A class practical to make vet students reconsider their health-biased view on farm animal welfare

Onderzoeksoutput: Hoofdstuk in Boek/Rapport/CongresprocedureC3: Congres abstractpeer review

Uittreksel

Animal welfare (AW) assessment schemes may critically depend on how AW is defined. There are 3 main views on the concept of AW: those that focus on basic health and functioning (Health), affective states (Feelings), or naturalness (Nature). The increase in the importance of Feelings in AW science seems poorly reflected in animal-based welfare assessment schemes that often are Health-biased. This may relate to the shortage of good indicators of the animals’ Feelings compared to Health. It may also relate to people involved in such schemes having a Health-centered view. An example in place could be veterinarians who by training and profession are focused on Health, and who are intricately linked to the livestock industry and certification schemes. Vet students could thus be an interesting target for challenging their potentially Health-biased view. We present the effects of a 1h practical for 2nd Master vet students of Ghent University. The practical ran for 5 academic years (2018-2023) with 97 students. At the start they were informed about the 3 views on AW, and subsequently asked to allocate 30 points according to their personal opinion on the relevance of each of these views for AW. During the practical some examples of AW issues were presented and it was discussed which of the three aspects (Health – Feelings – Nature) were affected and how severely AW was affected. The students were then divided into groups (2-5 people) and asked to do the same for other welfare issues in which either the Feelings, Health or Nature of the animals was affected most. These examples were then presented to the entire class and discussed. They were then asked to allocate once more 30 points according to their opinion about the relevance of each view. To test the effect of the practical, the differences in scores allocated to each of the views at the beginning vs end of the practical were tested with a paired t-test. The students allocated more points to Feelings (11.44 vs 8.99, P<0.001) and fewer points to Health (11.71 vs 13.03, P<0.001) and Nature (6.84 vs 7.95, P<0.01) at the end vs beginning of the practical. The practical seemed effective in making vet students reconsider their Health-biased view on AW.
Oorspronkelijke taalEngels
TitelBook of Abstracts of the 9th International Conference on the Welfare Assessment of Animals at Farm Level (WAFL
Aantal pagina’s1
Plaats productieFlorence, Italy
UitgeverijEAAP
Publicatiedatum30-aug.-2024
Pagina's29
ISBN van geprinte versie979-12-210-6833-7
ISBN van elektronische versie979-12-210-6833-7
PublicatiestatusGepubliceerd - 30-aug.-2024

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