Creating a model to detect dairy cattle farms with poor welfare using a national database

Krug, Catarina; Haskell, Marie J.; Nunes, Telmo; Stilwell, George

doi:10.1016/j.prevetmed.2015.10.014

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Moinard et al (2003) found that tail biting is more common on farms which are less well managed. Record keeping is associated with high standards of management (McCutcheon and Glover, 2014;Krug et al, 2015) and could explain the lower prevalence of moderate tail lesions in ePM herds. By monitoring ePM figures, Teagasc advisors are able to assist pig producers in making decisions and evaluating responses to changes in management, feeding or housing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Pig carcass tail lesions: the influence of record keeping through an advisory service and the relationship with farm performance parameters

Staaveren

Teixeira

Hanlon

2017

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tail lesions are important pig welfare indicators that could be recorded during meat inspection as they are more visible on the carcass than on the live animal. Tail biting is associated with reduced performance in the bitten pig, but it is not clear whether problems with tail biting are reflected in general farm performance figures. Farm advisory services aim to improve farm productivity which could be associated with improvements in pig welfare. Record keeping forms an integral part of such advisory services. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of record keeping in the Teagasc eProfit Monitor (ePM herds) on the prevalence of tail lesion severity scores in Irish slaughter pigs. In addition, we investigated associations between the prevalence of tail lesion scores and production parameters at farm level in ePM herds. Pigs were observed after scalding/dehairing and tail lesion score (0 to 4), sex and farm identification were recorded. Tail lesion scores were collapsed into none/mild lesions (score ⩽ 1), moderate lesions (score 2) and severe lesions (score ⩾ 3). The effect of record keeping (ePM herd) on the different tail lesion outcomes was analysed at batch level using the events/trials structure in generalized linear mixed models (PROC GLIMMIX). Spearman's rank correlations were calculated between average tail lesion score of a batch and production parameters. A total of 13 133 pigs were assessed from 73 batches coming from 61 farms. In all, 23 farms were identified as ePM herds. The average prevalence of moderate tail lesions was 26.8% and of severe tail lesions was 3.4% in a batch. Batches coming from ePM herds had a lower prevalence of moderate tail lesions than non-ePM herds ( P < 0.001). Average tail lesion score was negatively associated with age ( P < 0.05) and weight ( P < 0.05) at sale/transfer of weaners, and tended to be positively associated with the number of finishing days ( P = 0.06). In addition, the prevalence of severe tail lesions was negatively associated with average daily gain in weaners ( P < 0.05) and tended to do so with average daily gain in finishers ( P = 0.08). This study provides the first indication that record keeping through an advisory service may help to lower the risk of tail biting, which is associated with improved farm performance.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Detailed record keeping of financial and farm performance figures is fundamental to this (McCutcheon and Glover, 2014). Krug et al (2015) hypothesized that dairy farms with poor welfare were less likely to keep comprehensive records. It is not known if there is also a beneficial effect of record keeping on pig welfare.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pig carcass tail lesions: the influence of record keeping through an advisory service and the relationship with farm performance parameters

Staaveren

Teixeira

Hanlon

2017

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the last 50 years, the main goal of dairy farming has been to increase milk production through genetic selection and improved management, thereby increasing farm profit and reducing costs for consumers (Krug et al, 2015). However, concerns related to animal care and handling have grown among European citizens, making the welfare status of farm animals an important aspect of overall food quality (Eurobarometer, 2016) and of the sustainability of animal production (Hötzel, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symposium review: Animal welfare in free-walk systems in Europe

Blanco‐Penedo

Ouweltjes

Ofner-Schröck

et al. 2020

Journal of Dairy Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Providing more space per animal, soft bedding, and free roaming in animal housing systems is widely presumed to be beneficial for the welfare of the animals. This observational study aimed to investigate the basis of this assumption in free-walk housing systems (FWS) for dairy cows in Europe. The dairy cattle Welfare Quality assessment protocol was adapted for application to FWS, and the focus was on animal-based measures, from individual cow scoring to comfort around resting. The study was conducted on 41 farms [21 FWS and 20 cubicle housing (CH)] from 6 European countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, and Sweden) displaying a variety of management systems. A total of 4,036 animals were scored. We found differences in animal welfare under different management conditions. The hindquarters and lower hind legs of cows from FWS were dirtier than those of cows in CH, but we found no difference in the dirtiness of udders or teats. Cows from FWS showed fewer hairless patches in all body areas except the neck; fewer lesions in the lower hind legs and hindquarters; and less swelling in the lower hind legs, flanks, and carpus than cows from CH. The prevalence of sound cows appeared to be higher in FWS, and moderate lameness prevalence was lower compared with CH. We found no difference in the prevalence of severe lameness between systems. We conducted a total of 684 observation sessions of comfort around resting, consisting of 830 lying down and 849 rising up movements. Cows in FWS took less time to lie down, had less difficulty rising up, and had fewer collisions with the environment during both behaviors than cows in CH. Cows lay partly or completely outside the supposed lying area less frequently in FWS than in CH. Cows in FWS adopted comfortable lying positions more often compared with CH, showing a higher occurrence of long and wide positions than cows in CH. Short positions were more common in FWS, and narrow positions were slightly more common in CH. We found large variations in animal-based measures between study herds and within housing systems. However, the observed patterns associated with each system demonstrated differences in cow scoring and comfort around resting. This study shows that a wide range of good and bad management practices exist in FWS, especially related to cow hygiene.

show abstract

“…For instance, with variables based on calf mortality, it was partly not further defined up to which age calves were considered for the DBVs. For future work, we therefore suggest including detailed definitions or calculation methods of the DBVs, as has already been done in a study by Krug et al [ 30 ]. For example, in this study the mortality rate was calculated as ‘incidence of on-farm deaths and emergency slaughter reported in death/100 animal-year at risk’.…”

Section: Data-based Variables and Animal-based Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Based Variables Used as Indicators of Dairy Cow Welfare at Farm Level: A Review

Lutz

Zwygart

Rufener

et al. 2021

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the last years, the interest in data-based variables (DBVs) as easy-to-obtain, cost-effective animal welfare indicators has continued to grow. This interest has led to publications focusing on the relationship between DBVs and animal welfare. This review compiles 13 papers identified through a systematic literature search to provide an overview of the current state of research on the relationship between DBVs and dairy cow welfare at farm level. The selected papers were examined regarding their definition of animal welfare and classified according to this definition into three categories: (a) papers evaluating DBVs as predictors of animal welfare violations, (b) papers investigating the relationship between DBVs and animal-based measurements, and (c) papers investigating the relationship of DBVs to scores of welfare assessments like the Welfare Quality protocol or to overall welfare scores at farm level. In addition, associations between DBVs and indicators of animal welfare were extracted, grouped by the type of DBV, and examined for replications that may confirm the associations. All the identified studies demonstrated associations between DBVs and animal welfare. Overall, the first indications of a possible suitability of DBVs for predicting herds with animal welfare violations as well as good or poor animal welfare status were given. The evaluation of relationships between DBVs and animal-based measurements (ABMs) found mortality-based DBVs to be frequently associated with ABMs. However, owing to varying definitions of animal welfare, the use of different variants of DBVs, and different methods used to assess DBVs, the studies could only be compared to a limited extent. Future research would benefit from a harmonisation of DBVs and the use of valid measurements that reflect the multidimensionality of welfare. Data sources rarely investigated so far may have the potential to provide additional DBVs that can contribute to the monitoring of cow welfare at farm level.

show abstract

Creating a model to detect dairy cattle farms with poor welfare using a national database

Cited by 24 publications

References 17 publications

Pig carcass tail lesions: the influence of record keeping through an advisory service and the relationship with farm performance parameters

Pig carcass tail lesions: the influence of record keeping through an advisory service and the relationship with farm performance parameters

Symposium review: Animal welfare in free-walk systems in Europe

Data-Based Variables Used as Indicators of Dairy Cow Welfare at Farm Level: A Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About