Using Expert Elicitation to Abridge the Welfare Quality® Protocol for Monitoring the Most Adverse Dairy Cattle Welfare Impairments

The Welfare Quality® consortium has developed and proposed standard protocols for monitoring farm animal welfare. The uptake of the dairy cattle protocol has been below expectation, however, and it has been criticized for the variable quality of the welfare measures and for a limited number of measures having a disproportionally large effect on the integrated welfare categorization. Aiming for a wide uptake by the milk industry, we revised and simplified the Welfare Quality® protocol into a user-friendly tool for cost- and time-efficient on-farm monitoring of dairy cattle welfare with a minimal number of key animal-based measures that are aggregated into a continuous (and thus discriminative) welfare index (WI). The inevitable subjective decisions were based upon expert opinion, as considerable expertise about cattle welfare issues and about the interpretation, importance, and validity of the welfare measures was deemed essential. The WI is calculated as the sum of the severity score (i.e., how severely a welfare problem affects cow welfare) multiplied with the herd prevalence for each measure. The selection of measures (lameness, leanness, mortality, hairless patches, lesions/swellings, somatic cell count) and their severity scores were based on expert surveys (14–17 trained users of the Welfare Quality® cattle protocol). The prevalence of these welfare measures was assessed in 491 European herds. Experts allocated a welfare score (from 0 to 100) to 12 focus herds for which the prevalence of each welfare measure was benchmarked against all 491 herds. Quadratic models indicated a high correspondence between these subjective scores and the WI (R2 = 0.91). The WI allows both numerical (0–100) as a qualitative (“not classified” to “excellent”) evaluation of welfare. Although it is sensitive to those welfare issues that most adversely affect cattle welfare (as identified by EFSA), the WI should be accompanied with a disclaimer that lists adverse or favorable effects that cannot be detected adequately by the current selection of measures.

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Sensitivity of the integrated Welfare Quality® scores to changing values of individual dairy cattle welfare measures

Animal Welfare ◽

10.7120/09627286.27.2.157 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 157-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S de Graaf ◽

B Ampe ◽

S Buijs ◽

SN Andreasen ◽

A De Boyer Des Roches ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Welfare Measures ◽

Welfare Quality

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Perceived welfare issues in dairy cattle, with special emphasis on metabolic stress

BSAP Occasional Publication ◽

10.1017/s1463981500043028 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

B. L. Nielsen

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Dairy Cow ◽

Metabolic Stress ◽

Cumulative Effects ◽

Dairy Production ◽

Exact Nature ◽

Welfare Problem ◽

Cow Welfare ◽

Main Factor

AbstractThere appears to be little consensus on the extent and the exact nature of the dairy cow welfare problem. In the present paper the welfare of cows is described in the light of metabolic stress. The duration of lactation relative to level of production is highlighted as the main factor which sets the dairy cow apart from other lactating mammals. A conceptual diagram of the components and effects of metabolic load is given, a number of questions are raised and two aspects of dairy production are highlighted which relate to the welfare of modern dairy cows. These relate to decreased fertility in high yielding cows and the cumulative effects of successive lactations. Finally, the need for the dairy industry to participate actively and openly in the welfare debate is emphasized.

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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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COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION OF MILK PRODUCTIVITY OF COWS UKRAINIAN RED-AND-WHITE DAIRY CATTLE AND UKRAINIAN BLACK-AND-WHITE DAIRY CATTLE AND HOLSTEIN BREEDS IN SERF «OLEKSANDRIVSKE»

Animal Breeding and Genetics ◽

10.31073/abg.52.01 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 6-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M. V. Gladiy ◽

G. S. Kovalenko ◽

S. V. Priyma ◽

G. A. Holyosa ◽

A. V. Tuchyk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Milk Yield ◽

Fat Content ◽

Holstein Cows ◽

Milk Productivity ◽

Black And White ◽

The Third ◽

Fat Yield ◽

Selection Of

The main goal of dairy breeds selection should be improving breeding and productive qualities of animals under modern conditions. The majority of farms, using native breeds to produce milk, has created optimal conditions for keeping and feeding, selection and matching, growing of replacements etc. Further improvement of created native dairy breeds for economically useful traits occurs at total use of purebred Holstein bulls (semen) of foreign selection. In order to realistically assess milk productivity (milk yield, fat content in milk and fat yield) of Ukrainian Black-and-White and Red-and-White Dairy cows should be conducted a comparative analysis of Holstein cows under the same conditions of feeding and keeping. It was established that Ukrainian Red-and-White Dairy cows were characterized by the highest milk yields for 305 days of all lactations, taken into account, the among three investigated breeds. Their milk yield during the first lactation was 5933 kg of milk, during the second – 6393 kg, the third – 6391 kg and during higher lactation – 6650 kg. Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy cows were second by milk yield (except for the second lactation), during the first lactation – 5932 kg of milk, the third – 6462 kg and higher – 6541 kg, and Holstein cows were third, during the first lactation – 5794 kg of milk, the second – 6381 kg, the third – 6335 kg and higher – 6469 kg. The fat content was almost the same and varied within 3.49-3.58% in milk of Ukrainian Red-and-White Dairy cattle, 3.50-3.60% in milk of Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy cattle and 3.50-3.56% in Holsteins’ milk. The difference between the breeds was within 0.01-0.04%. All the investigated breeds had predominance in fat yield for three lactations over standards of these breeds: Ukrainian Red-and-White Dairy cows from 75.1 to 93.4 kg, Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy cows – 75.1-89.0 kg respectively and Holstein cows – 41.9-60.2 kg. It was found different level of positive correlation between milk yield and fat yield in all the cases and high correlation (r = 0.604-0.921, P < 0.001) in five cases (41.7%) Negative correlation coefficients indicate that selection of animals to higher milk yield in the herd will decrease the second trait – fat content in milk. Positive and highly significant correlation between milk yield and fat yield indicates that selection of cows in the herd to higher milk yields will increase fat yield. It was revealed that bulls were among the factors impacted the milk productivity (milk yield, fat content, fat yield) of three investigated breeds. So, the force (η²x) of father’s impact on milk yield was15.4-47.9%, fat content – 22.0-43.4% and fat yield – 14.9-47.7% taking into account a lactation and a breed. The force of lines impact (η²x) was second; it was on milk yield 6.1-24.5%, fat content – 4.1-17.1 and fat yield – 5.8-23.5%. The force of breeds impact (η²x) was last; it was on milk yield 0.3-2.9%, fat content – 0.2-0.3% and fat yield – 0.6-2.7%. So, the comparative studies of milk productivity of Ukrainian Red-and-White and Black-and-White Dairy cattle with Holsteins indicate that under similar conditions of feeding and keeping, these native breeds can compete with Holstein cattle. The milk yield for 305 days of higher lactation was 6650 kg of milk in Ukrainian Red-and-White Dairy cows, 6541 kg in Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy cows and 6469 kg in Holsteins. It was found the inverse correlation r = -0.025-0.316 between milk yield and fat content in milk in most cases. Selection and matching of animals in the herd should be carried out simultaneously on these traits. It was found positive repeatability of milk yields between the first and second, the third and higher lactations (rs = 0.036-0.741), indicating the reliability of forecasting increase in milk productivity during the next lactations in all herd. Bulls have the greatest impact (η²x) on milk productivity among the factors taken into account: milk yield – 15.4-47.9%, fat content in milk – 22.0-43.4% and fat yield – 14.9-47.7%.

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Precision Technologies to Address Dairy Cattle Welfare: Focus on Lameness, Mastitis and Body Condition

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11082253 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 2253

Author(s):

Severiano R. Silva ◽

José P. Araujo ◽

Cristina Guedes ◽

Flávio Silva ◽

Mariana Almeida ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Body Condition ◽

Farm Animals ◽

Economic Sustainability ◽

Farm Animal Welfare ◽

Livestock Farming ◽

Technological Support ◽

Technological Tools ◽

Cow Welfare ◽

Time Assessment

Specific animal-based indicators that can be used to predict animal welfare have been the core of protocols for assessing the welfare of farm animals, such as those produced by the Welfare Quality project. At the same time, the contribution of technological tools for the accurate and real-time assessment of farm animal welfare is also evident. The solutions based on technological tools fit into the precision livestock farming (PLF) concept, which has improved productivity, economic sustainability, and animal welfare in dairy farms. PLF has been adopted recently; nevertheless, the need for technological support on farms is getting more and more attention and has translated into significant scientific contributions in various fields of the dairy industry, but with an emphasis on the health and welfare of the cows. This review aims to present the recent advances of PLF in dairy cow welfare, particularly in the assessment of lameness, mastitis, and body condition, which are among the most relevant animal-based indications for the welfare of cows. Finally, a discussion is presented on the possibility of integrating the information obtained by PLF into a welfare assessment framework.

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Genomic Analysis, Progress and Future Perspectives in Dairy Cattle Selection: A Review

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11030599 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 599

Author(s):

Miguel A. Gutierrez-Reinoso ◽

Pedro M. Aponte ◽

Manuel Garcia-Herreros

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Production Efficiency ◽

Association Studies ◽

Phenotypic Traits ◽

Progeny Testing ◽

Genome Wide Association Studies ◽

Genetic Progress ◽

Breeding Programs ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Selection Of

Genomics comprises a set of current and valuable technologies implemented as selection tools in dairy cattle commercial breeding programs. The intensive progeny testing for production and reproductive traits based on genomic breeding values (GEBVs) has been crucial to increasing dairy cattle productivity. The knowledge of key genes and haplotypes, including their regulation mechanisms, as markers for productivity traits, may improve the strategies on the present and future for dairy cattle selection. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) such as quantitative trait loci (QTL), single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP) methods have already been included in global dairy programs for the estimation of marker-assisted selection-derived effects. The increase in genetic progress based on genomic predicting accuracy has also contributed to the understanding of genetic effects in dairy cattle offspring. However, the crossing within inbred-lines critically increased homozygosis with accumulated negative effects of inbreeding like a decline in reproductive performance. Thus, inaccurate-biased estimations based on empirical-conventional models of dairy production systems face an increased risk of providing suboptimal results derived from errors in the selection of candidates of high genetic merit-based just on low-heritability phenotypic traits. This extends the generation intervals and increases costs due to the significant reduction of genetic gains. The remarkable progress of genomic prediction increases the accurate selection of superior candidates. The scope of the present review is to summarize and discuss the advances and challenges of genomic tools for dairy cattle selection for optimizing breeding programs and controlling negative inbreeding depression effects on productivity and consequently, achieving economic-effective advances in food production efficiency. Particular attention is given to the potential genomic selection-derived results to facilitate precision management on modern dairy farms, including an overview of novel genome editing methodologies as perspectives toward the future.

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Dynamics of the live weight of replacement heifers depending on their origin from the sire

Glavnyj zootehnik (Head of Animal Breeding) ◽

10.33920/sel-03-2107-03 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 24-30

Author(s):

O. V. Gorelik ◽

N. A. Fedoseeva ◽

A. S. Gorelik ◽

E. V. Koksharov

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Gene Pool ◽

Live Weight ◽

Age Dynamics ◽

Breeding Stock ◽

Black And White ◽

Holstein Breed ◽

White Breed ◽

Intensive Rearing ◽

Selection Of

In the last few decades the improvement of domestic dairy cattle was due to the widespread use of the gene pool of the best world breed such as Holstein. As a result of crossbreeding the breeding stock of the domestic Black-and-White breed with the sires of Holstein breed in different regions of the country a population of crossbreds has been created. The purpose of the work was to study the age dynamics of the live weight of replacement heifers depending on the paternal origin and the correlation between the indicators for the growth periods. The daughters of different sires have a difference in their live weight at the first insemination. The live weight of more than 400 kg was obtained from replacement heifers obtained from the sires Saber, Decaro and Baquero. The daughters of the sires Gatedenser, Bentley and Alta Ciara in live weight were inferior to their herdmates by 2,7–9,3 kg or by 0,7–2,8 % (P ≥ 0,05). The bulk of the replacement heifers are inseminated at the age of 13 months and only the daughters of the sire Alta Ciara are inseminated at the age of 14,1 months with a live weight of 396,7 kg. Despite the almost identical live weight of heifers at birth they differed from each other in the process of rearing. It has been established that the live weight at birth is not an indicator for assessing the further growth of replacement young animals. At 6 months of age the correlation of live weight at the age of 6 months and at the first insemination was positive and ranges from 0,01 (daughters of the sire Baquero) to 0,55 (daughters of the sire Decaro). Selection of heifers at the age of 6 months by their live weight allows us to choose the best and provide the opportunity to inseminate them at the age of 12–13 months with the organization of intensive rearing.

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Identification of Associations between Clinical Signs and Hosts to Monitor the Web for Detection of Animal Disease Outbreaks

Public Health and Welfare ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1674-3.ch026 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 565-586

Author(s):

Elena Arsevska ◽

Mathieu Roche ◽

Pascal Hendrikx ◽

David Chavernac ◽

Sylvain Falala ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Early Detection ◽

Web Mining ◽

Clinical Signs ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Expert Elicitation ◽

Comprehensive Method ◽

Statistical Measures ◽

Animal Pathogens ◽

The Web ◽

Selection Of

In a context of intensification of international trade and travels, the transboundary spread of emerging human or animal pathogens represents a growing concern. One of the missions of the national veterinary services is to implement international epidemiological intelligence for a timely and accurate detection of emerging animal infectious diseases (EAID) worldwide, and take early actions to prevent their introduction on the national territory. For this purpose, an efficient use of the information published on the web is essential. The authors present a comprehensive method for identification of relevant associations between terms describing clinical signs and hosts to build queries to monitor the web for early detection of EAID. Using text and web mining approaches, they present statistical measures for automatic selection of relevant associations between terms. In addition, expert elicitation is used to highlight the most relevant terms and associations among those automatically selected. The authors assessed the performance of the combination of the automatic approach and expert elicitation to monitor the web for a list of selected animal pathogens.

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MARCADORES PARASITOLÓGICOS E HEMATOLÓGICOS PARA A SELEÇÃO DE BOVINOS RESISTENTES À DERMATOBIOSE

Archives of Veterinary Science ◽

10.5380/avs.v7i1.3964 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

S. B. PINTO ◽

V. THOMAZ-SOCCOL ◽

R. ROCHADELLI ◽

R. R. ANDRADE ◽

C. R. MONTANUCCI

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Inverse Relationship ◽

Research Work ◽

Manual Compression ◽

Experimental Animals ◽

Black And White ◽

Dermatobia Hominis ◽

Hematological Markers ◽

Selection Of

O presente trabalho foi desenvolvido na UFPR - Campus Palotina e em três propriedades rurais do município de Palotina, Paraná, durante o período de setembro de 1997 a agosto de 1999. O experimento foi delineado com o objetivo de estudar possíveis marcadores (parasitológicos e hematológicos) que refletem a habilidade do gado de leite (raça Holandesa Preto e Branco) em resistir à parasitose por larvas de Dermatobia hominis (Linnaeus Jr., 1781). Um total de 1050 larvas de D. hominis foram expulsas por meio de compressão digital. Os maiores valores de contagem total de leucócitos foram observados nos animais que apresentaram o menor número de nódulos de larvas de D. hominis. Study of parasitological and hematological markers for the selection of dermatobiose resistant bovines Abstract The present research work has been carried out from September 1997 through August 1999 at Federal University of Paraná Palotina Campus and in three farms from the same County. The main aim of this study was to analyze the possible parasitological and hematological markers that reflect Black and White Holstein dairy cattle resistance towards parasitism by Dermatobia hominis (Linnaeus Jr, 1781) larvae. From the group of 14 experimental animals a total of 1050 D. hominis were collected by manual compression during the period of time of the experiment. From the hematological data it was possible to conclude that there was an inverse relationship between the total leucocytes counting values and the number of larvae nodules, so that the highest the number of leucocytes per l of blood, the lowest the number of larvae nodules.

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Policy of selecting bulls to breed bulls

Animal Science ◽

10.1017/s000335610002804x ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 29-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

M. E. Goddard

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cattle ◽

Genetic Variance ◽

Selection Response ◽

Progeny Testing ◽

Cattle Breeding ◽

Sire Evaluation ◽

Dairy Cattle Breeding ◽

Breeding Programmes ◽

Computer Simulation Program ◽

Selection Of

ABSTRACTIn the breeding of dairy cattle the selection of bulls to breed young bulls for progeny testing is a crucial process. This paper compares several policies for making this selection based on the criteria-selection response, inbreeding depression, loss of genetic variance and variability of response. A number called the ‘effective number of new bulls to breed bulls selected each year’ (NBBe) is defined which is closely related to the last three of these criteria. Past studies of the design of dairy cattle breeding programmes have assumed that selection is within a group of bulls progeny tested in the same year (policy I). However, modern sire evaluation methods allow comparison of sires tested in different years. To evaluate the effect of selecting bulls to breed bulls from all available bulls (policy II) a computer simulation program was used. Policy II results in an increase in the response to selection but a substantial decrease in NBBe. When compared at the same NBBe, policy II results in a smaller selection response than policy I. A policy which allows the best bulls to be used for more than 1 year but which limits the maximum number of years for which they can be used, results in the best compromise. If bulls are to be used for several years there is little advantage to be gained from making more matings within each year to more high-rated bulls or to older, more reliably evaluated bulls.

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