THE FIVE DOMAINS MODEL

Freedom from hunger and thirst

by providing fresh water, grazing time & quality feed

Freedom from discomfort

by providing access to sunlight & soft warm beds

Freedom from pain, injury, or disease

by providing appropriate treatment and medicine

Freedom to express normal behavior

by allowing mothers to nurse and stay with their young

Freedokm from fear and distress

by prooviding safe, nourishing environment

The Five Domains

• welfare assessment framework, created in 1994

• helps the evaluation of animal welfare risks and opportunities for welfare improvement.

1. Nutrition

2. Physical environment

3. Health

‘Survival-critical’ physical/functional domains

Behavioral interactions

Situational domain

Mental state

Fifth

Nutrition

➢Factors that enable animals’ access to drink sufficient and good quality water and eat an appropriate quantity and good quality of foods.

Food-restricted

__ animals tends to have a high feeding motivation

Malnutrition

(deficit, imbalance, or excess of nutrients) will have negative effects on the normal functioning of the animal, including behaviour, physiology, reproduction, health, growth potential and production, and may lead to frustration and exhaustion.

Physical Environment

Factors that enable comfort through appropriate temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise, and predictability.

Outdoor management systems

more freedom to express normal behavior but prone to underdiagnosed diseases

Physical Environment

➢Provision of space and suitable resources, that allows normal species-typical behaviours to be expressed (such as nesting, rooting and perching) can offer opportunities to allow indoor environments to meet animal’s behavioural needs, whilst preserving the positive benefits of shelter and protection.

Health

➢Factors that promote good health through a good fitness level and the absence of disease and injuries

Morbidity and mortality

crude indicator of health and welfare

1. body condition score

2. body temperature

3. presence of lesions or parasite

4. cleanliness

5. changes in behavior

More sensitive indicators of health

1. castration of male animals

2. removal of horns and extra teats of cattle

3. trimming beak tips and claws of poultry

4. tail docking in cattle, sheep and pigs

➢Management procedures that can cause pain are commonly performed in farm animals

Behavioural Interactions

Factors that provide interactions with the environment, with varied and novel environmental challenges, with availability of engaging choices, through sensory stimulation, exploration, and foraging; and interactions with other animals and humans, such as bonding or reaffirming bonds, playing, and ability to retreat, escape take refuge or mount defensive attack.

Affective experiences

__ develop in response to interactions with humans

Mental state

➢For every physical/functional domain that is affected, there may be an accompanying emotion or subjective experience that may also affect the welfare.