Pandolfi F, Kyriazakis I, Stoddart K, Wainwright N, Edwards S A
School of Agriculture Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
School of Agriculture Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
Prev Vet Med. 2017 Oct 1;146:34-43. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2017.07.008. Epub 2017 Jul 17.
From 2013-2016, animal-based measures were collected as part of the "Real Welfare" protocol adopted by the Red Tractor Pigs Assurance Scheme to assess the welfare in finisher pig herds in the UK. Trained veterinarians from 89 veterinary practices assessed 112,241 pens (hospital pens excluded) from 1928 farms using a multistage sampling protocol, and collected data about pig welfare, management and farm environment. Multivariable analyses were conducted for five main welfare outcomes: lameness, pigs requiring hospitalization, severe tail lesions, severe body marks and enrichment use ratio (number of active pigs interacting with the enrichment/total number of active pigs). Additionally, a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was conducted to analyse systematic patterns of variations of environmental characteristics and improve understanding of the connection between welfare outcomes and environment. The prevalence of the four welfare outcomes and the mean enrichment use ratio differed between pen types (P<0.05), with a higher mean prevalence of lame pigs (0.39%) but lower mean prevalence of pigs requiring hospitalization (0.07%), severe tail lesions (0.07%) and severe body marks (0.12%) in outdoor pens. In&outdoor pens had the highest mean prevalence of the measured outcomes (P<0.05). After adjusting for the farm, date and pen type, lameness, pigs requiring hospitalization and severe tail lesions were less prevalent in large pens (P<0.01), pens with substrates (P≤0.05) and pens fed with meal (P≤0.05), while enrichment use ratio was higher with substrates (P<0.001). Moreover, pigs requiring hospitalization and severe body marks were more prevalent in pens with powered ventilation (P<0.05). On the MCA graph, higher prevalences of lameness and pigs requiring hospitalization (>1, 5 and 10%) were located in the same direction as lower enrichment use ratio, liquid feed, trough feeding, floor feeding, restricted feed and in&outdoor pens. Results suggested that higher prevalences were not specifically connected to a particular system, but that all welfare outcomes were connected to several inappropriate features in the environment. This study highlights individual risk factors which can be considered to improve animal welfare, but also indicates the need to consider the environment as a whole because of potential factor combinations and confounds. Understanding of these requires a large scale database, which can be drawn from assessments carried out as part of farm assurance and support evidence-based advice and future formulation of standards for good practice.
2013年至2016年期间，作为红拖拉机生猪保证计划采用的“真实福利”方案的一部分，收集了基于动物的测量数据，以评估英国育肥猪群的福利状况。来自89家兽医诊所的经过培训的兽医，采用多阶段抽样方案，对1928个农场的112,241个猪舍（不包括医院猪舍）进行了评估，并收集了有关猪福利、管理和农场环境的数据。针对五个主要福利结果进行了多变量分析：跛足、需要住院治疗的猪、严重的尾部损伤、严重的身体印记以及丰富物使用比例（与丰富物互动的活跃猪的数量/活跃猪的总数）。此外，还进行了多重对应分析（MCA），以分析环境特征变化的系统模式，并增进对福利结果与环境之间联系的理解。四种福利结果的患病率和平均丰富物使用比例在不同类型的猪舍之间存在差异（P<0.05），室外猪舍中跛足猪的平均患病率较高（0.39%），但需要住院治疗的猪（0.07%）、严重尾部损伤（0.07%）和严重身体印记（0.12%）的平均患病率较低。室内外猪舍中所测量结果的平均患病率最高（P<0.05）。在对农场、日期和猪舍类型进行调整后，大型猪舍（P<0.01）、有垫料的猪舍（P≤0.05）以及采用粉料喂养的猪舍（P≤0.05）中，跛足、需要住院治疗的猪和严重尾部损伤的患病率较低，而有垫料时丰富物使用比例较高（P<0.001）。此外，采用动力通风的猪舍中，需要住院治疗的猪和严重身体印记的患病率较高（P<0.05）。在MCA图表上，跛足和需要住院治疗的猪的较高患病率（>1%、5%和10%）与较低的丰富物使用比例、液体饲料、槽式喂养、地面喂养、限量喂养以及室内外猪舍位于同一方向。结果表明，较高的患病率并非与特定系统存在特定关联，但所有福利结果均与环境中的若干不适当特征相关。本研究突出了可考虑用于改善动物福利的个体风险因素，但也表明由于潜在的因素组合和混杂因素，需要将环境作为一个整体来考虑。对这些因素的理解需要一个大规模数据库，该数据库可从作为农场保证一部分进行的评估中获取，并为循证建议和未来良好实践标准的制定提供支持。
