7.1 – Multi-criteria analysis

The One welfare is a crucial concept for the evaluation of livestock systems. in practice there is still limited evidence in terms of comprehensive one welfare evaluations, especially in the case of innovative production solutions aiming at improving animal welfare.

In this context, the PPILOW project attempted to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework of the One Welfare level of some low-impact and organic rearing solutions aimed at improving animal welfare. The evaluation framework has been developed within the umbrella of multicriteria analysis, a decision-support approach suitable for analyzing complex real cases. The evaluation framework was then applied to real business cases, e.g. on the use of dual-purpose poultry genotypes and the rearing of intact fattening pigs. The model was able to discriminate differences in the OW level between the different alternatives. In some cases the differences were clearer, while in other cases they were more nuanced and linked to the stakeholders’ preferences. This analysis helps to ensure to making evaluations simpler, and therefore more frequent, in the production reality.