TY - GEN
T1 - EBENE® - a welfare self-assessment tool for poultry farms
AU - Vanden Hole, Charlotte
AU - Graat, Evelien
AU - Warin, Laura
AU - Tuyttens, Frank
AU - Collin, Anne
PY - 2021/11/17
Y1 - 2021/11/17
N2 - The mobile application EBENE® was refined and now enables outdoor and organic poultry farmers to assess the welfare of their own animals (broilers, hens). The app focuses on animal-based indicators, covering all four Welfare Quality principles of Good Feeding, Good Health, Good Housing and Appropriate Behaviour. During the step-by-step assessment (that takes approximately one hour and requires no internet connection), the app provides useful information and pictures that guide the farmer through the process. After completing the welfare assessment with the app and uploading the answers, farmers can immediately view their results on the app through a radar chart. When using the app multiple times, all the results are visible in the app and allow the farmers to see if a certain score has improved since the previous assessment. For each welfare indicator, the results contain automated feedback, explaining risk factors that could explain a possible low score. If relevant, this information can be discussed with a veterinarian or other advisors in order to investigate the feasibility of actions to continuously improve animal welfare status. Besides the direct advantages of using the app, the poultry sector could also use it as a marketing tool to let the consumer know that they value animal welfare highly. The EBENE® app is freely available in three languages (English, French, Dutch) in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. More European languages will be added in 2021.
AB - The mobile application EBENE® was refined and now enables outdoor and organic poultry farmers to assess the welfare of their own animals (broilers, hens). The app focuses on animal-based indicators, covering all four Welfare Quality principles of Good Feeding, Good Health, Good Housing and Appropriate Behaviour. During the step-by-step assessment (that takes approximately one hour and requires no internet connection), the app provides useful information and pictures that guide the farmer through the process. After completing the welfare assessment with the app and uploading the answers, farmers can immediately view their results on the app through a radar chart. When using the app multiple times, all the results are visible in the app and allow the farmers to see if a certain score has improved since the previous assessment. For each welfare indicator, the results contain automated feedback, explaining risk factors that could explain a possible low score. If relevant, this information can be discussed with a veterinarian or other advisors in order to investigate the feasibility of actions to continuously improve animal welfare status. Besides the direct advantages of using the app, the poultry sector could also use it as a marketing tool to let the consumer know that they value animal welfare highly. The EBENE® app is freely available in three languages (English, French, Dutch) in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. More European languages will be added in 2021.
M3 - Online publication - Web publication
ER -