Project
European Partnership - Assessment of positive welfare; defining animal-based measures
The focus in animal welfare has changed from merely minimising suffering to also promoting positive experiences and a good life. Behavioural, physiological and cognitive research provide insight into positive affective states (emotions and moods) in animals and supports the notion of positive welfare.
To improve the lives of farm animals, we need to understand what positive experiences in animals are and how they can be recognised on farm. This includes gathering required knowledge for the construct validation of indicators, investigating whether potential indicators occur in preferred and valued situations, validating potential indicators using ‘gold standards’ of positive affective states, and finally, integrating these potential indicators into on-farm welfare assessment protocols. This co-financing application relates to the project ‘assessment of positive welfare’ that WR will perform within the framework of the European partnership on animal welfare. Activities within this project are to perform a desk study to identify indicators for positive welfare for poultry and tests to assess preferences and motivation to perform potential positive behaviours and to perform an experiment to assess indicators for positive welfare in poultry using highly valued resources.