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Reliability of categorical versus continuous scoring of welfare indicators: lameness in cows as a case study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

FAM Tuyttens ,
M Sprenger ,
A Van Nuffel ,
W Maertens  and
S Van Dongen
FAM Tuyttens*
Affiliation:
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Animal Sciences Unit, Animal Husbandry and Welfare, Scheldeweg 68, 9090 Melle, Belgium
M Sprenger
Affiliation:
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Animal Sciences Unit, Animal Husbandry and Welfare, Scheldeweg 68, 9090 Melle, Belgium
A Van Nuffel
Affiliation:
Technology and Food Unit, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Merelbeke, Belgium
W Maertens
Affiliation:
Technology and Food Unit, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Merelbeke, Belgium
S Van Dongen
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Many animal welfare traits vary on a continuous scale but are commonly scored using an ordinal scale with few categories. The rationale behind this practice is rarely stated but appears largely based on the debatable conviction that it increases data reliability. Using 54 observers of varying levels of expertise, inter-observer reliability (IOR) and user-satisfaction were compared between a 3-point ordinal scale (OS) and a continuous modified visual analogue scale with multiple anchors (VAS) for scoring lameness in dairy cattle from video. IOR was significantly better for the VAS than for the OS. IOR increased with self-reported level of expertise for the VAS, whereas for the OS it was highest for observers with a moderate level of expertise. The mean continuous scores and the mean categorical scores were highly correlated. Three times as many observers stated a preference for the VAS (n = 27) compared to the OS (n = 9) in investigating differences in lameness between herds. Contrary to common perception, these results illustrate that it is possible for a continuous cattle lameness score to be more reliable and to have greater user acceptability than a simple categorical scale. As continuous scales are also potentially more sensitive, and produce data more amenable to algebraic processing and more powerful parametric analyses, the scepticism against their application for assessing animal welfare traits should be reconsidered.

Keywords

animal welfarecattlediscrete scalegaitrepeatabilityvisual analogue scale
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 18 , Issue 4: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level , November 2009 , pp. 399 - 405
Copyright
© 2009 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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