SAVC Registration Examination · South Africa · South African Veterinary Council
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersNormal and abnormal behaviour by species, how pain and stress show, and how welfare is assessed on farm, in transport, at slaughter and in the home.
In the exams: NAVLE animal welfare 6%; BCSE animal welfare 6-7 items; SAVC Paper 4 welfare 15; EAEVE and WOAH Day One competences
SAVC Registration Examination (South Africa)
Fifteen marks on welfare in Paper 4: transport and slaughter standards, welfare legislation and the veterinarian's legal duties, welfare assessment on farms and at abattoirs.
How our questions for SAVC Registration Examination spread across the units of Animal Behaviour, Ethology & Welfare Science. Difficulty: 10 easy, 26 medium, 6 hard.
| Handling and restraint | 7 | |
| Welfare in transport | 6 | |
| Welfare at slaughter | 6 | |
| Behavioural signs of stress | 5 | |
| Welfare assessment | 5 | |
| Environmental enrichment | 5 | |
| The Five Freedoms and the Five Domains | 4 | |
| Normal behaviour of farm species | 3 | |
| Behavioural signs of pain | 1 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A welfare study finds high plasma cortisol in boars sampled immediately after mating. What is the most important caution in interpreting this?
A. Cortisol also rises with positive arousal, so it does not prove a negative state
Glucocorticoids rise with arousal of either valence, including mating and play, and with the act of sampling. Reading one high value as distress is the classic error; behaviour and other measures must be read together. Pigs do secrete cortisol.
Further reading: Moberg; Broom and Fraser
A Thoroughbred yearling that was weaned abruptly and is now stabled on a high-concentrate, low-forage diet begins crib-biting. The owner wants to fit a cribbing collar. What is the best advice?
D. Address the causes with more forage, turnout and company rather than only prevent it
Crib-biting is linked to low-forage, high-concentrate diets, abrupt weaning and limited social contact. Physically preventing it without addressing the cause may increase frustration. More concentrate worsens the cause, and isolation removes social contact; evidence for copying is weak.
Further reading: Mason and Rushen; equine behaviour literature
Which provision corresponds to the freedom from discomfort?
B. An appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area
Each freedom has a provision. Discomfort is prevented by shelter and a comfortable resting area. Water and diet answer hunger and thirst; prevention and treatment answer pain, injury or disease; space and company answer normal behaviour.
Further reading: FAWC
Why does WOAH favour animal-based criteria when welfare standards are compared?
C. Because the same resources can produce different welfare outcomes on different farms
Outcomes on the animal reflect the result of resources and management together, which vary between farms. Animal-based measures usually take more skill and time, not less, and resource measures are easy to audit.
Further reading: WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code, Section 7
A beef cow with a gestation length of 283 days is due to be unloaded after a long journey on day 262 of pregnancy. Is she fit to travel under the WOAH final-10% rule?
B. No; the final 10% starts at about day 255, so she is within it
The final 10% of 283 days is 28.3 days, so it starts at 283 - 28.3 = about day 255. On day 262 she is within it at planned unloading and is unfit. WOAH ties the rule to the time of planned unloading, not loading, and the 'final third' is not the standard.
Further reading: WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code, Section 7
Where should a penetrating captive bolt be placed on an adult cow?
B. Where lines from each eye to the base of the opposite horn cross
The standard frontal site for cattle is the intersection of lines from each eye to the opposite horn base, aimed along the axis of the brain. Placing it at eye level misses the brain; the poll position is used for horned sheep.
Further reading: Grandin; Humane Slaughter Association guidance
Where should a captive bolt be placed for a horned adult sheep?
B. Behind the poll, aimed towards the chin
The horns block the top-of-head site, so horned sheep are shot behind the poll aimed towards the chin. Polled sheep are shot on the top of the head aimed towards the throat; the frontal-to-tail aim describes pigs.
Further reading: Humane Slaughter Association guidance; Grandin
According to WOAH guidance, electric goads may be used, if at all:
B. Only in extreme cases on the hindquarters of adult cattle and pigs
WOAH limits goads to extreme cases on the hindquarters of adult cattle and pigs that refuse to move, never on sensitive areas such as eyes, mouth, ears, anogenital region or belly. National rules are often stricter.
Further reading: WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code, Section 7
A dairy farm has a high rate of residual milk and kicking in the parlour. Stockpeople shout and slap cows to move them. Which intervention has the best evidence?
A. Stockperson training to change attitudes and handling, reducing fear of people
Hemsworth and colleagues showed that aversive handling raises fear of humans, reducing milk let-down and productivity, and that training stockpeople improves both welfare and production. Routine oxytocin and prods treat symptoms and add stress.
Further reading: Hemsworth and Coleman, Human-Livestock Interactions
Under EU pig legislation, which provision best meets the requirement for manipulable material for growing pigs?
B. Straw, hay or similar fibrous material that pigs can root, chew and destroy
Directive 2008/120/EC requires permanent access to sufficient material for investigation and manipulation, and materials that can be rooted, chewed and destroyed, such as straw, are the most effective. Under Commission Recommendation (EU) 2016/336, hard objects such as chains alone are regarded as insufficient.
Further reading: Council Directive 2008/120/EC
Ten here, 42 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to SAVC Registration Examination in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
Free for ten days, then one subscription of US$10 a month. We would rather say so here than have you find it later.
An AI operating system for agriculture: free guides, manuals and tools written for every country.