ReviewAnimal welfare (South Mimms, England)2023
Rethinking the utility of the Five Domains model.
Review in Animal welfare (South Mimms, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Five Domains, Multiple Realities: A Multidimensional Analysis of Equine Welfare in Equestrian Events in Brazil.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Updating the Five Provisions: Aligning Welfare-Focused Care with the Five Domains Model.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Perception of Dog Welfare in Veterinary Students: A Six-Year Study of Ethical Priorities, Cohort Variation, and Influencing Factors.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Animal Welfare Monitor: Raising the Bar for Species-Specific Welfare Evaluation Using Welfare QualityAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- The impact of bacterial and viral diseases on dromedary camel (Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Review
- Advancing evidence-informed practice in modern zoos: research priorities for animal welfare, conservation, and social legitimacy.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Review
- The Effects of Light on Vertebrate Welfare: A Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Five-domain-based evaluation of environmental enrichment in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) to reduce aggressive behavior.Primates; journal of primatology · 2025Article
- Translating Ethical Principles into Law, Regulations and Workable Animal Welfare Practices.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Animal welfare definitions, frameworks, and assessment tools: Advancing the measurement and laying the foundation for improved animal welfare through a three-step approach.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Review
- An update on captive cetacean welfare.PeerJ · 2025Review
- A review of existing scientific literature on welfare assessment of farmed species applied in commercial practice: identification of strengths, weaknesses, and areas for further development.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Review
- Validation of indicators for the welfare assessment of captive Yangtze finless porpoises (Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Article
- Standardised scoring system to assess the welfare of Yangtze finless porpoises (Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Article
- Introducing the Mellorater-The Five Domains Model in a Welfare Monitoring App for Animal Guardians.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Use of an expert elicitation methodology to compare welfare impacts of two approaches for blood sampling European badgers (Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Article
- Article
- Near and Dear? If animal welfare concepts do not apply to species at a great phylogenetic distance from humans, what concepts might serve as alternatives?Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- Simplifying the Animal Welfare Assessment Grid for enhanced accessibility.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Conceptual foundations for a clarified meaning of the 3Rs principles in animal experimentation.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Five Domains model is influential in contemporary studies of animal welfare. It was originally presented as a conceptual model to understand the types of impact that procedures may impose on experimental animals. Its application has since broadened to cover a wide range of animal species and forms of animal use. However, it has also increasingly been applied as an animal welfare assessment tool, which is the focus of this paper. Several critical limitations associated with this approach have not been widely acknowledged, including that: (1) it relies upon expert or stakeholder opinion, with little transparency around the selection of these individuals; (2) quantitative scoring is typically attempted despite the absence of clear principles for aggregation of welfare measures and few attempts to account for uncertainty; (3) there have been few efforts to measure the repeatability of findings; and (4) it does not consider indirect and unintentional impacts such as those imposed on non-target animals. These deficiencies lead to concerns surrounding testability, repeatability and the potential for manipulation. We provide suggestions for refinement of how the Five Domains model is applied to partially address these limitations. We argue that the Five Domains model is useful for systematic consideration of all sources of possible welfare compromise and enhancement, but is not, in its current state, fit-for-purpose as an assessment tool. We argue for wider acknowledgment of the operational limits of using the model as an assessment tool, prioritisation of the studies needed for its validation, and encourage improvements to this approach.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.