Monitoring the welfare of sheep in conventional and organic farms using an ANI 35 L derived method

Summary in the original language of the document

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the inter-observer reliability of a welfare monitoring scheme to be applied to sheep, and compare the welfare state of the animals between 10 organic and 10 conventional sheep farms. No significant differences were observed between organic and conventional farms in terms of housing characteristics and animal based parameters (P>0.10). This result may be due to the fact that most of the farms, both conventional and organic, based their farming systems on an extensive use of the land by grazing animals. The monitoring protocol proved to be feasible (the mean time needed to perform the assessment of welfare was 45 min per farm) and reliable: a significant correlation between observers was observed for total score and all sheets (P<0.001), while the correlation was significant for all animal based parameters (integument alterations, animal dirtiness, hoof overgrowth and lameness; P<0.001), apart from lesions (P>0.10).