SAC Research

During the workshop the opportunity was taken to undertake a novel test of Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA) as a mechanism for determining respondent preferences in relation to animal welfare.

Questions about the treatment of foot rot were posed to assess participants’ views but the exercise was principally designed to determine the utility of ACA itself. The postulated incidence of foot rot in the hypothetical flock was deliberately set at a high level in order to prompt respondents into making clear-cut decisions.

In addition, as noted above, there may have been difficulties associated with delegates taking "footrot" to mean different things – from a specific disease entity to a generic term for lameness. Such imprecision is clearly an issue to address when deploying ACA in other scenarios, for example the farm focus group meetings which form another part of this project.

The exercise proved extremely helpful in identifying these and other technical issues that could affect the further successful application of ACA in other areas of the project.