Preliminary results on the on-farm use of the AWIN prototype welfare assessment protocol for donkeys

A welfare assessment was conducted using the AWIN prototype welfare assessment protocol for donkeys on 11 donkey facilities located in Northern Italy. Farms were representative of the most common type of donkey facilities in Western Europe: four dairy donkey farms, three farms where donkeys were used for Animal Assisted Activities, one sanctuary and three farms where donkeys were kept as companion animals. The average number of animals was 20 (min. 10 max 150). On each farm, all adult donkeys were assessed individually, including assessment of the body condition, dental examination, ocular/nasal discharge, joint swellings, hoof conditions, behavioural reaction to handling performed by the owner, avoidance distance to an unknown person approaching, reaction to an unknown person walking down the side of the animal, ease of limb lift, reaction to ear touch, Qualitative Behaviour Assessment. Specific data regarding the farm (i.e. type of farm), feeding (i.e. roughage, straw, hay, supplements, drinkers), and management (i.e. frequency of work, frequency of health and hoof checks, frequency of grooming), were gathered from an interview with the stockperson and/or by observation and assessment by the assessors. Welfare measures were reported in a merged data set and analysed using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA, correlation matrix, no rotation). Our results revealed that the prototype was feasible under field conditions in donkey facilities. No safety issues were encountered and no tests had to be interrupted because of dangerous reactions of donkeys; all the owners showed good acceptability of the procedure adopted to test the animals. Time required performing the assessment varied from one to three min per donkey. Results revealed substantial farm variability. Donkeys described as agitated, fearful, aggressive, showed higher avoidance distance to an unknown person approaching and a tail tuck reaction when the observer walked down their side. On the contrary, donkeys habitually groomed and who easily followed their owner were described more frequently as friendly. It is worth to notice that QBA was performed as the first evaluation on farm, on undisturbed animals, before taking any other welfare measure. This means, for instance, that the donkeys were described as fearful or friendly before seeing their reaction to humans.