Understanding the consumer-citizen gap in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare.

Individuals of the general public can perform both consumer and citizen roles in farm animal welfare, and attitudes toward farm animal welfare may differ between these roles. However, scant research is available regarding this distinction, especially in developing countries such as China. The present study aimed to explore consumer-citizen gaps in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare across three dimensions and across demographic characteristics. A 36-item scale was designed, and completed by 5284 Chinese participants in a large-scale cross-sectional survey. Consumer-citizen gaps in attitudes toward farm animal welfare across three dimensions and demographic characteristics were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and effects of demographic characteristics on attitudes were further explored by linear regression analysis. A significant consumer-citizen gap was found in overall attitudes, although the consumer role was only slightly more positive than the citizen role. The consumer-citizen gap is driven by differences in both cognitive attitudes and behavioral attitudes. The gap is most pronounced in cognitive attitudes, where the consumer role is significantly more positive, and smaller in behavioral attitudes, where the citizen role is significantly more positive. The consumer-citizen gap varies significantly among different demographic groups, including gender, age, education, monthly household income, area of residence, and occupation. Additionally, education, monthly household income, and area of residence have significant effects on attitudes in the dual role, whereas gender only affect consumer-role attitudes significantly. The findings provide evidence that consumer-citizen gaps in Chinese public attitudes toward farm animal welfare exist, and this distinction is mainly determined by demographic characteristics.

Farm Animal Welfare Is a Field of Interest in China: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace.

Farm animal welfare research conducted in China is not commonly accessed or known outside of China, which may lead to the assumption that farm animal welfare receives relatively little attention in China. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis was conducted on the existing Chinese farm animal welfare literature to provide robust evidence to refute this assumption. A total of 1312 peer-reviewed Chinese studies on farm animal welfare published between March 1992 and June 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. CiteSpace software was used to analyze and visualize the number, species, authors, institutions, journals, and keywords of the papers. In China, farm animal welfare research has gone through the processes of an early stage (1992-2001), rapid-growth stage (2002-2007), and mature stage (2008-present), and the scale of research continues to grow. Notably, swine and chickens have received priority attention in this area. A Matthew effect was observed for authors and institutions, with relatively little collaboration among authors and institutions. Most of the papers were published in a small number of journals, with an apparent agglomeration characteristic. The research hotspots, summarized as "feed and diet", "environmental impacts and control", "integrated rearing management", "injury and disease", "behavior and technologies for behavior monitoring", "genetic analysis", "welfare during transport and slaughter", "welfare-friendly animal product consumption", "attitudes toward farm animal welfare", and "healthy breeding". The keywords "computer vision", "recognition", "temperature", "precision livestock farming", "laying hen", and "behavior", represent the major research frontiers in the field, which could indicate potential areas of significant future research. The findings of the present bibliometric analysis confirm the fact that farm animal welfare is a field of interest in China. Farm animal welfare research in China tends to be pragmatic, with a strong emphasis on enhancing growth and production performance, as well as product quality, rather than solely concentrating on improving farm animal welfare. This paper provides insightful references that researchers can use to identify and understand the current status and future direction of the farm animal welfare field in China.

Precision Livestock Farming Research: A Global Scientometric Review.

Precision livestock farming (PLF) utilises information technology to continuously monitor and manage livestock in real-time, which can improve individual animal health, welfare, productivity and the environmental impact of animal husbandry, contributing to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of livestock farming. PLF has emerged as a pivotal area of multidisciplinary interest. In order to clarify the knowledge evolution and hotspot replacement of PLF research, based on the relevant data from the Web of Science database from 1973 to 2023, this study analyzed the main characteristics, research cores and hot topics of PLF research via CiteSpace. The results point to a significant increase in studies on PLF, with countries having advanced livestock farming systems in Europe and America publishing frequently and collaborating closely across borders. Universities in various countries have been leading the research, with Daniel Berckmans serving as the academic leader. Research primarily focuses on animal science, veterinary science, computer science, agricultural engineering, and environmental science. Current research hotspots center around precision dairy and cattle technology, intelligent systems, and animal behavior, with deep learning, accelerometer, automatic milking systems, lameness, estrus detection, and electronic identification being the main research directions, and deep learning and machine learning represent the forefront of current research. Research hot topics mainly include social science in PLF, the environmental impact of PLF, information technology in PLF, and animal welfare in PLF. Future research in PLF should prioritize inter-institutional and inter-scholar communication and cooperation, integration of multidisciplinary and multimethod research approaches, and utilization of deep learning and machine learning. Furthermore, social science issues should be given due attention in PLF, and the integration of intelligent technologies in animal management should be strengthened, with a focus on animal welfare and the environmental impact of animal husbandry, to promote its sustainable development.