Aspects of the owning/keeping and disposal of horses, and how these relate to equine health/welfare in Ireland

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ireland has long been renowned as a major centre for the breeding, rearing and keeping of horses. Since 2007, however, there has been increasing concern for horse health and welfare standards, and links between these concerns and the structures, governance and funding of the Irish equine industries have been reported. This paper addresses two central issues: firstly the local governance of, trade in and disposal of unwanted horses; and secondly mechanisms employed to improve standards of care given to horses owned by certain communities.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Primary information was gathered through visits to horse pounds run by and on behalf of Local Authorities, to social horse projects, to horse dealer yards, ferry ports, horse slaughter plants and knackeries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The approach adopted by members of a given group, e.g. ferry ports, is described and differences are highlighted, for example in how different Local Authorities implement the Control of Horses Act of 1986, and how the choice, for example, of disposal route affects the standard of animal welfare.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is a pressing need for a more centrally mandated and uniformly applied system of governance to safeguard the health and promote the keeping of horses to a higher welfare standard in Ireland. Fundamental to an understanding of why there is insufficient oversight of the keeping and proper disposal of horses is the lack of a comprehensive, integrated system for the registration, identification and tracing of equidae in Ireland.</p

Taking ethics into account in farm animal breeding:what can the breeding companies achieve?

Animal welfare and the ethical issues it raises have been discussed intensively for a couple of decades. The emphasis has been on the direct effects of housing and husbandry, but more attention is now being given to problems originating in selective breeding. European attempts to adjust animal welfare legislation to deal with these problems have been largely unsuccessful, but the fact that selective breeding can introduce welfare problems continues to place an ethical responsibility on the animal breeding industry. Since breeding decisions are made centrally and, increasingly, internationally, strategic change is only likely to occur if it is embedded in an international agreement of some kind. The aim of this paper is to describe the key ethical issues facing animal breeding and assess the suggestion that the breeding industry itself can deal with ethical issues by means of an ethical code. Results from recent projects involving commercial breeding enterprises are presented

Qualitative Behavioural Assessment of emotionality in pigs

AbstractScientific assessment of affective states in animals is challenging but vital for animal welfare studies. One possible approach is Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA), a ‘whole animal’ methodology which integrates information from multiple behavioural signals and styles of behavioural expression (body language) directly in terms of an animal's emotional expression. If QBA provides a valid measure of animals’ emotional state it should distinguish between groups where emotional states have been manipulated. To test this hypothesis, QBA was applied to video-recordings of pigs, following treatment with either saline or the neuroleptic drug Azaperone, in either an open field or elevated plus-maze test. QBA analysis of these recordings was provided by 12 observers, blind to treatment, using a Free Choice Profiling (FCP) methodology. Generalised Procrustes Analysis was used to calculate a consensus profile, consisting of the main dimensions of expression. Dimension one was positively associated with terms such as ‘Confident’ and ‘Curious’ and negatively with ‘Unsure’ and ‘Nervous’. Dimension two ranged from ‘Agitated’/‘Angry’ to ‘Calm’/‘Relaxed’. In both tests, Azaperone pre-treatment was associated with a more positive emotionality (higher scores on dimension one reflecting a more confident/curious behavioural demeanour) than control pigs. No effect of drug treatment on dimension two was found. Relationships between qualitative descriptions of behaviour and quantitative behavioural measures, taken from the same recordings, were found. Overall, this work supports the use of QBA for the assessment of emotionality in animals

Estimated differences in economic and environmental performance of forage-based dairy herds across the UK

Differences in performance among the areas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can provide some insight into the resilience of UK milk supplies from forage-based dairy herds. This study used a Markov Chain approach to model the average herd in each region between the years 2010 to 2015. The effect of a single unit change in milk production (milk volume, fat yield and protein yield), fitness (survival, somatic cell count, mastitis and calving interval) and efficiency (methane) traits on the economic value and GHG emissions intensity (expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents per cow and per kg milk solids) were assessed. Production data were obtained from a total of about half a million milk recorded dairy cows in the UK and the Farm Business Surveys for each region. Across the UK improving the health (SCC and mastitis), fertility (calving intervals) and survival of cows will increase profitability and reduce emissions intensity of milk production. In Scotland, herds had higher milk yields but poorer survival, which potentially could be due to poor fertility indicated by a longer calving interval compared to other regions. Herds in Northern Ireland had the shortest average calving interval but the highest somatic cell counts (SCC), and thus greater estimated mastitis incidence and wasted milk. Notably, England had considerably higher economic values (between 10 and 30%) and emission intensity values (between 11 and 37%) for SCC and mastitis incidence than other regions, due to lost milk production and the higher gross margin. This study provides a framework that can be customised for individual herds to allow assessment of resilience and resource efficiency of milk production not only in the UK but for comparison with international dairy systems