Abstract :
The overall assessment of animal welfare is a multicriterion evaluation problem that needs a constructive strategy to compound
information produced by many measures. The construction depends on specific features such as the concept of welfare, the
measures used and the way data are collected. Welfare is multidimensional and one dimension probably cannot fully
compensate for another one (e.g. good health cannot fully compensate for behavioural deprivation). Welfare measures may
vary in precision, relevance and their relative contribution to an overall welfare assessment. The data collected are often
expressed on ordinal scales, which limits the use of weighted sums to aggregate them. A sequential aggregation is proposed in
the Welfare QualityR project, first from measures to welfare criteria (corresponding to dimensions with pre-set objectives) and
then to an overall welfare assessment, using rules determined at each level depending on the nature and number of variables
to be considered and the level of compensation to be permitted. Scientific evidence and expert opinion are used to refine the
model, and stakeholders’ approval of general principles is sought. This approach could potentially be extended to other
problems in agriculture such as the overall assessment of the sustainability of production systems.
Keywords :
Livestock , Methodology , animal welfare , Assessment
