Welfare of sheep: Providing for welfare in an extensive environment
Welfare of sheep: Providing for welfare in an extensive environment
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DOI：
10.1016/j.smallrumres.2009.09.010
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发表时间：
2009-10-01
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Dwyer, C. M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dwyer, C. M.
作为一个传统上被广泛管理的物种，至少在一年中的某些时候，从福利的角度来看，羊得到的关注相对较少。虽然广泛管理的动物比集中管理的动物有更大的行为自由，但它们仍然容易受到其他福利挑战的影响。福利可以从动物的生物功能、饲养方式的自然性或它们的感受（消极或积极）的角度来考虑。这些不同的领域可以通过考虑动物（以及它所拥有的适应性）和环境（由动物经历的挑战组成）来整合。在这种模式下，如果环境挑战压倒了其进化的应对策略（例如，在高温下，如果行为和生理适应不能充分散热），或者如果它有不再需要的适应（例如行为反捕食者反应），那么被广泛管理的动物可能会经历糟糕的福利。因此，为了评估绵羊的福利，我们需要知道，如果动物的适应能力不能应对环境带来的挑战，它们何时会开始遭受痛苦，或者应对这些挑战的成本何时太大。此外。绵羊拥有的适应性将影响其应对能力，例如，母性行为的品种差异和对捕食者的反应将分别影响绵羊在广泛环境中的生存和被捕食风险。广阔的环境能在多大程度上满足羊的行为需求，这一点从未被测试过。然而，考虑到野生羊的行为和栖息地，表明一些首选的环境特征，如逃生地形或特定的出生地点，可能不存在于养殖环境中。这将如何影响绵羊的福利还有待确定。羊的福利也受到饲养羊的饲养员素质的影响。广泛管理的羊与人的互动很少，但几乎总是令人反感，而互动的性质是否会受到饲养员态度和行为的影响，如在集中管理的物种中所见，还有待观察。然而，有证据表明，农民可能低估了他们自己和他们的牧羊犬对羊群的负面影响。农民的态度也可以影响管理决策，这可能对他们的羊的福利产生间接影响。例如，农民对跛足的态度与治疗决定有关。因此，粗放型环境对福利提出了与集约型系统明显不同的特殊挑战，仍需进一步调查。(C) 2009 Elsevier B.V.版权所有
As a species traditionally managed extensively, at least for some of the year, sheep have received relatively little attention from a welfare perspective. Although extensively managed animals have greater behavioural freedom than those managed intensively, they are still vulnerable to other welfare challenges. Welfare can be considered from the perspective of the animals biological functioning, the naturalness of the way in which they are kept, or their feelings (negative or positive). These different domains can be integrated by considering the animal (and the adaptations it possesses) and the environment (made up of the challenges the animal experiences). In this schema, the extensively managed animal may experience poor welfare if the environmental challenges overwhelm its evolved coping strategies (for example, in high temperatures if behavioural and physiological adaptations cannot dissipate heat sufficiently) or if it has adaptations (such as behavioural anti-predator responses) that are no longer required. To assess welfare of sheep, therefore, we need to know when the animal may begin to suffer if its adaptations do not meet the challenges presented by the environment or when the cost of meeting those challenges is too great. In addition. the adaptations the sheep possess will affect how well it copes, e.g. breed differences in maternal behaviour and responses to predators will influence lamb survival and predation risk in extensive environments, respectively. How well the extensive environment can meet the behavioural needs of sheep has never been tested. However, consideration of the behaviour and habitat of wild sheep suggests that some preferred environmental features, such as escape terrain or specific birth sites, may not be present in farmed environments. How this affects sheep welfare is still to be determined. Sheep welfare is also affected by the quality of the stockperson caring for them. Interactions with people for extensively managed sheep are infrequent, but nearly always aversive, and whether the nature of interactions can be affected by stockperson attitude and behaviour, as seen in intensively managed species, remains to be seen. There is evidence, however, that farmers may under-estimate the negative impact that themselves and their sheepdogs can have on their sheep. Farmer attitude can also affect management decisions which may have an indirect impact on the welfare of their sheep. For example, farmer attitudes towards lameness are related to treatment decisions. The extensive environment thus provides particular challenges to welfare that differ markedly from those in intensive systems, and still need further investigation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.