Activity Time Budgets-A Potential Tool to Monitor Equine Welfare?
Abstract: Horses' behavior can provide valuable insight into their subjective state and is thus a good indicator of welfare. However, its complexity requires objective, quantifiable, and unambiguous evidence-based assessment criteria. As healthy, stress-free horses exhibit a highly repetitive daily routine, temporal quantification of their behavioral activities (time budget analysis) can assist in equine welfare assessment. Therefore, the present systematic review aimed to provide an up-to-date analysis of equine time budget studies. A review of the literature yielded 12 papers that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: assessment of equine time budgets for eating, resting and movement for a minimum of 24 continuous hours. A total of 144 horses (1-27 years old), 59 semi-feral and 85 domesticated horses, are included in this review. The 24 h time budgets for foraging or eating (10-6.6%), resting (8.1-66%), lying (2.7-27.3%), and locomotion (0.015-19.1%) showed large variance between studies, which can largely be attributed to differences in age and environmental conditions. Management interventions in domesticated horses (ad libitum access to food, increased space, decreased population density) resulted in time budgets similar to their (semi-)feral conspecifics, emphasizing the importance of environmental conditions and the ability of time budgets to assist in monitoring horses' welfare.
Publication Date: 2021-03-17 PubMed ID: 33802908PubMed Central: PMC8002676DOI: 10.3390/ani11030850Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary
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The research article explores the use of the time budget method to monitor horse welfare by examining activities like eating, resting, and moving. The study is based on previous studies and emphasizes the influence of environment and age on horses’ behaviors.
Introduction and Aim of the Research
- The study aimed to use time budget analysis, a method of studying a horse’s daily routines and activities, as a tool for assessing horse welfare.
- A systematic review was conducted to evaluate and analyze up-to-date studies on equine time budgets, a method quantifying the time spent by horses on various activities within a day.
Methodology and Inclusion Criteria
- The researchers reviewed literature pertaining to time budget studies for horses, narrowing down 12 papers that met the primary inclusion criteria.
- The selected studies had to contain information on horses’ time budgets for three main activities – eating, resting, and moving, recorded over a minimum of 24 continuous hours.
Analysis and Findings
- The analyzed studies included 144 horses ranging from 1 to 27 years old, including 59 semi-feral and 85 domesticated horses.
- The researchers found discrepancies in the percentages of time budgets dedicated to different activities, such as foraging or eating, resting, lying, and locomotion, among the selected studies.
- This variance was largely due to the differences in horses’ age and their environmental conditions.
Conclusions
- The study showed that domesticated horses subjected to certain management interventions (unlimited access to food, larger living space, lesser population density) exhibited time budgets similar to their semi-feral counterparts.
- This led the researchers to conclude that environmental conditions play a significant role in a horse’s behavior and, consequently, their welfare.
- It was suggested that time budget analysis has the potential to assist in monitoring horse welfare effectively by providing objective and quantifiable insights into their behavioral activities.
Cite This Article
APA
Auer U, Kelemen Z, Engl V, Jenner F.
(2021).
Activity Time Budgets-A Potential Tool to Monitor Equine Welfare?
Animals (Basel), 11(3), 850.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030850 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Intensive Care Medicine Unit, Department of Companion Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- Equine Surgery Unit, University Equine Hospital, Department of Companion Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Intensive Care Medicine Unit, Department of Companion Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
- Equine Surgery Unit, University Equine Hospital, Department of Companion Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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