Abstract

Background:
Animal welfare (AW) is currently an important issue in sustainable livestock production. However, many small farmers in developing countries still do not understand and widely apply AW.

Aim:
This study aims to investigate the impact of farm and farmer characteristics, including age, education, farming experience, and flock size, on animal welfare knowledge and practices among duck farmers in the urban area of Bekasi, Indonesia.

Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 29 duck farmers using a structured questionnaire that assessed farm and farmer characteristics, knowledge of animal welfare, and animal welfare practices in accordance with the Five Freedoms of AW. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse the data and identify factors influencing animal welfare knowledge and practices. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the discriminatory performance of significant predictors.

Results:
Farmer characteristics were not significantly associated with AW knowledge. Specifically, age (p = 0.225), education (p = 0.9788), experience (p = 0.318), and flock size (p = 0.786) showed no significant effects. In contrast, AW practices were significantly associated with education (OR = 1.383; p = 0.035) and farming experience (OR = 1.123; p = 0.030. ROC analysis indicated that farming experience demonstrated fair discriminatory power (AUC = 0.), while education showed weak but significant discrimination (AUC = 0.562). Age and flock size were not significant as predictors in either model.

Conclusion:
AW knowledge did not vary across farmer characteristics, whereas AW practices were influenced by education and experience. These findings highlight the importance of training and extension programs to improve AW in peri-urban duck farming.

Key words: Cross-sectional survey; Farmer characteristics; Five freedoms; Management practices; Duck Smallholder farmers.