Development of a scheme for welfare assessment at farm level of water buffalo

The aim of the present project is to develop, on scientific basis, a monitoring system for assessing buffalo welfare at farm level that can be used as certification system, for comparing different husbandry systems or as advisory/management tool for the farmer. The welfare monitoring system will include structural and technical parameters (design criteria or resource criteria) and indicators that measure the actual welfare state of the animals in terms of their behaviour, health, performance and disease-resistance (performance criteria o animal-based criteria). The variable to be used in our on-farm monitoring system of buffalo welfare should be valid (meaningful with respect to animal welfare), reliable (high inter- and intra- observer reliability) and feasible.