Common welfare problems in dairy cows (Webster, 2010)
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Area |
Criteria not being met |
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1. Good housing |
Animals shouldn’t suffer from prolonged hunger |
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2. Good housing |
Animals should have comfort round resting |
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Animals should have enough space to move round freely |
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3. Good health |
Injuries ( Slippery floors) |
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Disease 1: Painful diseases such as mastitis, foot disorders Disease 2: metabolic diseases |
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Pain caused by procedures ( tail-docking) |
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4. Appropriate behavior |
Negative emotional states eg: loss of calf, frustration, tiredness |
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Unable to express social behaviours, as appropriate to the species |
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Unable to express other species-typical behaviours; no grazing, crowding/ bullying |
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Poor human-animal relationships, rough handling |
Area 1: Good Feeding
a. Genetic selection for high production- inherent welfare problem
- Holstein ( approx. 18000 liters per lactation: 50 L/day)
- On grass >> can only produce 25 liters of milk per day
- Need extra energy-dense feed
- Kept inside to ensure they eat enough
b. Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) (Dohoo et al., 2003)
- Injection every 14 days >> increase milk production by 10-15 %
- Increase DM intake by approx. 1.5 kg/ day
- Reduced BCS
- Reduced fertility: increased risk of mastitis and lameness: injection site reactions
c. Oxytocin
- Increases milk letdown
Area 2: Good Housing
a. Insufficient number of cubicles
- Prolonged standing (especially heifers)
b. Poor cubicle design. Eg
- To short or narrow
- Insufficient lunging space as cows rise
c. Litter or no bedding: Thin cows
d. Dirty bedding/ concrete: Mastitis
Area 3: Good Health (Gregory, 2011)
a. Silage feeding >> wet, acid slurry: Slipping if concrete is smooth
b. High-protein feeds >> high concentrations of urea in urine: Keratolytic >> claw erosion
c. Dirty flooring predisposes to Foot infections and Mastitis
d. Foot disorders- infections
- Sole ulcer, digital dermatitis
- Multiple causes, eg. Genetics, husbandry, Pain
- Reduced milk yield and fertility
e. Lack of recognition by farmers (Leach et al., 2010)
- Prevalence approx. 36%, but famers did not perceive the welfare or financial costs of it
- ‘Bad’ becomes normal- farmers overworked and have no point of comparison
f. Bacterial infection
- Predisposing factors, e.g. genetics, cortisol at parturition, udder hygiene, rBST
g. Tail-docking (von Keyserlingk et al., 2009)
- Painful
- Does not improve udder hygiene or health
h. Robotic milking
- Increase risk of mastitis, e.g. inadequate hygiene (Hovinen & pyorala, 2011)
Area 4: Appropriate Behavior
a. Negative Emotions
- Pain- lameness
- Exhaustion- a state of extreme physical or mental tiredness
- Underlying metabolic cause: genetics or cheap food
- Fear- bullying, rough handling. Eg fear of handler reduces residual milk letdown
- Distress at separation from calf