Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Free University of Bolzano, 39100, Bolzano, Italy.
Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Free University of Bolzano, 39100, Bolzano, Italy.
J Dairy Sci. 2023 Sep;106(9):6464-6475. doi: 10.3168/jds.2022-22592. Epub 2023 Jul 26.
Public concern about the welfare of farm animals and the livestock industry's awareness of the need to improve animal welfare have led to the implementation of new tools designed to meet this objective. Especially in the case of small-scale farms in marginalized areas, the lack of available data specifically for assessing welfare led to the present study. Its aim was to use animal- and resource-based indicators that are representative of small-scale farms, to establish an index and develop a benchmarking tool that can be used to dynamically evaluate the welfare of cattle on farms with different husbandry systems and provide farmers, veterinarians, extension officers, and stakeholders with reliable information that can be used as a decision support tool. For this reason, 1,891 cows from 204 herds housed in freestall (n = 111) and tiestall (n = 93) husbandry systems in South Tyrol (Northern Italy) were evaluated. The results showed that 17.6% of herds (36 farms) had an average score below 60 (out of 100), which means that immediate intervention should be adopted to improve welfare. South Tyrolean dairy farms performed well in terms of lameness, skin alterations, avoidance behavior, number and space of lying areas, and dystocia occurrence scores, whereas water supply, cow cleanliness status, claw conformation, and getting-up behavior offered significant potential for improvement. Significant differences were observed between housing systems scoring less than 60 out of 100 points in 9.9% (n = 11) and 26.9%, (n = 25), of the herds kept in freestalls and tiestalls, respectively. A slight difference was found when comparing the percentage of herds with high scores, which corresponded to 30.6% (n = 34) of herds housed in freestalls and 22.6% (n = 21) of herds housed in tiestall housing systems. In addition, it was shown that animals reared on farms with tiestalls more often had problems with body condition, cleanliness, and skin alterations. All individual welfare indicators in the top 25% of herds had scores above 80, indicating that this may be an attainable target for freestall and tiestall herds, respectively, to promote good dairy cow welfare. The overall aim must be to adopt measures to increase the scores on all farms closer to this level.
公众对农场动物福利的关注以及畜牧业意识到需要提高动物福利，这导致了新工具的实施，旨在实现这一目标。特别是在边缘化地区的小型农场，缺乏专门用于评估福利的可用数据，导致了本研究。本研究旨在使用具有代表性的小型农场的基于动物和资源的指标，建立一个指数并开发一个基准工具，用于动态评估具有不同饲养系统的农场的牛的福利，并为农民、兽医、推广官员和利益相关者提供可靠的信息，作为决策支持工具。为此，对来自南蒂罗尔（意大利北部）204 个畜群的 1,891 头奶牛（自由卧床饲养[n = 111]和拴系卧床饲养[n = 93]）进行了评估。结果表明，17.6%的畜群（36 个农场）的平均得分为 60 分以下（满分 100 分），这意味着应立即采取干预措施来提高福利。南蒂罗尔的奶牛场在跛行、皮肤变化、回避行为、躺卧区数量和空间以及难产发生率方面表现良好，而供水、奶牛清洁状况、蹄形和起身行为则具有很大的改进潜力。在自由卧床和拴系卧床饲养的畜群中，得分低于 100 分的畜群（分别为 9.9%[n = 11]和 26.9%[n = 25]）之间存在显著差异。在比较高得分畜群的比例时，发现存在细微差异，自由卧床饲养的畜群中有 30.6%（n = 34），而拴系卧床饲养的畜群中有 22.6%（n = 21）。此外，还表明在拴系卧床饲养的农场中饲养的动物更常出现身体状况、清洁度和皮肤变化方面的问题。得分在前 25%的畜群中的所有个体福利指标均高于 80 分，这表明这可能是自由卧床和拴系卧床畜群分别提高奶牛福利的可实现目标。总体目标必须是采取措施，使所有农场的分数都更接近这一水平。
