Frequently Asked Questions

• How many assessment systems for farm animal welfare are there?
  We are at various stages of testing 9 different systems; for sows and piglets, fattening pigs, dairy cows, beef cattle, dairy heifers and calves, veal calves, laying hens, broiler chickens and buffalo. Each assessment system is specific to a species and category of animal, but they are all built on the same 4 principles and 12 welfare criteria.
  
• Why has it taken so long to reach the stage of testing the assessment systems in practice?
  This is because of the important earlier work of identifying and testing the individual parameters to be included in each system. Each parameter in a system has to be a valid measure of welfare. In the case of Welfare Quality^®, it was decided that this would either be based on the scientific literature or by carrying out new validity studies ourselves. Each parameter has to be reliable and repeatable for different people to be able to score the same things in the same way. This also needed to be tested in the project. And the measures should complement each other, so that in combination they cover all the different aspects of welfare and the concerns that people have about an animal’s welfare. This had to be developed and then checked with stakeholder groups. It all takes time.
  
• We heard it is taking a day to visit each farm. Is that feasible?
  The current full assessment systems are taking a day to carry out on farms. The final assessment systems will hopefully take much less than that (hopefully somewhere between 2 and 4 hours), maybe a bit longer for the first visit. Doing it this way (i.e. starting large and reducing) means that we can drop out measures that do not give us additional information, based on objective statistical comparisons of the data we have collected, rather than guessing beforehand which measures might, or might not, be good measures of welfare in practice. In the end, this systematic approach will lead to more efficient final assessment systems.
  
• When will the final assessment systems be ready?
  Welfare Quality® will produce its final systems in 2009, at the end of the whole project. But obviously scientists will continue to work in this area even after our project has ended, and so assessment systems will continue to be improved, measures replaced by newer, better ones and so on. The Welfare Quality® assessment systems are one step, albeit we think a very important one, in the ongoing process of welfare assessment.
  
• Who will use the assessment systems in the end?
  There are many different potential uses, e.g. as a research tool to evaluate welfare of animals housed under different conditions, to help define a minimum level of animal welfare that is acceptable for voluntary or compulsory labelling and, not least, as a self-assessment management tool by the farmer or processor to help identify welfare problems or risks. These different options, and combinations of them, are being discussed within the project and with different stakeholder groups.
  
• Who are the leading partner institutes of Welfare Quality®?
   Facts    Participating institutes
  
• What are the objectives of this project?
  Aims and objectives
  
• I would like to have brief information on the Welfare Quality® Project
  Please download our project presentation: Welfare Quality project presentation april 2007
  
• Could you provide information about proceedings and presentations of the Welfare Quality stakeholder conferences in 2005 and 2007?
  You can easily download the requested information on our web page Stakeholder conferences
  
• What are the dates of the third Welfare Quality® Conference?
  The dates have not been set yet, but we expect to organise the third Stakeholder conference in 2009.
  
• Where can I find information on scientific publications of Welfare Quality?
  These are listed on a dedicated web page: Scientific Publications
  
• Could I receive information on regularly basis?
  Welfare Quality provides information for stakeholders by te news letter Welfare Quality UPDATE.
  If you want to receive it, please subscribe for the newsletter on top of this web page.