Influences on the assessment of resource- and animal-based welfare indicators in unweaned dairy calves for usage by farmers
- 21 September 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Animal Science
- Vol. 99 (10)
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skab266
Abstract
Consumers, industrial stakeholders, and the legislature demand a stronger focus on animal welfare of all livestock at the farm level by using suitable indicators in self-assessments. In order to deduce farms’ animal welfare status reliably, factors that influence indicators’ results need to be identified. Hence, this study aimed to apply possible animal welfare indicators for unweaned dairy calves on conventional dairy farms with early cow-calf separation and evaluate influencing factors such as age and sex of calves or climatic conditions on the applied indicators’ results. An animal welfare assessment using seven resource-based and 14 animal-based indicators was conducted at 42 typical Western German dairy farms (844 calves) in 2018 and 2019 by two observers. The effect of influencing factors was calculated by binary and ordinal logistic regressions and expressed as odds ratios. Although every unweaned calf was assessed during the farm visits, most farms had relatively few unweaned calves (average number of calves ± standard deviation = 20.1 ± 6.7 calves), with six farms having not more than ten calves. The small sample sizes question the usage of those indicators to compare between farms and to set thresholds at farm level. Only one assessed indicator (cleanliness core body) was not statistically affected by the evaluated influencing factors. Calf age was identified as the most decisive factor, as it affected 16 of 21 evaluated indicators and calf age distribution on-farm varied greatly. Climatic conditions (ambient temperature and rainfall) influenced resource-based indicators such as access to concentrate and water or the cleanliness of feeding implements and bedding as well as animal-based cleanliness indicators and the occurrence of health-related impairments such as coughing and diarrhea. The authors found differences between calves on farms assessed by the different observers in resource-based hygiene indicators but also in animal-based indicators like hyperthermia or hypothermia, highlighting the need for further evaluation of quality criteria in dairy calf welfare assessments. Nevertheless, animal welfare assessments by farmers themselves could be useful tools to sensitize farmers to animal welfare and thereby improve calves’ welfare.Keywords
Funding Information
- Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank (UBO 53C-50009_00_71030002)
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Factors associated with morbidity, mortality, and growth of dairy heifer calves up to 3 months of agePreventive Veterinary Medicine, 2014
- On-farm animal welfare assessment in beef bulls: consistency over time of single measures and aggregated Welfare Quality® scoresAnimal, 2014
- To inspect, to motivate — or to do both? A dilemma for on-farm inspection of animal welfareAnimal Welfare, 2013
- Assessing the welfare of dairy calves: outcome-based measures of calf health versus input-based measures of the use of risky management practicesAnimal Welfare, 2012
- Risk factors for calving assistance and dystocia in pasture-based Holstein–Friesian heifers and cows in IrelandThe Veterinary Journal, 2011
- The Welfare Quality® project and beyond: Safeguarding farm animal well-beingActa Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A — Animal Science, 2010
- Short communication: Repeatability of measures of rectal temperature in dairy cowsJournal of Dairy Science, 2010
- Interdependence of welfare outcome measures and potential confounding factors on finishing pig farmsApplied Animal Behaviour Science, 2009
- Epidemiological Aspects of Dermatophyte Infections in Horses and CattleJournal of Veterinary Medicine, Series B, 1998
- Welfare implications of identification of cattle by ear tagsVeterinary Record, 1996