeding broiler-breed chicks are also bred to grow as fast as the broilers. However, such a fast growth would kill the animal before it's able to reproduce, so the broiler dams are fed only 30 % of what they would need. At the age of 39 days, a freely fed broiler chicked weighs 2,2 kilos, but a broiler dam on limited feeding weighs only 615 grams. The dams are constantly hungry and frustrated, so they fight often during feeding time, and drink water excessively to ease their hunger. Elevated stress levels have been measured. Stereotypical behaviour and pecking are common due to high stress.


45 days: The life and death of a Broiler Chicken is a short 12-minute video of how broilers are reared. Warning: may disturb sensitive viewers:

Behaviour and welfare of cattle

Estimating the welfare of an animal starts with knowing what is normal for this species and individual. Based on this knowledge we can notice changes in the behaviour, and study the possible welfare problems causing the change. So what behaviour is normal for cattle?

Naturally cattle would form nuclear herds of one bull and its cows, which are all related to the bull. The bull guards its herd and mates with cows in heat. All bovines are prey, not predators, so they constantly watch around and are easy to scare. Domesticated animals scare less easily, but they still have the instinct to "run first and think later". Ruminating is well suited for living amongst predators in open spaces: the animal eats very fast, just gathering food to it's rumen, before it hides away in a calm place where it can ruminate for several hours.

Senses

All bovines have a wide visual area, and just by slightly turning their heads they can see directly behind them. However, their sight is not very good. They distinguish movement far away very well, but have difficulty seeing what's close in front. Strong contrasts are also difficult for the cow to understand, so they tend to avoid them. Some farmers keep their animals in a pasture surrounded only with a white line on the ground! Since the white is so strong against the green grass, the cattle stays away from it (of course, in fright they would run over it and learn that it's only a drawn line). Indoors cows may avoid grates on the floor and shadowy corners, because they cannot see what it is. To see what's low infront of it, cattle must stop and "zoom" with their eyes, adjusting their lenses to see near.

Cattle have a good sense of smell, and an excellent sense of hearing. They recognize their offspring, each others and their caretakers mostly from their smell. The bulls can also easily smell the approaching heat of the cows. Studies show that bulls can detect cow heats much better than humans, which is why some farmers keep a bull on their farm just to detect even the silent heats. The range of sounds heard by cattle is much wider than what humans can hear. Especially high sounds (which humans can't even hear!), often generated by AC or milking robots, can frighten cattle.

Calving

Cows leave their herd right before calving. In farms the animals should be taken to calving pens, where they can be alone. When the calf has been born, the mother eats the fetal membranes to remove all signs of the newborn. It then licks the calf. By licking, the mother immediately learns to recognize her young, and also refreshens the calf and assists its breathing. Cow's tongue coarse, so it also dries the calf's skin from the fetal liquids.

A heathy calf is on its feet an hour after birth, and poking it's mother to find the udder. Young cows may not allow the calf to suckle at first, so it's vital to make sure the calf gets colostrum within few hours of its birth! Otherwise the calf does not get the antibodies it needs. Sometimes just small amount of colostrum milked from the mother and fed to the calf can get an apathetic, weak calf to get up and find the udder.

A video of a cow licking its newborn, and the quest to find the udder.

In the wild, the cow would hide the calf for the first days. Only after four days it would lead the calf to the herd. The reason for the wait is that the calf does not become bonded with its mother immediately. To make sure the calf will recognize its mom, the mom has to stay separate from the herd. In farms, calves are usually separated from their moms within a day from birth. The result is often a distressed cow and a sligtly confused calf, but within a few days both have adapted and act normally again.
 
See Stookey's article for more information about maternal behaviour of cows.

Behaviour of calves
Calves grow in groups, since naturally cows give birth roughly at the same time of the year. In groups the calves learn to know each others, they develop relationships and learn to behave like cattle by playing. Calves play most in the age of 2-3 months. Playing develops their muscles and keeps them healthy physically and mentally.  If the calf is not separated from its mom, it will suckle for 10-15 minutes 4-6 times a day, totalling up to 10-12 litres of milk.  Suckiling is not just a way to get food. When the calf pokes the cow's udder, the cow's body releases oxytocin. Oxytocin releases milk and acts as a mood enhancer. The calf's body releases oxytocin and gastric hormones once it suckles, relaxing the calf and enhancing its digestion.

In farms, calves are handled very unnaturally. They are weaned too soon, and often fed only twice a day. They may get sick, not grow well, have digestive problems and suck the ears, tails or penises of other calves. Calves have a very strong need to suckle. This need must be filled by providing them with dummy teats and/or feeding them from teat buckets 4-6 times a day for 10-15 minutes.

The cow will wean its calf slowly after 8-12 months. Bull calves will be driven away to their own group, but cows can stay in the nuclear group.

Eating, exercise and resting

Adult cows have a need to chew their food and to ruminate. If they are fed with too much grain or not enough roughage, they will become frustrated. Frustrated cows and bulls may roll or loll their tongues. Since cattle eats at the same time, they must all be able to do so even in a barn. There has to be enough space to eat, no need to stretch and reach to get the feed, and enough feed for everyone so that even the most timid animals get to eat.

Cattle may not look like a very sporting species, but when grazing, they walk up to 3 kilometers daily. The need to exercise builds up in a few days, causing disruptive behaviour and frustration. They must be able to move freely. Free movement also enables them to care for their fur and to socialize with other animals. Cattle must lick and scratch their skin to keep it clean and healthy. Licking other animals also stabilizes the group. Cows and bulls are large animals, and need space just to rise and lay down. Many barns have too short stalls, so the animals have problems with the most basic movements.

Cattle rests for 10-13 hours a day, of which only 4 hours is sleep. Even then they sleep only about 15 minutes at a time. Resting and laying down comfortably is vital for udder health and hoof health, and it improves blood flow to the udder, feet and womb. Laying down is also a way to thermoregulate. Cows usually lay down when they ruminate, so if they cannot lay down comfortably, they ruminate less and thus produce less.

Handling of cattle

Based on the knowledge of what's natural for cattle, it is easy to understand that calm behavior the key for good animal husbandry. Shouting, kicking and beating the animals is not ony illegal, but also very counterproductive. Scared animals are difficult to handle and produce less than relaxed animals. Cattle are prey animals: they need time to adapt to new environment, must be able to stay with the herd and are cautious of anything new. Always announce your presence when approaching cattle, and avoid approaching them directly from the front or back. Wearing the same work clothes will help them to learn to recognize you. Talking quietly, petting and calm scratching of the animal are appreciated - you may even get a cow licking you back, caring for you as if you were a member of the herd!

Estimating and measuring animal welfare

Research in animal welfare is based on the assumption that animals have needs and intresses, which must be respected. Animal and its needs have intrinsic value. Research is focused on how the animal feels and adapts to its environment - what we think is best for the animal isn't what counts, but what the animal itself wants.

Why should we research animal welfare? Today, humans subject animals to heavy stress in unnatural environments. Contrary to what marketing wants us to think, agriculture is industrial and harsh. Animals are kept in herds/packs of tens of thousands, they are bred to grow fast and produce much. The relationship between consumers and farm animals has changed - it's common to over- or underestimate the mental abilities of animals, either treating them as machines or as humans. Laws govern much of agriculture, but the laws must be based on knowledge about animal welfare. Ethical reasons for animal welfare research are obvious, but a well-kept animal also produces more, gives higher quality products and  needs less costly vet services.

Measuring animal welfare

Measuring animal welfare is based on deep knowledge on what is normal for a healthy animal in it's natural surroundings. Any changes to its natural activities may indicate a problem with welfare. Thus the behaviour of an animal presents many "measurements":

• Time budget: how much time does the animal spend eating, foraging, sleeping etc per day? Welfare may be decreased if the animal no longer sleeps well or doesn't rest as much as it used to.
• Postures: Pain and confined spaces may cause animals to change their normal postures or movements. Long-term physiological problems may arise if normal movement is not possible.
• Abnormal behaviour: disruptive or stereotypical behaviour indicates clearly that the animal is not well. It may be stressed, bored or has some other difficulty adapting to its environment.
• Fighting: Naturally animal packs are rather calm, fights are normal only on mating time. In farms animals cannot form natural packs, which may lead to extensive fighting between animals.
• Preferences of the animal

Before the measurements listed above can be considered, one needs to know what is normal. For example, pigs with litter and stimuli in their pen spend 1 % in harmful social behaviour, while pigs without litter fought each others nearly 10 % of their time. Pigs with litter also nose the ground almost 30 % if their time, 25 % more than pigs without litter.

Overall, there are two types of methods to estimate animal welfare: resource-based (input) methods and animal-based methods.

Resource-based methods

Even when given plenty of space,
calves prefer to stay close to one another.

Resource-based methods measure the environment of the animal, estimating the risk to bad welfare. Size of a pen, quality of feed, number of sick animals and air quality are examples of resource-based measures. Each target is easy to score, and the measurements are repeatable and clearly measurable. A well-known resource-based method is ANI, or the Animal Needs Index by H. Bartussek. ANI is divided into five categories, which all have several measurable objects. The categories are

1. Locomotion (freedom of movement)
2. Social Interaction
3. Flooring
4. Light and air
5. Stockmanship

The farm receives points in each of these categories depending on the results. The sum of the scores in all categories is the ANI-index, ranging between -9 and 45.5 in the ANI for cattle. The higher the score, the better the welfare. Details of ANI for cattle can be found from Bartussek's homepage.

Animal-based methods
Animal-based methods focus on the animal, not it's environment. Measurements in animal-based methods are difficult and non-repeatable, since the results are affected by every factor in the animal's environment (temperature, time, hunger, people in the farm, noises...). They provide information of the animal on the time of the study. One animal-based method is the Welfare Quality®, created in an EU-funded poject in 2004-2009. WQ evaluation takes up to 4-7 hours, during which the farm is estimated in 12 criteria in four principles: Good feeding, good housing, good health and appropriate behaviour.


 

What is animal welfare?

There are several explanations and definitions about what welfare is.Hurnik's theory states that welfare is a feature of the animal itself. Animal welfare is based on needs:  the ability to fulfill these needs sets the level of welfare. The animal must be able to fulfill its needs which support life (hunger, thirst, reproduction), health and comfort.  Broom's theory is based on adaptation: animal welfare is low, if the animal has conscious or unconscious problems coping with its environment. Sickness, fertility problems and pain are some indications of adaptation problems.  Moberg's theory concerns stress, which is caused by the animal's inability to maintain bodily balance with the environment. The animal may be chained so that it cannot clean itself or move away if it feels hot or cold. According to Moberg, welfare suffers if the stress is strong and continuous, or if the animal's attempts at adaptation are ineffective. In a feeling-based theory by Duncan and Petherick welfare depends only on mental needs. If the animal feels it has fulfilled its needs, its welfare is good. Sickness or injury do not thus decrease welfare, if they don't bother the animal itself. Health-based theories place physical health as the indicator for welfare. Welfare is decreased only when there are pathological changes, and the biological functions of the animal are transformed in some way.

Finally, a common and wide-spread "theory" is based on freedom. In 1993, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) published Five Freedoms:

1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.
5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

These five freedoms clearly indicate that welfare is both physical and mental, and it is based on how the animal feels. Several factors affect welfare and one another. Food, water, environment, caretaker, health, behaviour and animal breeding are all equally important. Welfare cannot be turned on or off, and it cannot be simply measured. Consider this: animals cannot speak any more than new born human babies. How would you go about ensuring a baby's welfare?

Animal rights vs animal welfare comparison from http://www.animalsuffering.com/resources/images/Animal-Rights-vs-Animal-Welfare/, originally from Animal Rights Fund newsletter:

Links

Farm animal welfare council FAWC
Companion animal welfare council CAWC
 

Animal welfare: what is ethology?

(c) Gary Larson

Ethology is the systematic science of studying animal behaviour. Applied ethology focuses on the behaviour of those animals, with which humans interact with, or which are useful to humans. Only by understanding animal behaviour we can

• treat the animal correctly
• understand and increase animal welfare
• collaborate with the animal
• learn more, thus increasing our motivation to treat the animal well
• understand and interpret the animal

Studying one animal or one animal species is not enough, however. Each species have their own needs and behaviour. Through domestication we have changed how many animals look, but most of their behaviour is still the same it was thousands of years ago.

Domestication

Domestication means "becoming genetically tame" - through selection, humans have caused permanent genetic changes when taming the animals. For example, dogs were domesticated around 15 000 years ago. Humans tamed dogs, worked together with them, and started to breed dogs for different purposes. Humans selected which dogs were bred, and took their dogs with them to new areas. With selective breeding humans were able to create different dog types, and eventually breeds.

Domesticated animals have several traits which drastically decrease their ability to survive in the wild. They become less alert and less fearful, and their escape range is smaller. Animals used for production (such as goats, cows, chickens, pigs) produce and grow much more than is natural for them. Many domesticated animals also have "unnatural" appearances or body structure, such as bright white color, long and luxurious fur or hindered movements. Domesticated animals are also less defensive of their offspring and more playful even as adults.Their life span has also increased due to living in "ideal conditions", where food, healthcare and shelter are always available. 

While domestication changes animals permanently, only domesticated species can survive and even thrive in the modern world together with us humans.

Motivation and needs

They both have the same needs, but only one can fulfill them.
(c) birthofanewearth-blog and extension.org

With every action, an animal tries to fulfill a need. Whether it will or will not do so depends on its motivation. Motivation is affected by external and internal factors: weather, food, social environment, hunger, thirst, hormonal balance and pain. For example, wild sows build nests before parturition (giving birth to piglets). It has a biological need to care for its offspring. Hormonal changes motivate the animal to build a nest, so it acts to fill this need. The building behaviour and seeing the finished nest decrease the sow's motivation for nest building. It has fulfilled a need.  Domesticated sows in piggeries have this same, very strong need for nest building, but no possibility to fill it. This creates an incredible amount of stress for the animal, even though it could be easily prevented by providing sows with nesting material (hay, straw, dry peat) a few days before parturition.

Unfilled needs lead to behaviour problems. Behaviour, which deviates for what is natural for the animal, is a behaviour problem. It may even be harmful for the animal or to the herd. Behaviour problems are not the same as disruptive behaviour, although in the common language these two are often mixed. A dog which barks when left alone shows disruptive behavior, but a dog chewing its own paws to relieve stress shows a behaviour problem. Behaviour problems are the animal's way to adapt to it's environment and to the stress it causes. Given no litter, pigs tend to relieve their stress by chewing on bars and the tails of other animals. To battle boredom, cows may loll or roll their tongues. If this behaviour is prevented, the animal tries desperately to find new ways to relieve the increased stress.

Factors affecting behaviour

Animal behaviour is formed by

1. inborn characteristics (a newborn instinctively crawls to the udder)
2. inherited inclinations (bird songs)
3. learned behaviour (using a water bowl or feeder)

Reflexes are inborn characteristics, which need no conscious processing. It is an "automatic" response to a certain stimulus. Frightened animals often escape or defend themselves first, and then think afterwards. It would be essential for their survival in the wild.

Instincts are inborn characteristics which need no learning. Unlike reflexes, instincts involve conscious processing. They are often linked to basic needs: animals know instinctively what to eat or how to attract a mate.

Imprinting creates bonds between animals, animals and humans and animals and their environment. Imprinting is most effective after birth, when the mother and its offspring are imprinted to one another, creating a life-long bond. Without imprinting, moms do not recognize their offspring, and may even try to kill them.

Links: 

Applied ethology: www.applied-ethology.org
E-learning: Ethology e-courses by Cambridge University
A short video on pig domestication: Youtube
Lorenz motivation model, often used in ethology