Department of Animal Breeding and Husbandry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Tekirdağ, Turkey.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2021 Aug 17;53(4):437. doi: 10.1007/s11250-021-02876-z.
The Animal Needs Index (ANI) method is used in the study to determine the welfare levels of 58 buffalo farms in the Marmara region of Turkey. The enterprises were divided into 3 subgroups according to their size; (i) small-scale enterprises (n: 19), which have 5 to 19 buffalo cows, (ii) medium-scale enterprises (n: 20), which have 20 to 39 buffalo cows, and (iii) large-scale enterprises (n: 19), which have more than 40 buffalo cows. The farms were visited and evaluated in two seasons according to ANI system. Thirty criteria for locomotion, social interaction, flooring, light and air, and stockmanship categories were evaluated. Most of the farms were determined to be highly suitable for animal welfare according to the ANI method. Although many differences were observed among the enterprises during the visits, it was thought that the buffalo enterprises could not be evaluated with sufficient sensitivity with the help of the ANI method, since these differences cannot be revealed when the total ANI scores were compared. The enterprise scale had no direct effect on the investigated parameters in the study. Considering the deficiencies of the criteria in the study to evaluate the physical characteristics and needs of the buffaloes, it has been concluded that the evaluation methods to be developed to determine the welfare level of buffaloes should consider the species-specific characteristics of the buffaloes.
本研究采用动物需求指数（ANI）方法来确定土耳其马尔马拉地区 58 家水牛养殖场的福利水平。根据规模将这些企业分为 3 个亚组：（i）小规模企业（n：19），拥有 5-19 头水牛，（ii）中规模企业（n：20），拥有 20-39 头水牛，和（iii）大规模企业（n：19），拥有超过 40 头水牛。根据 ANI 系统，在两个季节对农场进行了访问和评估。对运动、社会互动、地板、光照和空气以及饲养管理等类别的 30 个标准进行了评估。根据 ANI 方法，大多数农场被认为非常适合动物福利。尽管在访问过程中观察到企业之间存在许多差异，但人们认为，由于在比较总 ANI 得分时无法揭示这些差异，ANI 方法无法充分敏感地评估水牛企业。研究中，企业规模对所调查的参数没有直接影响。考虑到研究中评估水牛物理特征和需求的标准存在缺陷，因此得出结论，为确定水牛的福利水平而开发的评估方法应考虑到水牛的种特异性特征。
