Round Three results.

Ensuring animal welfare is a key aspect of animal management in zoological facilities and aquaria, representing a pivotal facet of their mission. Italy currently lacks a comprehensive and valuable assessment methodology for evaluating the welfare of captive animals. To address this gap, the present study aimed to identify the most important criteria that should be considered in the welfare management and assessment of animals housed in Italian zoos and aquaria. To pinpoint this issue, we engaged experts with diverse backgrounds, structuring their communication throughout an iterative process, by applying the Delphi methodology. A pilot and three Delphi rounds were administered online to 74 experts, asking them to a) validate relevant topics derived from current legislation and guidelines divided into three clusters: Care, Wellbeing, and Regulation; b) assess the relevance of these topics across taxonomic groups; c) propose and confirm indicators for each identified topic; d) suggest and refine a list of questions for animal welfare assessment. The results were three lists of questions, one for each cluster, with a total of 80 topics, 174 indicators, and 272 questions identified by the experts. The aspects included in these lists offer valuable insights into the main aspects experts consider relevant for captive animal welfare. Despite the complexity of animal welfare and the huge amount of species hosted in zoos limiting the possibility to cover this aspect with a single expert consultation, this project actively addresses the urgent need for standardization in animal welfare assessment, contributing to the ongoing development of zoological regulations in Italy. This is especially important given the current limited legislative framework, underscoring the link between animal welfare and successful ex-situ species conservation. These questions can be the basis of fine-tuned protocols to be tested in future projects aiming at animal welfare self-assessment, thus supporting authority inspection processes.

保障动物福利是动物园及水族馆动物管理的核心环节，亦是其使命的关键组成部分。目前意大利尚缺乏一套全面且科学实用的圈养动物福利评估方法。为填补这一研究空白，本研究旨在明确意大利动物园与水族馆内圈养动物的福利管理及评估工作中应纳入的核心评判标准。为精准锚定该问题，本研究邀请了来自不同领域的专家，并采用德尔菲（Delphi）法，通过迭代式沟通流程组织专家研讨。本研究以线上形式开展1轮预实验与3轮德尔菲调研，共招募74名专家参与，要求专家完成四项任务：a）对源自现行法规与指南的相关议题进行效度验证，这些议题被划分为三大集群：Care、Wellbeing与Regulation；b）评估各分类群下相关议题的适配性；c）为各确定议题提出并确认对应的评估指标；d）拟定并优化一套动物福利评估问卷清单。最终形成了对应三大集群的三份问卷清单，专家共识别出80项相关议题、174项评估指标及272道评估问题。上述清单所涵盖的维度，可为专家认定的圈养动物福利核心考量因素提供重要参考依据。尽管动物福利本身具有复杂性，且动物园饲养的物种数量繁多，单次专家咨询难以覆盖所有维度，但本研究仍针对性解决了动物福利评估标准化的迫切需求，助力意大利动物园监管规范的持续完善。鉴于当前意大利的动物福利立法框架尚不完善，该研究的意义尤为凸显，其明确了动物福利与成功开展迁地物种保护之间的内在关联。该问卷清单可作为精细化评估方案的基础，用于未来动物福利自主评估相关项目的测试，同时可为监管机构的动物福利检查工作提供支撑。