Report of the Technical Committee to enquire into the Welfare of Animals kept under Intensive Livestock Husbandry Systems.

  • Great Britain. Technical Committee to enquire into the Welfare of Animals kept under Intensive Livestock Husbandry Systems.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Technical Committee to enquire into the Welfare of Animals kept under Intensive Livestock Husbandry Systems. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/94 (page 11)
    suffering, its continued productivity should be taken as decisive evidence that it is not. This is an over-simplified and incomplete view and we reject it. It is true that a satisfactory growth or egg production rate is a reliable guide to the welfare of the animal in certain respects—for example that it is being well-fed—but it is inadequate in other respects. Growth, on occasion, can be a pathological symptom, although it is more often a mark of health. Growth rate and condition, as witnessed by a good coat or plumage, alertness, bright eyes and contentedness, taken altogether are a better guide, perhaps the best objective measure available, but are not inconsis- tent with periods of acute, but transitory, physical or mental suffering. We consider that it is morally incumbent upon us to give the animal the benefit of the doubt and to protect it so far as is possible from conditions that may be reasonably supposed to cause it suffering, though this cannot be proved. Frequently it happens that a given system of husbandry has some charac- teristics which are likely to operate to the benefit of the animal, as com- pared to other systems, and other characteristics which are likely to be to its disadvantage and in such circumstances a difficult judgement of the balance of advantages and disadvantages has to be made. Such judgements made on inadequate evidence will require to be reviewed in the future when more information is available. We are very conscious of this pro- visional nature of some of our recommendations and have taken into account the need of machinery for their review. 31. A principal cause of suffering in animals, as it is in men, is disease. Many veterinary witnesses have drawn our attention to this and to the necessity of taking it into account fully in assessing the welfare of animals. We have been impressed with this evidence and accept the major importance of the disease risk in evaluating the welfare of an animal under any system of husbandry. Accordingly, we lay stress on the incidence of disease and on the guarantees that a sick animal will be quickly recognised and appro- priately treated or slaughtered. Any given intensive system of husbandry may, or may not, be satisfactory in one or both of these respects. Some compare favourably with traditional methods with regard to disease, others compare unfavourably. When poultry and pigs are allowed access to an out- side run, it is difficult to avoid a steady build-up of worm eggs from faecal contamination, with the rate increasing in periods of warm, damp weather. It has been found that the pig lungworm can only survive in outside runs where the intermediate hosts, several species of earthworms, are present. Once infection is established in a population of earthworms it is very diffi- cult to eliminate it except by resting the land for two years. It is certain that the pig stomach worm survives better outdoors, since serious infections are seen almost entirely in breeding stock kept on “ pig-sick” land. In a similar manner, some of the troublesome internal parasites of poultry, such as the tapeworms and gapeworm, require various intermediate hosts which are only available to birds given outside runs. Even roundworms and coccidia, which may become established in birds kept indoors, are very mucpb. more effectively dealt with in their free-living forms inside a building than when the soil becomes contaminated. Recent surveys of disease incidence in broilers in this country have emphasised how good husbandry and preven- tative measures can keep suffering and losses at a very low level in these closely controlled stocks. 1