Vermeer Herman M, Hopster Hans
Wageningen Livestock Research, P.O. Box 338, Wageningen 6700 AH, The Netherlands.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Mar 23;8(4):44. doi: 10.3390/ani8040044.
The Dutch animal welfare law includes so-called principle-based standards. This means that the objective is described in abstract terms, enabling farmers to comply with the law in their own way. Principle-based standards are, however, difficult for the inspection agency to enforce because strict limits are missing. This pilot project aimed at developing indicators (measurements) to assess the climate in pig houses, thus enabling the enforcement of principle-based standards. In total, 64 farms with weaners and 32 farms with growing-finishing pigs were visited. On each farm, a set of climate-related measurements was collected in six pens. For each of these measurements, a threshold value was set, and exceeding this threshold indicated a welfare risk. Farm inspections were carried out during winter and spring, thus excluding situations with heat stress. Assessment of the variation and correlation between measurements reduced the dataset from 39 to 12 measurements. Using a principal components analysis helped to select five major measurements as warning signals. The number of exceeded thresholds per pen and per farm was calculated for both the large (12) and small (five) sets of measurements. CO₂ and NH₃ concentrations were related to the outside temperature. On colder days, there was less ventilation, and thus CO₂ and NH₃ concentrations increased. Air quality, reflected in the CO₂ and NH₃ concentrations, was associated with respiratory problems. Eye scores were positively correlated with both pig and pen fouling, and pig and pen fouling were closely related. We selected five signal indicators: CO₂, NH₃, and tail and eye score for weaners and finishers, and added ear score for weaners and pig fouling for growing-finishing pigs. The results indicate that pig farms can be ranked based on five signal indicators related to reduced animal welfare caused by climatic conditions. This approach could be adopted to other principle-based standards for pigs as well as for other species.
荷兰动物福利法包含所谓的基于原则的标准。这意味着目标是以抽象的术语描述的，使农民能够以自己的方式遵守法律。然而，基于原则的标准对检查机构来说难以执行，因为缺少严格的限制。这个试点项目旨在制定指标（测量方法）来评估猪舍的环境，从而使基于原则的标准得以执行。总共走访了64个有断奶仔猪的农场和32个有生长育肥猪的农场。在每个农场，在六个猪栏中收集了一组与环境相关的测量数据。对于这些测量中的每一项，都设定了一个阈值，超过这个阈值就表明存在福利风险。农场检查在冬季和春季进行，因此排除了热应激的情况。对测量数据之间的差异和相关性进行评估后，数据集从39项减少到了12项。使用主成分分析有助于选择五项主要测量数据作为预警信号。针对大（12项）、小（5项）两组测量数据，计算了每个猪栏和每个农场超过阈值的数量。二氧化碳和氨气浓度与室外温度有关。在较冷的日子里，通风较少，因此二氧化碳和氨气浓度会增加。以二氧化碳和氨气浓度反映的空气质量与呼吸道问题有关。眼部评分与猪和猪栏的污染程度呈正相关，而且猪和猪栏的污染密切相关。我们选择了五个信号指标：断奶仔猪和育肥猪的二氧化碳、氨气、尾巴和眼部评分，断奶仔猪增加耳部评分，生长育肥猪增加猪的污染程度评分。结果表明，可以根据与气候条件导致的动物福利降低相关的五个信号指标对养猪场进行排名。这种方法也可以应用于其他基于猪的原则标准以及其他物种。
