Farm animal welfare concept: From beginnings to integration in modern production systems

Abstract

The farm animal welfare science has undergone a thorny path of development, often disputed because of its lack of measurability and the purpose of existence. At the very beginning, primarily based on moral and ethical attitudes, over time it pointed to the importance of meeting the needs of animals and the consequences of their neglect and exhaustion in the conditions of intensive livestock production. An important segment of its development was the definition and development of methodologies for the assessment of welfare indicators, which made it measurable and accepted as a scientific discipline with the knowledge applicable and useful in modern production systems. This paper is a concise review of the evolution of the animal welfare science, but also an indication of its future in the context of the development of "symbiotic" connections with the concepts of sustainable agriculture and food safety as integral parts of the modern ecological movement arose from a unified concern for the welfare of people and animals, a care for planetary welfare in general.

Nauka o dobrobiti farmskih životinja prošla je trnovit put razvoja, često osporavana zbog svoje nemerljivosti i svrsishodnosti postojanja. U samom začetku prvenstveno zasnovana na moralnim i etičkim stavovima, tokom vremena ukazala je na značaj zadovoljenja potreba životinja i posledice njihovog zanemarivanja i iscrpljivanja u uslovima intenzivne stočarske proizvodnje. Važan segment njenog razvoja bili su definisanje i razvoj metodologija za ocenu indikatora dobrobiti, čime je ona postala merljiva i prihvaćena kao naučna disciplina sa saznanjima primenljivim i korisnim u savremenim sistemima proizvodnje. Ovaj rad predstavlja sažet prikaz evolucije nauke o dobrobiti, ali i nagoveštaj njene budućnosti u smislu razvoja „simbiotičkih“ veza sa konceptima održive poljoprivrede i bezbednosti hrane kao integralnih delova savremenog ekološkog pokreta proisteklog iz objedinjene brige o dobrobiti ljudi i životinja, brige o dobrobiti planete generalno.