AbstractThe design and management of housing play a major rôle in the welfare of most farm animal species and are implicated in all of the ‘five freedoms’. Housing has always been an aspect of livestock production systems which is readily amenable to legislation and the majority of current UK (and EU) welfare legislation relates generally or specifically to housing. An area of concern in current legislation is the tendency to legislate on housing systems rather than animal state, which leads to disagreements in interpretation and anomalies in implementation. Housing legislation is furthest advanced in the simple-stomached species, rather than in ruminant species which have traditionally been farmed more extensively. However, issues of housing and welfare certainly require to be addressed in other species. Whilst scientific research does underlie many of the existing housing regulations, it has not always been correctly interpreted or sensibly applied. Many dilemmas exist when overviewing the balance of scientific evidence relating to contentious housing systems in all species. In many areas, requirements of quality assurance schemes are now more rigorous and wide reaching than legislation but these are not always based on scientific evidence. However, many component-specific recommendations have been scientifically established and animal welfare could be significantly improved by their application. In the future, advances in fundamental science are needed to better establish legislative criteria. Applied scientists should continue to be used as independent advisers in consideration of future legislation and should be more proactive in information transfer outwith the normal scientific media.
Recasting paradigms of institutional analysis and stakeholder analysis in housing research