Stakeholders’ perceptions of precision livestock farming to improve small ruminant welfare

International audienceWithin the TechCare Project, a list of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) tools, with potential for monitoring animal welfare in small ruminant production, was formulated in TechCare Countries. The opinions of stakeholders weretaken into account after consultations, following a multi-actor approach. The OPERA method was used to reach consensus between stakeholders. Overall, stakeholders’ opinions appear rather uniform. Regarding meat sheep, thehighest appreciated PLF tool was the automated weighing and low frequency identification (LF) system, followed by localisation (GPS) and 3-axial accelerometers, as well as new ultra-high-frequency (UHF) eartags and readers forseveral uses (e.g. water intake). The most suitable PLF tools selected for dairy sheep were environmental-air quality sensors (e.g. weather stations), followed by automated milk recording, LF and automatic weighing. As for dairy goats,in addition to those selected for dairy sheep, the new UHF eartags and readers were prioritized. Regardless of the production system, the most important traits of selected PLF tools were low cost and ease-of-use. Most stakeholdersalso expressed concerns on their ability to collect and handle the data generated from PLF tools for monitoring individual animals. TechCare (www.techcare-project.eu) receives funding from the European Union’s H2020 researchand innovation programme grant no. 862050

Livestock owners' worry and fear of tick-borne diseases

Background: Recent global changes have led to an increase in distribution of ticks towards higher elevation and latitude in Europe and livestock are at increasing risk of contracting tick-borne diseases, but psychological aspects of how this affects human well-being are rarely assessed. Departing from the theory on emotional appraisal coming from psychology, this study investigates which factors that modulate worry and fear associated with the presence of ticks among livestock owners of sheep and/or cattle. Methods: Survey data from 775 livestock owners in Norway were analysed by hierarchical multiple regression analysis with an index of fear of tick-borne diseases among livestock as the outcome variable. Results: Twenty-nine per cent of the livestock owners reported worry and fear of tick-borne diseases among their livestock. The model explained 35% of the variance in worry and fear. There was a weak association between esti-mated incidences of tick-borne diseases in livestock and livestock owners'worry and fear. Whereas previous personal experience of ticks and tick-borne diseases in livestock, and the livestock owners' appraisals of the situation were more strongly associated with relatively stronger feelings of worry and fear. Conclusions: Livestock owners'worry and fear of tick-borne diseases in livestock can partly be understood as their appraisals of perceived personal relevance of the presence of ticks, its potential negative implications for their daily life at large, and what potential they have to cope by different strategies to adapt or adjust to the situation