Ackonc-AWA: A multi-species animal welfare assessment protocol for wild animals under human care to overcome the use of generic welfare checklists
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2022 |
Authors: |
Débora Silvia Racciatti, Alejandra Feld, Laura Analía Rial, Carlos Blanco, Oriol Tallo-Parra |
Publication/Journal: |
Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
Abstract:
Maintaining a high level of animal welfare is essential in zoos, sanctuaries and aquaria for ethical, legislative and functional reasons. Therefore, it is necessary to have welfare assessment protocols that can be incorporated into daily management programs. Currently, there are dierent approaches to assessing animal welfare in zoos. Those that can be applied to multiple species consist of checklists or qualitative assessments, with limitations, especially regarding the lack of guidance in the selection and interpretation of indicators. Validated protocols also exist, but they are for very few wild species. This study aimed to develop, test in the field, and describe an animal welfare assessment protocol for wild animals under human care, that can be applied to multiple species, intended to overcome the use of generic welfare checklists and oer an alternative to challenging and time consuming species-specific tools.