TechCare Meat Sheep Welfare Assessment Measures

A description of animal-based measures and their definition as used in the meat sheep studies by TechCare. These are NOT intended to be a comprehensive protocol for assessing overall welfare of meat sheep but are individual measures of different welfare issues as identified by the TechCare stakeholders as the most important issues for their industry. As far as possible these are validated indicators drawn from a number of different studies (particularly the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) project, national projects), which were considered the best methods to measure each issue by the TechCare WP2 team. Indicators are described in two ways: firstly, for measures that can be taken in the field in undisturbed animals (typically extensively managed animals where it would not be feasible for desirable to need to handle the animals frequently) and secondly for those that can be made at close quarters, likely with some handling required (e.g. restraint). Indicators are measured at the level of the individual animal. This is required to allow validation of the sensor measures (which are recorded at the animal level). Thus each animal must be identifiable at close quarters and at a distance if the field measures are to be used