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Využití mobilní aplikace AWIN Horse ve vybraném chovu koní
DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Marie - Anna
Nowadays, majority of horse owners or breeders are becoming more familiar with the topic of animal welfare and as a result they are willing to provide their horses with the best possible living conditions. This trend goes in hand with necessary changes in the stable technologies, which are trying to get as close as possible to the natural lifestyle of horses. These changes need to take into account not only good nutrition of each animal but also appropriate health condition. Taking into consideration all above mentioned factors, so called active stables are coming to the foreground which meet all the criteria of horse welfare. This system of stabling horses is so unique, because it enables to keep the horses outside during the whole year, together with creating various groups of horses. The whole system is managed by the software and chips, which are placed directly onto the horses. The software and chips communicate with the feeding machines which helps to systematize the day program of each animal. The main aim of this bachelor thesis was to evaluate the level welfare of horses kept in this type of stabling. AWIN welfare assessment protocol for horses was used for the process of evaluation with data entered via the AWINHorse mobile application. In order to provide a good long-term observation, three individual evaluations were performed every six moths. This enabled to determine the factors, which influence the welfare not only of each individual horse, but also of the group itself. This group consisted of individuals aged between 5 to 26 years of age. After evaluating all observations, it has become obvious, that the most challenging criterion is providing the suitable nutrition, mainly for horses prone to obesity, concretely 39 % of horses were described as BCS 4 and 11 % as BCS 5. There has also been monitored slightly higher level of injuries within the herd. Average number of injuries were 8,18 in Assessment I, 1 in Assessment II and 2,46 in Assessment III. The most frequent type of integument alterations was alopecia (73 %), and the most vulnerable parts were hindquarters (27 %), midsection (19 %) and head (15 %). Nasal and ocular discharges were also frequent - only 24 % of horses did not show symptoms of these conditions. On the other hand, a lot of the welfare indicators like swollen joints (11 %), ab-normal breathing (13 %) and coughing (6 %) were observed sporadically. None of the monitored horses were evaluated with poor hair coat condition, signs of hoof neglect, lameness, lesions at mouth corners and prolapse. Thanks to technology a lot of the welfare criteria were accomplished, such as absence of prolonged thirst, comfort around resting and ease of movement. Social interaction was enabled at the highest possible level which had an impact to a occasional presence of agonistic behaviour 13 %. No stereotypies were observed. Majority of horses (96 %) also showed requested reactions in human-animal relationship tests. Factors, which influence the level of welfare were determined as season of the year and integration of new horses into the existing herd. The evaluation is has been evaluated as very beneficial for the breeders as there have been monitored problems, which can be avoided in the future. There have also been suggested ways of correction. The potential of the active stable system has been mainly proven. However, more observations need to be performed in the future in order to provide overall results.
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