2.2 Animal health

Purpose of indicator

Maintaining healthy and diverse stocks of animals on-farm contributes to overall agroecosystem functioning for more sustainable farming systems (SDG2, GBF Target 10). Keeping animals in poor health increases the spread of zoonoses, food-borne disease, and livestock mortalities, with associated negative consequences on human health (SDG2 and 3) and livelihoods (SDG1). Healthier animals have a smaller environmental footprint (SDG12 and 13).

Key Metadata

Metadata Item Description
Indicator Name Animal health
Theme Animal health
SDGs Targeted SDG1 (livelihoods), SDG2 (sustainable farming), SDG3 (human health), SDG12 and SDG13 (environmental footprint), GBF Target 10
Data Source Household survey with farm transect
Measurement Qualitative measure of livestock disease and losses. Alternative: Health and welfare of farm animals, measured using the welfare outcome assessment tool as applied to each livestock species.
Measurement Units Various (e.g. number of animals in each welfare category, number of mortalities per 100 animals)

Guidance on Measurement

We discuss two measures of animal health: i) qualitative welfare assessment, ii) (optional) full welfare assessment.

Qualitative assessment

Likert score (1 to 4) based on the following questions:

What was the extent of injury, illness, or death of livestock due to diseases in the last 12 months?

  1. None
  2. Low
  3. Medium
  4. High

What was the extent of injury, illness or death of fish due to diseases in the last 12 months?

  1. None
  2. Low
  3. Medium
  4. High

Full welfare assessment (optional)

The welfare outcome assessment tool is a practical and scientifically informed way of assessing and measuring animal welfare. It aims to provide an objective, accurate and direct picture of animal welfare.

The assessment measures the impact of farm inputs (e.g. housing, space, feed, veterinary care, management) on the health, physical condition and behaviour of the animals themselves. There are different assessment approaches for each livestock species: laying hens, dairy cows, pigs, broiler hens, beef cattle, sheep. The method was developed by Assurewel and is implemented by the UK Soil Association and RSPCA: http://www.assurewel.org/aboutassurewel/aboutwelfareoutcomeassessment.html.

The assessment of one livestock species takes around 30 mins per farm. The researcher will need to complete, with the farmer, the AssureWel simple scoresheet for each livestock produced on the farm. For example, for dairy cattle, this includes documenting:

  • Mobility (good, impaired, severely impaired)
  • Body condition (thin, moderate, fat)
  • Cleanliness (clean to very dirty)
  • Hair loss, lesions and swellings
  • Number of cows with broken tails
  • Number of cows needing further care
  • Farmer records of mobility, mastitis, calf and heifer survivability, cull and casualty cows.

Guidance on Data Entry and Reporting

no information is available

Calculation Method

Qualitative Assessment

  tmp <- main_surveys %>%

    ### map the 4 response options to a score from 1 - 5
    mutate(
      kpi2a_animal_health = case_when(
        disease_injury == 0 ~ 5,
        disease_injury == 1 ~ 3.66,
        disease_injury == 2 ~ 2.33,
        disease_injury == 3 ~ 1
      )
    )

  ### include the new variable in the performance_indicators data frame
  performance_indicators <- performance_indicators %>%
    left_join(
      tmp %>% select(farm_id, owner_id, submission_id, kpi2a_animal_health)
    )

  ## fish health
  tmp <- main_surveys %>%

    ### map the 4 response options to a score from 1 - 5
    mutate(
      kpi2b_fish_health = case_when(
        fish_disease == 0 ~ 5,
        fish_disease == 1 ~ 3.66,
        fish_disease == 2 ~ 2.33,
        fish_disease == 3 ~ 1
      )
    )

  ### include the new variable in the performance_indicators data frame
  performance_indicators <- performance_indicators %>%
    left_join(
      tmp %>% select(farm_id, owner_id, submission_id, kpi2b_fish_health)
    )

Full Welfare Assessment

For details on calculations used in the full welfare assessment, see the documentation at http://www.assurewel.org/aboutassurewel/aboutwelfareoutcomeassessment.html

Indicator Interpretation and Threshold Setting

no information is available

Limitations

no information is available

References