Delezie E, Verbeke W, De Tavernier J, Decuypere E
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Department of Biosystems, Division Livestock-Nutrition-Quality, University of Leuven, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
Poult Sci. 2006 Nov;85(11):2019-27. doi: 10.1093/ps/85.11.2019.
Growing interest in ameliorating animal welfare has prompted numerous studies that compare various aspects of manual and mechanical catching. In general, mechanical catching has been adopted as a realistic alternative for manual catching. The success of a catching machine as an alternative for manual catching does not only depend on its practical applicability, but also on its acceptance by "the general public." In the history of technological change, public perception of new technologies has often been ambivalent. Against this background, it is important to know how consumers perceive the production methods. This paper provides an evaluation of the preferences for catching methods by "society" to investigate whether there is a shift in preference due to the confrontation with video segments and the potential effect of awareness and importance attached to animal welfare on preference. Data were gathered through a questionnaire-based survey, including 450 respondents, performed in Belgium. For this study, the data indicated that when subjects were provided information concerning catching methods of broilers, they liked the technology much more. However, for those respondents without prior awareness of both catching methods or with high importance attached to animal welfare, giving information could not convince them of the advantage of using a mechanical catching machine. It is obvious that preference varies with the awareness and experience of the respondents. Future research should move forward from simple assessments of consumer concerns about the technologies and focus more directly on questions and issues related to the consumer's expected bottlenecks of these technologies. In this way, working at a better understanding can directly influence the acceptance of these technologies.
人们对改善动物福利的兴趣日益浓厚，这促使众多研究对人工抓捕和机械抓捕的各个方面进行比较。总体而言，机械抓捕已被视为人工抓捕的一种现实替代方式。抓捕机器作为人工抓捕替代方式的成功与否，不仅取决于其实际适用性，还取决于“普通大众”对它的接受程度。在技术变革的历史中，公众对新技术的看法往往是矛盾的。在此背景下，了解消费者对生产方式的看法很重要。本文对“社会”对抓捕方式的偏好进行了评估，以调查由于观看视频片段是否会导致偏好转变，以及动物福利意识和重视程度对偏好的潜在影响。数据通过在比利时进行的一项基于问卷调查收集，共有450名受访者。对于本研究，数据表明，当向受试者提供有关肉鸡抓捕方式的信息时，他们对该技术的喜爱程度更高。然而，对于那些事先对两种抓捕方式都不了解或高度重视动物福利的受访者，提供信息并不能使他们相信使用机械抓捕机的优势。显然，偏好会因受访者的意识和经验而有所不同。未来的研究应从对消费者对技术担忧的简单评估向前推进，更直接地关注与消费者对这些技术预期瓶颈相关的问题。通过这种方式，更好地理解可以直接影响对这些技术的接受程度。
