Sensitivity of the Welfare Quality ® broiler chicken protocol to differences between intensively reared indoor flocks : which factors explain overall classification?

There is a large demand for holistic welfare assessment systems that result in a singular balanced summary of welfare. The Welfare Quality((R)) (WQ) broiler protocol summarizes 18 welfare measures into four principles (good feeding', good housing', good health' and appropriate behaviour'), which are then integrated into one overall category (excellent', enhanced', acceptable' or not classified'). But the protocol is time consuming which hampers implementation. Furthermore, WQ's aim to assess animal welfare in a wide range of husbandry systems may decrease its ability to discriminate between fl... Mehr ...