Daily monitoring of cattle welfare on an INRAE experimental farm: use of observation grids

Abstract

Regulations on animal experimentation require the monitoring of animals used for scientific purposes to be documented and formalized. INRAE, and more specifically the national SBEA network, has addressed this issue by co-creating species specific checklists for observation and assessment of animal welfare. For cattle, a daily observation checklist (denominated «assessment grid») is already being set up in the experimental facilities. This article presents the testimonies of staff at two of them.