Evaluation of welfare indicators for the social environment in cattle herds

Citation
T. Johannesson et Jt. Sorensen, Evaluation of welfare indicators for the social environment in cattle herds, ANIM WELFAR, 9(3), 2000, pp. 297-316
Citations number
54
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Animal Sciences
Journal title
ANIMAL WELFARE
ISSN journal
0962-7286 → ACNP
Volume
9
Issue
3
Year of publication
2000
Pages
297 - 316
Database
ISI
SICI code
0962-7286(200008)9:3<297:EOWIFT>2.0.ZU;2-X
Abstract
The social environment is very important for the welfare of animals in loos e housing daily production systems. This article reviews recent literature on the effect of animal density (AD) and regrouping (RG) on the welfare of cattle and describes the development of feasible indicators for the social environment. Special emphasis is given to the methodological problems that arise when AD and RG are used as welfare indicators in a welfare assessment at the herd level. Various factors affecting estimates of AD were consider ed, including the size of the animals, correction for very high AD values, pen shape and how best to aggregate the results at herd level and over time . The examination of RG is centred around the effect of early social experi ence of the animals, the stability of social relationships, and the effect of pen changes. A range of parameters is suggested for the evaluation of AD and RG as possi ble welfare indicators. These are based on observational data from 10 Danis h dairy herds and related to clinical records from the herd farms. It is co ncluded that mean AD is not feasible as a welfare indicator at the herd lev el but the 25th percentile of AD) corrected for the liveweight of the anima ls should be used instead. The two most promising parameters for evaluation of RG are the frequency of combined pen and group changes for a sample of the herd, and the probability of a certain duration of inter-animal relatio nships. Results from clinical observations correlated with neither AD nor R G.