Opinion on the relevance of dairy buffalo welfare indicators according to experts, Brazilians and Italians respondents.

Society’s demand and knowledge contributes for the science of animal welfare. The aim of this study was to compare the opinion of different stakeholders on the relevance of indicators for a dairy buffalo welfare assessment protocol. A questionnaire elaborated with Google form online was answered by 26 experts on buffalo production and/or animal welfare, from 13 different countries in November and December 2019. Experts were asked to select the importance of 13 animal-based indicators for a buffalo welfare protocol (thin, severe lesions, iatrogenic abscesses, can be touched, overgrown claws, nasal discharge, lame, panting, vulvar or uterine prolapse, dirty flanks or upper hind legs, ocular discharge, nose rings, and broken horn), using a 5-point Likert-type scale (Not important; Mild important; Moderate important; Very important; Extremely important). If the sum of ‘Very important’ and ‘Extremely important’ indicators was equal or over 50% of the experts’ responses, the indicator was included in the questionnaire for different stakeholders from Brazil (360 respondents) and Italy (111 respondents). Respondents, stratified according to their demographic background (country, gender, age, education, stakeholder category and frequency of buffalo products ingestion), were asked to rate in Likert-type scale, same as above, between December 2019 and July 2020, the indicators selected by the experts as the most important (the first nine previously listed). Ordinal logistic regression with stepwise selection was used to determine the influence of demographic background on the importance of indicators. Significant level was set at p<0.05. There were differences on the opinion of respondents considering their country, gender, and stakeholder category. Brazilians attributed higher importance than Italians for eight indicators: thin (Odd ratio (OR)=0.230; Confidence interval (CI)=0.153-0.347), severe lesions (OR=0.491; CI=0.314-0.769), iatrogenic abscesses (OR=0.348; CI=0.223-0.544), overgrown claws (OR=0.525; CI=0.353-0.782), nasal discharge (OR=0.299; CI=0.200-0.449), lame (OR=0.613; CI=0.411-0.914), panting (OR=0.293; CI=0.191- 0.450), and vulvar or uterine prolapse (OR=0.533; CI=0.351-0.811). Women also attributed higher importance than men for eight indicators: severe lesions (OR=0.609; CI=0.406-0.913), iatrogenic abscesses (OR=0.606; CI=0.405-0.906), can be touched (OR=0.409; CI=0.286-0.586), overgrown claws (OR=0.514; CI=0.355-0.744), nasal discharge (OR=0.432; CI=0.298-0.627), lame (OR=0.426; CI=0.293-0.619), panting (OR=0.445; CI=0.305-0.651), and vulvar or uterine prolapse (OR=0.590; CI=0.398-0.876). Consumers gave higher scores to iatrogenic abscesses (OR=2.283; CI=1.295- 4.024) than academics. We conclude that there were several differences about the relevance of the selected welfare indicators according to country and gender, whereas a lower number or no differences were observed according to age, education, stakeholder category and frequency of buffalo products ingestion.