Kilbride, A. L. (Amy L.), Mason, Sam (Sam A.), Honeyman, P. C., Pritchard, D. G., Hepple, S. and Green, Laura E.. (2012) Associations between membership of farm assurance and organic certification schemes and compliance with animal welfare legislation. Veterinary Record, Vol.170 (No.6). p. 152. ISSN 0042-4900

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Abstract

Animal health (AH) defines the outcome of their inspections of livestock holdings as full compliance with the legislation and welfare code (A), compliance with the legislation but not the code (B), non-compliance with legislation but no pain, distress or suffering obvious in the animals (C) or evidence of unnecessary pain or unnecessary distress (D). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether membership of farm assurance or organic certification schemes was associated with compliance with animal welfare legislation as inspected by AH. Participating schemes provided details of their members, past and present, and these records were matched against inspection data from AH. Multivariable multilevel logistic binomial models were built to investigate the association between compliance with legislation and membership of a farm assurance/organic scheme. The percentage of inspections coded A, B, C or D was 37.1, 35.6, 20.2 and 7.1 per cent, respectively. Once adjusted for year, country, enterprise, herd size and reason for inspection, there was a pattern of significantly reduced risk of codes C and D compared with A and B, in certified enterprises compared with the enterprises that were not known to be certified in all species.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	Other > Institute of Advanced Study Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- )
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Animal welfare -- Law and legislation, Organic farming -- Certification, Quality assurance -- Certification
Journal or Publication Title:	Veterinary Record
Publisher:	B M J Group
ISSN:	0042-4900
Date:	11 February 2012
Volume:	Vol.170
Number:	No.6
Page Range:	p. 152
Identification Number:	10.1136/vr.100345
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Great Britain. Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Grant number:	AW0510 (DEFRA)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/40017

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