Animal Welfare in the Production of Organic Eggs in São Paulo State: Social Perception and Technical Evaluation of the Poultry Farms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/dma.v35i0.38500Keywords:
animal welfare, organic aviculture, interview, human assetsAbstract
This paper deals with the perception of animal welfare (AW) on the part of rural entrepreneurs, agriculture/cattle raising technicians and poultry farm workers in organic egg production in the state of São Paulo. The technical conditions at the poultry farms were assessed through the requirements based on protocols oriented towards animal welfare (Laywel, Welfare Quality®, Globalgap) and organic production standards (Regulatory Instruction 46/2011/Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle-Raising and Supply). Through 21 semi-structured interviews, the perception and level of information on the subject, as well as the difficulties found by the production process agents, were assessed. By crossing information gathered at the interviews and from AW evaluation at poultry farms, some technical gaps in organic handling and implementation of AW-enhancing practices were found. Regarding the AW concept, all agents find it relevant within their own universe of comprehension and ethical, sanitary and economic values. At poultry farms with over 10.000 hens, the AW conditions are satisfactory, supported by technical assistance, good facilities and financial conditions for investment. Poultry farms with a lower number of hens, on the other hand, show poor infrastructure and handling, face financial limitations and lack technical assistance, thereby putting AW at risk. It can be seen that the consistency between the agents´ views and actual AW practices is directly linked to knowledge of the subject. Where there are gaps in this knowledge, the impact on AW and sanitary, nutritional and environmental weaknesses cannot be recognized or measured. Guidance is proposed for these production sector agents on concepts and practices capable of covering the full ethical, sanitary and economic scope of AW, so that the solutions and adjustments for AW problems can be discussed and implemented on sound knowledge basis.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright on works published in this journal rests with the author, with first publication rights for the journal. The content of published works is the sole responsibility of the authors. DMA is an open access journal and has adopted the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Not Adapted (CC-BY) license since January 2023. Therefore, when published by this journal, articles are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercial) and adapt (remix, transform, and create from the material for any purpose, even commercial). You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes have been made.
The contents published by DMA from v. 53, 2020 to v. 60, 2022 are protected by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
DMA has been an open access journal since its creation, however, from v.1 of 2000 to v. 52 of 2019, the journal did not adopt a Creative Commons license and therefore the type of license is not indicated on the first page of the articles.
