The correlation of Qualitative Behavior Assessments with Welfare Quality® protocol outcomes in on-farm welfare assessment of dairy cattle

The assessment of animal welfare on-farm is important to ensure that current welfare standards are followed. The current manual assessment proposed by Welfare Quality® (WQ), although being an essential tool, is only a point-estimate in time, is very time consuming to perform, only evaluates a subset of the animals, and is performed by the subjective human. Automation of the assessment through information technologies (ITs) could provide a continuous objective assessment in real-time on all animals. The aim of the current systematic review was to identify ITs developed for welfare monitoring within the pig production chain, evaluate the ITs developmental stage and evaluate how these ITs can be related to the WQ assessment protocol. The systematic literature search identified 101 publications investigating the development of ITs for welfare monitoring within the pig production chain. The systematic literature analysis revealed that the research field is still young with 97% being published within the last 20 years, and still growing with 63% being published between 2016 and mid-2020. In addition, most focus is still on the development of ITs (sensors) for the extraction and analysis of variables related to pig welfare; this being the first step in the development of a precision livestock farming system for welfare monitoring. The majority of the studies have used sensor technologies detached from the animals such as cameras and microphones, and most investigated animal biomarkers over environmental biomarkers with a clear focus on behavioural biomarkers over physiological biomarkers. ITs intended for many different welfare issues have been studied, although a high number of publications did not specify a welfare issue and instead studied a general biomarker such as activity, feeding behaviour and drinking behaviour. The ‘good feeding’ principle of the WQ assessment protocol was the best represented with ITs for real-time on-farm welfare assessment, while for the other principles only few of the included WQ measures are so far covered. No ITs have yet been developed for the ‘Comfort around resting’ and the ‘Good human-animal relationship’ criteria. Thus, the potential to develop ITs for welfare assessment within the pig production is high and much work is still needed to end up with a remote solution for welfare assessment on-farm and in real-time.

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On-farm animal welfare assessment in beef bulls: consistency over time of single measures and aggregated Welfare Quality® scores

animal ◽

10.1017/s1751731113002267 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 461-469 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

M.K. Kirchner ◽

H. Schulze Westerath ◽

U. Knierim ◽

E. Tessitore ◽

G. Cozzi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Farm Animal ◽

Farm Animal Welfare ◽

Welfare Assessment ◽

Welfare Quality ◽

Animal Welfare Assessment ◽

Beef Bulls ◽

On Farm ◽

Over Time

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Animal Welfare Assessment: Can We Develop a Practical, Time-Limited Assessment Protocol for Pasture-Based Dairy Cows in New Zealand?

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10101918 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1918

Author(s):

Sujan Sapkota ◽

Richard Laven ◽

Kristina Müller ◽

Nikki Kells

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Dairy Cattle ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Dairy Herd ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Welfare Assessment ◽

Assessment Protocol ◽

Specific Protocol ◽

Almost All ◽

On Farm

Despite being a leading producer and exporter of dairy products, New Zealand has no industry-recognised welfare assessment protocol. A New Zealand-specific protocol is essential, as almost all dairy farms in New Zealand are pasture-based and housing is rarely used. Therefore, protocols developed for intensive cows are not suitable. The aim of this study was to develop a simple yet practical welfare assessment protocol that could be used to assess the welfare of a dairy herd during one visit timed to occur around milking. Six welfare assessment protocols and four studies of dairy cattle welfare assessments that had some focus on dairy cattle welfare at pasture were used, along with the New Zealand Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare, to identify potential assessments for inclusion in the protocol. Eighty-four potential assessments (20 record-based and 64 that needed assessing on-farm) were identified by this process of welfare assessments. After screening to exclude on-farm assessments that were not relevant, that had only limited practical application in pasture-based dairy cows or that required more time than available, 28 on-farm assessments remained, which were put together with the 20 record-based assessments and were tested for feasibility, practicality and time on two pasture-based dairy farms. Assessments were then identified as suitable, suitable after modification or not feasible. Suitable and modified assessments were then included in the final protocol alongside additional measures specific to New Zealand dairy farms. The final protocol included 24 on-farm assessments and eight record-based assessments. Further testing of these 32 assessments is needed on more dairy farms across New Zealand before the protocol can be used to routinely assess the welfare of dairy cows in New Zealand.

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Impacts of Compost Bedded Pack Barns on the Welfare and Comfort of Dairy Cows

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10030431 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 431 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anna Fernández ◽

Eva Mainau ◽

Xavier Manteca ◽

Adriana Siurana ◽

Lorena Castillejos

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Lower Percentage ◽

Behavior Patterns ◽

Welfare Assessment ◽

Housing Systems ◽

Lactating Cows ◽

Video Recordings ◽

Welfare Quality ◽

On Farm ◽

Lying Down

Three loose housing systems for lactating cows (compost bedded pack, CBP; conventional bedded pack, BP; and freestalls, FS) were assessed on one farm in terms of cow behavior and welfare. An on-farm welfare assessment based on the Welfare Quality protocols was used four times every three months on 757 cows. Video recordings taken twice over four days were used to assess behavior patterns at resting areas. Cows in CBP and BP were dirtier than those in FS (p < 0.0001). Fewer integument alterations were recorded for CBP and BP than FS (p < 0.001). Cows in BP were quicker to lie down and stand up compared to those in CBP or FS (p < 0.001). Percentages of cows needing more attempts before rising were higher for FS (p < 0.01). However, a higher frequency of kneeling was observed in CBP (p = 0.033). A lower percentage of cows lying in the resting area was recorded for FS (56%) than CBP or BP (97 or 84%, respectively, p < 0.05). Overall, in this study, cows kept in bedded pack barns were dirtier but had fewer integument alterations and spent more time lying down in the resting area than cows housed in freestalls.

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Farm 4.0: innovative smart dairy technologies and their applications as tools for welfare assessment in dairy cattle.

CAB Reviews Perspectives in Agriculture Veterinary Science Nutrition and Natural Resources ◽

10.1079/pavsnnr202116045 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (045) ◽

Author(s):

S. Azarpajouh

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Review Paper ◽

Animal Health ◽

World Population ◽

Welfare Assessment ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Machine Learning Methods ◽

Recent Advancement ◽

Cattle Health ◽

On Farm

Abstract The growing world population has increased the demand for meat and milk products and has led to a rapid growth in the scale of cattle enterprises globally. As a result, livestock production would intensify even more with farmers aiming to maximize output per animal unit and it would lower the stockperson per animal ratio. This will result in less time available to monitor and manage individual animals properly, jeopardizing animal health and welfare. The recent advancement in technological and engineering tools and materials such as advances sensors and sensing devices, and data processing and machine learning methods provide effective tools for the dairy industry to control qualitative and quantitative parameters related to dairy cattle health and welfare. This review paper will (a) explain smart dairy technologies, (b) describe on-farm cattle welfare assessment, and (c) discuss sensors applied in automatic cattle welfare assessment.

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Developing effective training and certification schemes for improving on-farm dairy cattle welfare

Understanding the behaviour and improving the welfare of dairy cattle - Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science ◽

10.19103/as.2020.0084.07 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 123-140

Author(s):

Antoni Dalmau ◽

◽

Antonio Velarde ◽

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Animal Welfare ◽

Quality Principles ◽

Effective Training ◽

Welfare Quality ◽

On Farm ◽

Selection Of

This chapter discusses developing effective training and certification schemes for improving on-farm dairy cattle welfare. It begins by reviewing the selection of measures that can be used for assessing animal welfare, focusing firstly on animal-based measures, then moves on to review resource and management based measures. The chapter also discusses the four welfare quality principles – feeding, housing, health and behaviour – and how dairy cattle welfare can be affected by the quality these four principles. Training of assessors is also discussed, before a summary of why using a combination of resource-based, management-based and animal-based measures is the best way to ensure good welfare in animals such as dairy cattle.

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