The European project Welfare Quality aims to produce a standard for the evaluation of the welfare of farmed cattle, pigs and poultry to be used in certification schemes. Because welfare is multidimensional, and refers to quality of life perceived by the individual, this evaluation will rest on various measures that are essentially animal-based. A reasoned approach, using methods developed in MultiCriteria Decision making, will be followed to aggregate the measures into an overall assessment. At the outset of the project, four welfare criteria were outlined as being applicable to any species: good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behaviour. Each criterion was further refined into 2 to 4 subcriteria giving a total number of 12 subcriteria. The subcriteria were constructed using several mathematical methods chosen according to the number of measures contained in each subcriterion, their nature and the precision with which it is assumed they can be taken. The appropriate subcriteria were combined to evaluate each criterion, and compensations were limited by attributing more importance to the lowest subcriterion-scores, thus encouraging producers to correct the more severe problems first. The aggregation of criteria, to create an overall assessment, will aim to limit further compensations because one welfare criterion should probably not compensate for another. This progressive construction of an overall welfare assessment for farmed animals may help in the design of similar tools for other animal use situations – such as in companion animals, for labelling pet breeding units, kennels or shops.

Multicriteria assessment of the quality of farm animals’ life / Botreau, R.; Veissier, I.; Capdeville, J.; Bracke, M.; Butterworth, A.; Keeling, L.; Bonde, M.; Rousing, T.; DE ROSA, Giuseppe; VAN REENEN, K.; Perny, P.. - In: ANIMAL WELFARE. - ISSN 0962-7286. - STAMPA. - 16 Supplement:(2007), pp. 166-166. (Intervento presentato al convegno UFAW/BVA Ethics Committee International Symposium on Quality of Life: The Heart of the Matter tenutosi a London - UK nel 13-14 September 2006).

Multicriteria assessment of the quality of farm animals’ life

DE ROSA, GIUSEPPE;
2007

Abstract

The European project Welfare Quality aims to produce a standard for the evaluation of the welfare of farmed cattle, pigs and poultry to be used in certification schemes. Because welfare is multidimensional, and refers to quality of life perceived by the individual, this evaluation will rest on various measures that are essentially animal-based. A reasoned approach, using methods developed in MultiCriteria Decision making, will be followed to aggregate the measures into an overall assessment. At the outset of the project, four welfare criteria were outlined as being applicable to any species: good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behaviour. Each criterion was further refined into 2 to 4 subcriteria giving a total number of 12 subcriteria. The subcriteria were constructed using several mathematical methods chosen according to the number of measures contained in each subcriterion, their nature and the precision with which it is assumed they can be taken. The appropriate subcriteria were combined to evaluate each criterion, and compensations were limited by attributing more importance to the lowest subcriterion-scores, thus encouraging producers to correct the more severe problems first. The aggregation of criteria, to create an overall assessment, will aim to limit further compensations because one welfare criterion should probably not compensate for another. This progressive construction of an overall welfare assessment for farmed animals may help in the design of similar tools for other animal use situations – such as in companion animals, for labelling pet breeding units, kennels or shops.
2007
Multicriteria assessment of the quality of farm animals’ life / Botreau, R.; Veissier, I.; Capdeville, J.; Bracke, M.; Butterworth, A.; Keeling, L.; Bonde, M.; Rousing, T.; DE ROSA, Giuseppe; VAN REENEN, K.; Perny, P.. - In: ANIMAL WELFARE. - ISSN 0962-7286. - STAMPA. - 16 Supplement:(2007), pp. 166-166. (Intervento presentato al convegno UFAW/BVA Ethics Committee International Symposium on Quality of Life: The Heart of the Matter tenutosi a London - UK nel 13-14 September 2006).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/371772
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