A Delphi application to define acceptabillity levels for welfare measures during long journeys

Future welfare certification systems concerning long journeys may incorporate the use of animal based measures (ABMs). During the DG SANCO funded European project ‘Quality Control Posts’, sets of appropriate ABMs were identified for welfare assessment for transport of sheep, cattle, horses and pigs. In the present study, we aimed to establish expert consensus on acceptability thresholds for ABMs, in order provide an aggregate overall score, using a two phase Delphi procedure. In Phase 1, experts were asked to identify two threshold (TH) levels per measure: values <TH1 were considered ‘certified’, and values > TH2 were ‘unacceptable’. Values between TH1 and TH2 were ‘acceptable’ but not preferred in a certification scheme. Phase 1 consisted of 3 rounds. In round 1 experts were asked to provide their opinion on TH’s, in round 2 they responded anonymously to opinions of other experts. In round 3 a final decision based on the anonymised arguments was comprised. During phase 2 all experts were approached again for their maximum numbers of ‘acceptable’ measures, in order for a species set of measures to maintain 'certifiable' status. This was accomplished in 2 rounds. Respectively, 185, 106 and 91 experts representing 10 different countries provided their opinions on thresholds in the 3 rounds of phase 1. Results suggest that variation in threshold values decreases in subsequent rounds: e.g. a reduction in difference between 1st and 3rd quartile over three successive rounds occurred in 18 out of 20 TH values for the set of 10 sheep ABMs (2/20 ABMs; Sign Test, P