Animal Welfare Science: Why and for Whom?

Area of Science:

• * Animal Welfare Science
• * Animal Production Science

Background:

• * Distinct approaches exist in scientific literature regarding animal welfare.
• * The intrinsic value attributed to farm animals in research has not been consistently evaluated over time.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To assess the intrinsic value assigned to farm animals in scientific publications across animal welfare and animal production journals.
• * To analyze trends in this valuation across three distinct time points: 2000, 2010, and 2020.

Main Methods:

• * Selection of the top ten papers mentioning "animal welfare" or "animal well-being" from specified journals and focus years.
• * Blind scoring of 180 selected papers by five assessors on a scale of 1 to 10, evaluating the intrinsic value attributed to animals.
• * Statistical analysis of scores, considering journal type (Animal Welfare vs. Animal Production) and focus year.

Main Results:

• * Overall mean intrinsic value score was 5.60 ± 2.49.
• * Animal Welfare (AW) journals showed increasing scores over time (6.46 ± 2.29), while Animal Production (AP) journals remained stable (4.74 ± 2.40).
• * Moderate inter-assessor agreement suggests complexity and ambiguity in research language regarding animal interests.

Conclusions:

• * Scientific publications on animal welfare, on average, do not sufficiently prioritize animal interests, indicating a potential issue in research conception and application.
• * The study highlights the need for explicit statements of motivation and priorities in animal welfare research to enhance scientific rigor and improve outcomes for farm animals.
• * Further investigation into the motivations behind animal welfare research is recommended to address the observed gap in prioritizing animal interests.