title: The welfare of farm animals used for teaching purposes
Creators: name: Prins, Sander
Publisher: name: University of Glasgow
Year: 2024

description: The use of farm animals in teaching veterinary undergraduates and graduates to achieve their objectives, such as Day One competencies or diplomate status, may have a negative impact on the welfare of the animals used. There is limited published evidence reporting the impact of teaching on animal welfare and very few guidelines from accrediting bodies to help inform how animals should be used for teaching.

The first part of this study used a retrospective analysis of cases referred to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) at the University of Glasgow (UOG) between 2013 and 2022 with the aim of describing the cases referred, and their suitability for teaching. In addition, logistic regression analysis investigated the factors that influenced animals staying less than 48 hours, where the hypothesis was animals with a short duration stay may have less optimal welfare. The second part of the study investigated the effects on sheep of being used for teaching clinical examination classes over a five-week period. Behaviours (stress (counts) and maintenance behaviour (scanned)) were observed before, during and after teaching from video recordings of the classes and factors that might influence these behaviours were investigated.

Between 2013 and 2022, the VTH received 1206 bovine cases and 703 ovine cases, ranging in age from 2 weeks to &gt;10 years, all with various diseases within most organ systems (the most common postmortem diagnosis category being multiple systems involved (19%) and respiratory (20%) in bovine and ovine respectively). After exclusion due to missing data, 1066 bovine cases and 539 ovine cases were included in the logistic regression to investigate the possible factors on length of stay of less than 48 hours. For both species, arriving on a Tuesday increased the odds of an animal staying less than 48 hours when compared to a Monday [bovine (OR 2.61, CI 1.41-5.06), ovine (OR 2.69, CI 1.22-6.27). Additionally, for bovines, this effect was also observed on Wednesday and Thursday [ Wednesday (OR 2.37, CI 1.30-4.54), Thursday (OR 1.94, CI 1.06-3.75)]. For bovines, cases in all age groups &gt; 2 years old (compared to the age group 6 year (OR 2.33, CI 1.50-3.62) and cases within the kidney, bladder and urinary tract disease category (compared to cases within the digestive category) had higher odds to stay less than 48 hours (OR 4.86, CI 1.43-18.25). For ovines other factors increasing the odds of staying &lt; 48hours were male animals (OR 2.29, CI 1.19-4.38) and animals with unknown sex (OR 2.17, CI 1.21-3.88) (compared to females) and one individual clinician (OR 3.71, CI 1.09-13.0). The factor disease category ‘diagnosis not reached’ (compared to respiratory) was associated with decreased the odds of staying &lt; 48 hours were (OR 0.14, CI 0.03-0.46). Interestingly, for both species, neither transport distance nor travelling time were associated with an effect on duration of stay.

The second part of the study showed that individual differences between sheep were observed both in the number of stress responses and in the type of stress response. Over the five-week teaching period, the total number of stress responses decreased each week, and, on some days, sheep spent more time lying down and eating and less time standing in the one-hour period after being used for teaching.

These results suggest that the VTH at UOG receives a considerable number of cases with potentially large teaching benefits due to the variety of diseases diagnosed at postmortem. The factors identified as influencing animals staying &lt; 48 hours could be used to help inform what cases are suitable for admission to the clinic without compromising animal welfare, but further research would need to investigate some of these effects further. With individual variation and habituation being observed in sheep clinical exam classes, this could inform teaching practice as sheep that exhibit less stress could be selected for these classes and they could be acclimatised to the teaching activity over time to minimise the impact on animal welfare. The study also suggests a rest period after being used for teaching is required but further research is needed to establish how long the rest period needs to be and if it differs depending on the length and type of class. In addition, to assess whether the benefits to students learning outweigh the negative effects on the welfare of animals used for teaching, it is necessary to consider not only the teaching event itself, but also any factors that could affect welfare throughout the time spent within the VTH.