Welfare of Farmed Crocodilians: Identification of Potential Animal-Based Measures Using Elicitation of Expert Opinion

SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study focuses on an elicitation of expert opinion to identify a toolbox of animal-based measures that can be used to assess the welfare of farmed crocodilians. This is the initial step towards identifying an animal-based assessment protocol that could be used to support the international outcome-based standard developed by the crocodilian farming industry. Potential measures were identified and aligned with the four animal welfare principles and twelve criteria developed by Welfare Quality(®), focusing primarily on practical measures that could be used for monitoring farm processes or during external verification activities. The proposed measures were presented to a panel made up of animal welfare specialists (farmers, veterinarians and scientists) for judgment and scoring. Twenty-eight experts scored the proposed measures for validity (that being the relevancy to the welfare criterion and usefulness as a measure) and feasibility (that being how easy it is to observe and assess, for example, during an on-farm animal welfare assessment or routine monitoring). Future studies, involving the preliminary testing of the measures on a commercial crocodile farm, are planned to confirm validity and establish the reliability of the identified measures. ABSTRACT: Animal-based measures are the measure of choice in animal welfare assessment protocols as they can often be applied completely independently to the housing or production system employed. Although there has been a small body of work on potential animal-based measures for farmed crocodilians, they have not been studied in the context of an animal welfare assessment protocol. Potential animal-based measures that could be used to reflect the welfare state of farmed crocodilians were identified and aligned with the Welfare Quality(®) principles of good housing, good health, good feeding and appropriate behaviour. A consultation process with a panel of experts was used to evaluate and score the potential measures in terms of validity and feasibility. This resulted in a toolbox of measures being identified for further development and integration into animal welfare assessment on the farm. Animal-based measures related to ‘good feeding’ and ‘good health’ received the highest scores for validity and feasibility by the experts. There was less agreement on the animal-based measures that could be used to reflect ‘appropriate behaviour’. Where no animal-based measures were deemed to reliably reflect a welfare criterion nor be useful as a measure on the farm, additional measures of resources or management were suggested as alternatives. Future work in this area should focus on the reliability of the proposed measures and involve further evaluation of their validity and feasibility as they relate to different species of crocodilian and farming system.