Donkey assisted interventions: A pilot survey on service providers in North-Eastern Italy Morgana Galardi a,c,1, *, Laura Contalbrigo a,2 , Marica Toson b,3 , Laura Bortolotti b , Monica Lorenzetto b,4 , Francesco Riccioli c,5 , Roberta Moruzzo c,6 a National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro PD, Italy b Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro PD, Italy c Department of Veterinary Science University of Pisa, Viale delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy ARTICLE INFO Article History: Received 13 May 2020 Revised 23 October 2020 Accepted 15 November 2020 Available online xxx ABSTRACT Context: Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), which are generally defined as ‘pet therapy’, focus on the improvement of human health and wellbeing through a multidisciplinary approach and the involvement of domestic animals. An Italian survey conducted in 2017 revealed that donkeys were the third most involved species in AAI. Nevertheless, data on the main features of the providers of Donkey Assisted Interventions (DAI), especially in Italy, and their organisational models are scarce. Objective: This questionnaire-based pilot study aimed to collect information about the features of DAI pro- viders in the Veneto Region to have a general framework about the field. Study method: In this descriptive mixed-method pilot study, we interviewed DAI providers through a com- puter assisted telephone interview. Respondents were selected by integrating data from the Veneto Region Livestock Database and from the Italian official register of AAI professionals. The questionnaire was designed following the advice from Equator Network. Main outcome measures: Our outcome measures included the prevalent organisational system adopted by our respondents, main type of AAI programs, and users. Furthermore, we collected qualitative data about eco- nomic and income and respondents’ personal opinions about DAI (strengths and weaknesses). Main results: Data analysis revealed a heterogeneous picture of the DAI field with a prevalence of non-profit organisations providing mainly Donkey Assisted Activities to a large range of user categories. Despite the poor economic framework and low income from DAI, DAI providers were strongly motivated and spent more time and efforts in delivering this service. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Animal Assisted Interventions Survey Pilot study Donkey Organisational model Italy Introduction Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), which are generally defined as ‘pet therapy’, include projects with therapeutic (AAT), educational (AAE), or recreational (AAA) goals. They focus on improving human health and wellbeing through a multidisciplinary approach and the involvement of domestic animals. The AAI phenomenon was born in the 1960s thanks to the American psychologist Boris Levinson, 1 and it developed worldwide underpinning the valuable concept of One Health and, recently, of One Welfare. 2,3 In the literature, One Health was mainly referred in the control of zoonotic infections and vector-borne diseases through a multidisci- plinary management of the health of humans, animals, and the envi- ronment. 4 Recently, it has also been applied to investigate the benefits of companion animals to human health, 5 falling back into the One Welfare framework. 6 Indeed, One Welfare explicitly supports the use of AAI for human health because it focuses on the improve- ment of function, health, and wellness, thereby balancing these goals with animal health, animal welfare, and a positive human animal relationship. 2 In this perspective, One Health and One Welfare are fundamental to frame the impact of AAI that is not limited to humans or animals individually, but that embraces society, culture, politics, and economy with a systemic approach fitting with different socio-economical * Corresponding author at: National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interven- tions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro PD, Italy. E-mail addresses: mgalardi@izsvenezie.it (M. Galardi), lcontalbrigo@izsvenezie.it (L. Contalbrigo), mtoson@izsvenezie.it (M. Toson), lbortolotti@izsvenezie.it (L. Bortolotti), mlorenzetto@izsvenezie.it (M. Lorenzetto), francesco.riccioli@unipi.it (F. Riccioli), roberta.moruzzo@unipi.it (R. Moruzzo). 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4568-1498 2 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2221-9970 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1955-6602 4 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4729-0300 5 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0745-7893 6 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2753-9183 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.11.004 1550-8307/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ARTICLE IN PRESS Explore 000 (2020) 1 7 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Explore journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsch