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Improving animal welfare practices in Veterinary Education: an evidence-based approach

Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Ellen Williams, Helen Braid

University of Registration: Harper Adams University

BBSRC Research Themes:

• Sustainable Agriculture and Food (Animal Health and Welfare)

Project Outline

Animals are routinely used to teach clinical skills to veterinary students (McGreevy et al. 2007) yet there is a lack of legislation in relation to their use and little research quantifying welfare impacts. Within veterinary education (VE), requirements differ across accrediting bodies however providers are required to have animal use policies in place (AVMA, 2025; RCVS, 2023). Consultations with VE colleagues highlighted a lack of guidance on creating animal-use policies. Animals in VE are routinely exposed to a range of handling from potentially positive (e.g. light muscular palpation) to more aversive practicals (e.g. rectal examinations). Preliminary work undertaken by the project team has shown behavioural changes in companion and farm animals (Sadler et al., 2024). Students demonstrate a preference for teaching with live animals over the use of non-animal alternatives (Elcoro et al., 2013) and the practical nature of the activities is able to meet the needs of different learning styles (Vemulapalli et al., 2017). However, benefits for students must be weighed against animal welfare. There is an urgent need to quantify the impact of veterinary education provision on animals and to understand the impact of non-animal alternatives on students.

Objectives and methods:

Determine current animal use and perceived impacts of VE on animals through a delphi consultation with colleagues in veterinary education. Consultation will focus on animal use, monitoring protocols and perceived areas of welfare compromise.

Quantify the impacts of current VE practicals on animals used in VE through cross-disciplinary experiments. Analysis will focus on interactions between animal personality, health and practical type and animal responses.

Understand the impacts of animal models in VE provision through assessing student experiences and skills development when using non-animal model alternatives.

Evidence-based best practice guidelines for animal use in VE will be develop.

Balancing education and welfare: Quantifying the impact of farm animal use in education to inform evidence-based guidelines

Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Ellen Williams

University of Registration: Harper Adams University

BBSRC Research Themes:

• Sustainable Agriculture and Food (Animal Health and Welfare)

Project Outline

Across both further and higher education farm animals are routinely used to teach students (McGreevy et al., 2007). In the UK, there are approximately 130 school farms used to support teaching (Cooke, personal communication). Farm animal teaching activities vary from observational (e.g. gait assessments, behavioural monitoring), to routine husbandry (foot trimming, health checking) or more invasive clinical skills (ex. pregnancy diagnosis via rectal examinations). Live animal use in education is considered essential for developing the required familiarity and proficiency expected of graduates (Vemulapalli et al., 2017). Whilst evidence demonstrates varied effects of human-animal-interactions on farmed animals (Mota-Rojas et al., 2020), literature in relation to the specific context of educational use is lacking. There is an urgent need to collect an evidence base quantifying the impact of educational training sessions on farmed animals, to inform welfare-friendly educational guidelines which support student learning without compromising animal welfare.

Objectives:

Quantify current farmed animal use in education with consideration of species, production cycle stage and skills taught. Consult with farm staff and academics to understand perceived welfare impacts and barriers to improved welfare.

Quantify the welfare impacts (short and longer term) of current educational use on farmed animals on animal behaviour (activity budgets, qualitative behavioural assessment) and health data (locomotion, milk yield etc.), with consideration of species-specifics impacts and animal individuality.

Develop evidence-based best practice guidelines for animal-welfare monitoring protocols for farmed animals in education.