An Indication of Reliability of the Two-Level Approach of the AWIN Welfare Assessment Protocol for Horses

Animal welfare is a very emotional issue. It is therefore necessary to measure it objectively. As welfare includes different components such as the health status, the behaviour and the emotional state, different indicators are needed for its assessment. A two-level approach is proposed in the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) assessment protocol for horses; the first level providing a fast overview and the second more details. The aim of this study was to give an indication whether this two-level approach produces reliable results, i.e., whether the first level assessment does indeed provide a good overview or whether too many welfare issues remain undetected. Therefore, a trained observer performed 112 first and second level assessments directly following each other. The results were compared based on the agreement between the two levels. In this study, based on one observer, overall, the first level did provide a good overview of the welfare status. Adaption of some of the indicators of the first level assessment might be necessary. Nevertheless, this two-level approach enhances feasibility and there is indication that it is a reliable approach. Therewith, this approach might also be interesting for implementation in other welfare assessment schemes