Thomsen Peter T, Sørensen Jan Tind
Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, Welfare and Nutrition, Tjele, Denmark.
Acta Vet Scand. 2008 Aug 21;50(1):33. doi: 10.1186/1751-0147-50-33.
Mortality risk in Danish dairy cows has more than doubled since 1990 (from 2% in 1990 to 5% in 2005). Until now, registrations about dead cows in the Danish Cattle Database have not included information about whether the cow died unassisted or was euthanized.
We interviewed a random sample of 196 Danish dairy farmers that had reported a dead cow to the Danish Cattle Database in 2002 and 196 dairy farmers that had reported a dead cow in 2006. Our objectives were to evaluate the proportion of euthanized cows, changes in the behaviour of farmers regarding euthanasia of cows over the years and possible reasons for these changes.
It seems that the threshold for euthanasia of cows among farmers has changed. Farmers generally reported a lower threshold for euthanasia compared to 5-10 years ago.
The threshold for euthanasia of cows has, according to the dairy farmers, become lower. This might have positive impacts on animal welfare as more seriously ill cows are euthanized in the herds and not put through a period of suffering associated with disease and treatment or transported to a slaughterhouse in poor condition.
自1990年以来，丹麦奶牛的死亡风险增加了一倍多（从1990年的2%增至2005年的5%）。到目前为止，丹麦牲畜数据库中有关死牛的记录并未包含该牛是自然死亡还是被实施安乐死的信息。
我们随机采访了196位在2002年向丹麦牲畜数据库报告过死牛情况的丹麦奶农以及196位在2006年报告过死牛情况的奶农。我们的目的是评估实施安乐死的奶牛比例、多年来奶农在奶牛安乐死方面行为的变化以及这些变化的可能原因。
奶农对奶牛实施安乐死的阈值似乎发生了变化。与5至10年前相比，奶农普遍表示实施安乐死的阈值降低了。
据奶农称，奶牛安乐死的阈值已降低。这可能对动物福利产生积极影响，因为更多重病奶牛在牛群中被实施安乐死，而不会经历与疾病及治疗相关的痛苦阶段，也不会在状况不佳时被运往屠宰场。
