Facilities for dairy cattle: an integrative review

Abstract

Evaluate the current scenario for dairy cattle housing. This is an integrative review study oriented by the following guiding question: “What is the scenario of the facilities used in the production of dairy cattle?” The bibliographical research was carried out using the ALICE, BDPA, SciELO, PubMed and SCOPUS databases, with the survey of references being carried out in December 2022 and January 2023, reaching the following quantitative bases: in ALICE of 01 article, in PubMED of 18 articles, SCOPUS 05 articles, totaling a quantity of 24 articles, after application of predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. At the end of reading each article, it was possible to organize them into the following categories: Dairy cattle facilities with a focus on housing, bedding, and general handling, and dairy cattle facilities with a focus on ambience and animal welfare; this categorization took place after being observed that 50% of the articles dealt with housing, bedding and handling and 50% dealt with the ambience and animal welfare. All articles selected for the sample corroborate the need for improvements in facilities for dairy cattle to avoid possible damage to animal welfare and unsatisfactory ambience, so that more rigorous systems such as the Tie Stall can be rendered unusable and make room for unconstrained systems such as Free Stall.