Indicators of welfare and pain in ruminants

-

Indicators of welfare and pain in ruminants The investigation into valid and reliable indicators of farm animal welfare as a basis for the development of animal welfare legislations is of great importance, and this project will provide new knowledge of objective ways of measuring the welfare of ruminants (i.e. sheep and cattle). The overall objective of this proposal is to develop quantifiable and applicable indicators to assess sheep welfare at farm level and painful conditions in sheep and cattle at a n individual level. We aim to validate and refine a protocol for the practical on-farm assessment of sheep welfare. This protocol may act as a monitoring tool for inspectors from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) conducting welfare assessments on farm, as a basis for legislative requirements and as an advisory and management tool by farmers. A field study will be carried out in sheep flocks in different geographical locations in Norway by inspectors in the NFSA. Pain assessment in ruminants is of ten difficult, and it is possible that it has been advantageous for these species, in evolutionary terms, to mask the signs of pain and its implied weakness. Therefore, the basic research in this project aims to investigate the use of heart rate variabili ty (HRV), eye temperature measured using infrared thermography, mechanical nociceptive thresholds and behaviour as objective methods to assess welfare and pain in ruminants. Also, a novel method to assess pain based on HRV data will be validated and evalu ated. Foot rot will be investigated as a selected painful condition in sheep. Lameness and pain will also be assessed in a dairy herd with a high prevalence of heel-horn erosion and dermatitis. Optimal pain treatment protocols for these conditions will be suggested. Close collaboration with the NFSA and Animalia will ensure the relevance of this research.