The Development of an Epidemiologically Based On-Farm Welfare Assessment System for use with Dairy Cows

A dynamic concept of animal welfare: The role of appetitive and adverse internal and external factors and the animal’s ability to adapt to them

Animal welfare is a multifaceted issue that can be approached from different viewpoints, depending on human interests, ethical assumptions, and culture. To properly assess, safeguard and promote animal welfare, concepts are needed to serve as guidelines in any context the animal is kept in. Several different welfare concepts have been developed during the last half decade. The Five Freedoms concept has provided the basis for developing animal welfare assessment to date, and the Five Domains concept has guided those responsible for safeguarding animal welfare, while the Quality of Life concept focuses on how the individual perceives its own welfare state. This study proposes a modified and extended version of an earlier animal welfare concept - the Dynamic Animal Welfare Concept (DAWCon). Based on the adaptability of the animal, and taking the importance of positive emotional states and the dynamic nature of animal welfare into account, an individual animal is likely in a positive welfare state when it is mentally and physically capable and possesses the ability and opportunity to react adequately to sporadic or lasting appetitive and adverse internal and external stimuli, events, and conditions. Adequate reactions are elements of an animal’s normal behavior. They allow the animal to cope with and adapt to the demands of the (prevailing) environmental circumstances, enabling it to reach a state that it perceives as positive, i.e., that evokes positive emotions. This paper describes the role of internal as well as external factors in influencing welfare, each of which exerts their effects in a sporadic or lasting manner. Behavior is highlighted as a crucial read-out parameter. As most animals under human care are selected for certain traits that may affect their behavioral repertoire it is crucial to have thorough ethograms, i.e., a catalogue of specific behaviors of the species/strain/breed under study. DAWCon highlights aspects that need to be addressed when assessing welfare and may stimulate future research questions.

Time-Consuming, but Necessary: A Wide Range of Measures Should Be Included in Welfare Assessments for Dairy Herds

Animal welfare assessments that measure welfare outcomes, including behavior and health, can be highly valid. However, the time and skill required are major barriers to their use. We explored whether feasibility of welfare outcome assessment for dairy herds may be improved by rationalizing the number of measures included. We compared two approaches: analyzing whether strong pairwise associations between measures existed, enabling the subsequent exclusion of associated measures; and identifying possible summary measures—“iceberg indicators”—of dairy herd welfare that could predict herd welfare status. A cross-sectional study of dairy herd welfare was undertaken by a single assessor on 51 English farms, in which 96 welfare outcome measures were assessed. All measures showed at least one pairwise association; percentage of lame cows showed the most (33 correlations). However, most correlations were weak–moderate, suggesting limited scope for excluding measures from protocols based on pairwise relationships. A composite measure of the largest portion of herd welfare status was then identified via Principal Component Analysis (Principal Component 1, accounting for 16.9% of variance), and linear regression revealed that 22 measures correlated with this. Of these 22, agreement statistics indicated that percentage of lame cows and qualitative descriptors of “calmness” and “happiness” best predicted Principal Component 1. However, even these correctly classified only ~50% of farms according to which quartile of the Principal Component 1 they occupied. Further research is recommended, but results suggest that welfare assessments incorporating many diverse measures remain necessary to provide sufficient detail about dairy herd welfare.

Systems for evaluation of welfare on dairy farms

Animal welfare is an essential component of dairy production and several systems exist to evaluate the welfare of dairy cows. Here, we review and compare three well-known systems that operate at farm level from around the world (FARM, Welfare Quality®, and The Code of Welfare) and discuss their advantages and limitations. Despite having some commonalities, the programs evaluate different elements. We also briefly review an emerging system (Integrated Diagnostic Welfare System) that might address some of the shortcomings of the existing systems, especially the possibility of automating the evaluation of animal well-being and identifying any cause of poor welfare. None of the aforementioned systems has been fully validated for their ability to assess animal welfare using independent measurements. The future holds increased attention around the well-being of dairy cows and increased use of sensing technologies. There is an urgent need for dairy welfare evaluation systems that are scientifically validated, holistic, and that can take advantage of the use of sensing technologies to continuously monitor animal welfare.

Herd management and welfare assessment of dairy goat farms in Northern Cyprus by using breeding, health, reproduction, and biosecurity indicators

This study describes the results of a farm-based welfare assessment, herd management, and some yield indicators in Northern Cyprus dairy goat farms. Out of 324 intensive milk goat farms which produce goats, only the 42 goat farms which had 7950 heads were chosen by random sampling in Northern Cyprus (2016), and face-to-face questionnaires and observations were conducted to collect data. Regarding the breeding techniques in these farms, of all the goats in these farms, 45.2% were cross-breed, 38.1% were Damascus, 11.9% were Saanen, and 4.8% were hair goats. The average of the total number of animals was 211.38 ± 209 heads. The average number of pens and the number of animals per pen in the farms, which had 2 to 5 pens, were 67 ± 49.5 heads. The barn types of these farms were observed to be semi-open and nearly open (95%). 45.5% of the farms made a single milking in a day. The most significant reason for this was that the suckling of the kids lasted 3 months or more in 73.8% of the farms. Natural random mating was applied to 69% of the farms. The 45.2% of the farms applied additional feeding before the mating season. The rate of multiple births was 24.76%. The mortality rate in kids was greater than 10% in the 57% of farms examined. The 75% of kids had diarrhea, 33% had umbilicus infections, and 33% suffered from respiratory problems. Among the adult goats of the surveyed farms, the most important problem was external parasites (100%). The second and third problems were overgrown claws (80.9%) and common abscesses (80.95%). Regarding the biosecurity indicators, the general disinfection percentage of farms was 78.57%. However, veterinarian controls were conducted only in the 26.9% of the farms on a regular basis. In these farms, there was no significant difference between the breeds regarding their breeding and reproduction techniques or health indicators. The entrance of the farms carries a high risk for biosecurity. Heat stress is quite important factor for the milk quality.

Validation of an Animal Needs Index for cattle using Test Theory

The validity of an ANI-based welfare index for cattle, the A-Index, was evaluated using Test Theory methods described for quality of life assessments in human medicine. Content validity was considered during the modification of the Index for Finnish beef production. In total, 43 items evaluating locomotion abilities, lying area, social environment, management, feeding, and health of animals over six months up to slaughter were formed. Index scorings were performed on 237 farms. A most consistent partial A-Index was constructed based on qualitative item analyses. A positive relationship was established between the full A-Index and daily carcase gain. In addition, a preliminary negative relationship was established between the partial A-Index, body fat and mortality. Based on our observations, methods used for quality of life indices in human beings would appear suitable for animal welfare assessment. Practicability and well-defined methodology are the main advantages of Test Theory approach.

Can environmental variables replace some animal-based parameters in welfare assessment of dairy cows?

Animal-related parameters best fulfil the requirements of a valid welfare assessment, but often they are less feasible than other parameters. Therefore, this paper examines whether animal-based parameters are connected with each other and with environmental factors in order to find out if some can be discarded without loss of information.

Eighty Austrian dairy herds (21-55 Simmental cows) housed in loose-housing cubicles were visited. Housing, management and the human-animal relationship were assessed. Animal-based parameters such as lameness, skin lesions and social behaviour were recorded. For the statistical analysis, Spearman correlation coefficients and regression trees with additional cross-validations for the assessment of the predictive performance of models were calculated.

The animal-based parameters could be explained by environmental variables only around 2/3 (goodness of fit). The calculated regression trees explained 62% of the percentage of lame animals, 58% of leg injuries on the carpal joints and 69% of the agonistic interactions. Leg injuries on the tarsal joints could be explained to quite a high degree (77%). Cross-validated regression trees, however, which are more significant for prediction on farms in excess of this study, accounted for 31% of the total variance of lameness, 44% of the leg injuries on the tarsal joints, 33% on the carpal joints and 25% of the agonistic interactions.

Only a few correlations between animal-related parameters were found: lameness was correlated with leg injuries on the tarsal joints and on the carpal joints. Leg injuries were correlated with each other.

Due to the lack of interrelations between animal-related parameters and the moderate prediction by environmental factors, we do not suggest replacing the investigated animal-related parameters for on-farm welfare assessment in dairy cattle.

Methodological Aspects for the Assessment of Social Behaviour and Avoidance Distance on Dairy Farms

Some aspects of on-farm assessment of social behaviour and avoidance distance were investigated on 20 Austrian dairy farms. The avoidance distance of at least 75% of cows was assessed. Social behaviour of the cows was observed for one hour and the number of animals standing was recorded every 10 min. Lameness of each animal was scored, and Spearman correlations were calculated. Generally, the avoidance distance of the cows was very low. Lameness did not correlate significantly with avoidance distance. The number of agonistic interactions with body contact per cow correlated negatively with the percentage of lame animals (rs = -0.49; P = 0.029). However, this correlation was no longer found (rs = -0.22; not significant) when calculated on the basis of standing animals only. The total number of social interactions correlated highly with the number of social interactions when interactions in the feeding rack were disregarded. The present study suggests that lameness confounds the assessment of social behaviour but not that of avoidance distance of cows, and that social interactions of animals standing in the feeding racks can be disregarded without decreasing the reliability of the assessments.