Ryan Molly, Waters Ryan, Wolfensohn Sarah
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine, VSM Building, Daphne Jackson Rd, Guildford GU2 7AL, UK.
The Pirbright Institute, Ash Road, Woking, Surrey GU24 0NF, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Apr 2;11(4):999. doi: 10.3390/ani11040999.
The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG) is a method for assessing quality of life, originally designed for experimental primates. This study adapts the AWAG for use in cattle and pigs, by adapting the factors included for these species and including data which had been collected previously as the standard approach to monitoring these species in research. The intention is that the results presented here will allow the future data collected for experimental cattle and pigs to be optimised for inclusion in an AWAG. Data were collected from two vaccine assessment studies at the Pirbright Institute. Factors were scored for every recorded event using retrospective data and CCTV clips. There was a lack of behavioural data recorded in both studies, which limited the accuracy of assessing each animal's welfare. This paper emphasises the importance of including behavioural information when assessing welfare and not simply relying on assessment of physical condition. Scores peaked following an exponential rise as animals reached set humane end points. This demonstrated the potential of using the AWAG to aid the decision-making of when euthanasia should be performed. Our study shows the AWAG to be a useful tool for assessing welfare, which can be used in harm:benefit assessment.
动物福利评估网格（AWAG）是一种用于评估生活质量的方法，最初是为实验灵长类动物设计的。本研究通过调整适用于牛和猪的因素，并纳入先前作为研究中监测这些物种的标准方法收集的数据，使AWAG适用于牛和猪。目的是，这里呈现的结果将使未来为实验牛和猪收集的数据得到优化，以便纳入AWAG。数据来自皮尔布赖特研究所的两项疫苗评估研究。使用回顾性数据和闭路电视片段对每个记录事件的因素进行评分。两项研究中记录的行为数据都不足，这限制了评估每只动物福利的准确性。本文强调了在评估福利时纳入行为信息的重要性，而不是仅仅依赖于身体状况评估。随着动物达到设定的人道终点，分数在呈指数上升后达到峰值。这证明了使用AWAG来辅助决定何时实施安乐死的潜力。我们的研究表明，AWAG是评估福利的有用工具，可用于危害：益处评估。
