Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness

The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 make it an offence to allow unnecessary suffering to animals, highlighting that farmers have a duty of care for their animals. Despite this, the current global mean prevalence of lameness in sheep in England is 5%; i.e. ~750,000 lame adult she...

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Main Authors:	Liu, Nicola L.B.H., Kaler, Jasmeet, Ferguson, Eamonn, O’Kane, Holly, Green, Laura E.
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Universities Federation for Animal Welfare 2018
Online Access:	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/1/Liu%20et%20al%20Sheep%20farmers%E2%80%99%20attitudes%20to%20farm%20inspections%20and%20the%20role%20of%20sanctions%20and%20rewards%20as%20motivation%20to%20reduce%20the%20prevalence%20of%20lamenesst.pdf

id	nottingham-47259
recordtype	eprints
spelling	nottingham-472592018-07-02T09:16:11Z http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness Liu, Nicola L.B.H. Kaler, Jasmeet Ferguson, Eamonn O’Kane, Holly Green, Laura E. The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 make it an offence to allow unnecessary suffering to animals, highlighting that farmers have a duty of care for their animals. Despite this, the current global mean prevalence of lameness in sheep in England is 5%; i.e. ~750,000 lame adult sheep at any time. To investigate farmers’ attitudes to sanctions and rewards as drivers to reduce the prevalence of lameness in sheep, farmers’ attitudes to external inspections, acceptable prevalence of lameness and attitudes on outcomes from inspections were investigated using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 43/102 convenience–selected English sheep farmers responded to the questionnaire. Their median flock size was 500 ewes with a geometric mean prevalence of lameness of 2.8%. Few farmers selected correct descriptions of the legislation for treatment and transport of lame sheep. Participants considered 5–7.5% prevalence of lameness acceptable and were least tolerant of farmers who rarely treated lameness and most tolerant of farmers experiencing an incident out of their control, e.g. disease outbreak. Participants consider sanctions and rewards would help to control lameness on sheep farms in England. Sanctions (prosecution, reduction in payment from the single (basic) payment scheme or suspension from a farm assurance scheme) were considered “fair” when lameness was ≥10% and rewards “fair” when lameness was ≤2%. If these farmers’ attitudes are applied to 1,300 randomly selected flocks with a mean prevalence of lameness of 3.5%, 24.6% flocks had ≥10% lameness and would be sanctioned and 32.5% flocks had ≤2% lameness and would be rewarded. Universities Federation for Animal Welfare 2018-02-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/1/Liu%20et%20al%20Sheep%20farmers%E2%80%99%20attitudes%20to%20farm%20inspections%20and%20the%20role%20of%20sanctions%20and%20rewards%20as%20motivation%20to%20reduce%20the%20prevalence%20of%20lamenesst.pdf Liu, Nicola L.B.H. and Kaler, Jasmeet and Ferguson, Eamonn and O’Kane, Holly and Green, Laura E. (2018) Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness. Animal Welfare Journal, 27 (1). pp. 67-79. ISSN 0962-7286 http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/ufaw/aw/2018/00000027/00000001/art00007 doi:10.7120/09627286.27.1.067 doi:10.7120/09627286.27.1.067
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
building	Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 make it an offence to allow unnecessary suffering to animals, highlighting that farmers have a duty of care for their animals. Despite this, the current global mean prevalence of lameness in sheep in England is 5%; i.e. ~750,000 lame adult sheep at any time. To investigate farmers’ attitudes to sanctions and rewards as drivers to reduce the prevalence of lameness in sheep, farmers’ attitudes to external inspections, acceptable prevalence of lameness and attitudes on outcomes from inspections were investigated using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 43/102 convenience–selected English sheep farmers responded to the questionnaire. Their median flock size was 500 ewes with a geometric mean prevalence of lameness of 2.8%. Few farmers selected correct descriptions of the legislation for treatment and transport of lame sheep. Participants considered 5–7.5% prevalence of lameness acceptable and were least tolerant of farmers who rarely treated lameness and most tolerant of farmers experiencing an incident out of their control, e.g. disease outbreak. Participants consider sanctions and rewards would help to control lameness on sheep farms in England. Sanctions (prosecution, reduction in payment from the single (basic) payment scheme or suspension from a farm assurance scheme) were considered “fair” when lameness was ≥10% and rewards “fair” when lameness was ≤2%. If these farmers’ attitudes are applied to 1,300 randomly selected flocks with a mean prevalence of lameness of 3.5%, 24.6% flocks had ≥10% lameness and would be sanctioned and 32.5% flocks had ≤2% lameness and would be rewarded.
format	Article
author	Liu, Nicola L.B.H. Kaler, Jasmeet Ferguson, Eamonn O’Kane, Holly Green, Laura E.
spellingShingle	Liu, Nicola L.B.H. Kaler, Jasmeet Ferguson, Eamonn O’Kane, Holly Green, Laura E. Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
author_facet	Liu, Nicola L.B.H. Kaler, Jasmeet Ferguson, Eamonn O’Kane, Holly Green, Laura E.
author_sort	Liu, Nicola L.B.H.
title	Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
title_short	Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
title_full	Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
title_fullStr	Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
title_full_unstemmed	Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
title_sort	sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness
publisher	Universities Federation for Animal Welfare
publishDate	2018
url	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47259/1/Liu%20et%20al%20Sheep%20farmers%E2%80%99%20attitudes%20to%20farm%20inspections%20and%20the%20role%20of%20sanctions%20and%20rewards%20as%20motivation%20to%20reduce%20the%20prevalence%20of%20lamenesst.pdf
first_indexed	2018-09-06T13:52:03Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T13:52:03Z
_version_	1610866411674009600

Sheep farmers’ attitudes to farm inspections and the role of sanctions and rewards as motivation to reduce the prevalence of lameness

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