Welfare monitoring schemes: Using research to safeguard welfare of animals on the farm

Abstract

There are a number of nonhuman animal welfare monitoring schemes for animals on the farm in Australia and in other countries. Although the majority of such schemes are voluntary rather than legislated, some are nevertheless enforced through a number of customer requirements that industries must meet to gain access to markets. Animal welfare monitoring schemes rely on a number of measures, but the majority are based on simple measures of resource or management inputs with fewer animal-based measures; few are specific to animal welfare outcomes. Furthermore, most measures are used retrospectively, particularly where there has been a problem, to improve welfare for the next "batch" of animals a..