Preliminary study on the extention of the IT system ClassyFarm to the apiary

Abstract

ClassyFarm is a new IT system of the Italian Ministry of Health for the risk categorization of livestock farms in relation to four areas: animal welfare, biosecurity, antimicrobial usage and antimicrobial resistance. Within ClassyFarm, on-farm welfare measurement is carried out using protocols based on both resource-based indicators and animal-based indicators. The aim of this study was to develop a welfare measurement protocol for the apiary. Sixteen Italian beekeeping experts were involved into a focus group to discuss a list of resource-based and animal-based indicators, previously selected by the authors by means of a review of the scientific literature, in order to identify effective and significant welfare indicators to be collected in the field. Despite the difficulties encountered related to the nature of honey bees and the lack of scientific knowledge about their welfare, 12 resource-based and 7 animal-based indicators were identified as potentially able to screen the welfare of honey bee colonies in the apiary. This study represents the first step towards the future extension of the ClassyFarm system to the apiary.