Behavioural and physiological measures of welfare of pregnant mares fitted with a novel urine collection device

Abstract

An alternative collection procedure for pregnant mare urine (PMU) has been developed in Australia, which allows mares to be loose housed either in indoor stables or outdoors in paddocks, rather than in tether stalls as is common practice in Canada and North Dakota. The present study examined the welfare risks to mares of collecting urine using this alternative procedure. The study involved 24 pregnant mares at 3-5 months of gestation. The mares were allocated to two treatments: 12 mares were fitted with the pregnant mare urine collection device and 12 mares acted as controls. All mares were housed in two large paddocks during the day, in two groups of 12. During the night, all mares were hou..