Volume 98, Issue 10, October 2015, Pages 6801–6811
Animal health and welfare planning improves udder health and cleanliness but not leg health in Austrian dairy herds
Abstract
Animal
health and welfare planning is considered an important tool for herd
management; however, its effectiveness is less well known. The aim of
this study was to conduct animal health and welfare planning on 34
Austrian dairy farms and to evaluate changes in health and welfare after
1 yr. After an initial assessment using the Welfare Quality protocol
(Welfare Quality Consortium, Lelystad, the Netherlands), results were
reported back to the farmers. Health and welfare area(s) in which both
the farmer and the researcher regarded improvement as important were
discussed. Management practices and husbandry measures were chosen
according to the respective farm situation. One year after interventions
had been initiated, farms were reassessed, and the degree of
implementation of improvement measures was recorded. The average
implementation rate was 57% and thus relatively high when compared with
other studies. High degrees of implementation were achieved related to
cleanliness and udder health, at 77 and 63%, respectively. Intervention
measures addressing udder health were mostly easy to incorporate in the
daily routine and led to a reduced somatic cell score, whereas this
score increased in herds without implementation of measures. The
decrease in cows with dirty teats was more pronounced when measures were
implemented compared with control farms. The implementation rate
regarding leg health (46%) was comparably low in the present study, and
leg health did not improve even when measures were implemented. Lying
comfort, social behavior, and human–animal relationship did not require
interventions and were therefore seldom chosen by farmers as part of
health and welfare plans. In conclusion, the structured, participatory
process of animal health and welfare planning appears to be a promising
way to improve at least some animal health and welfare issues.
Key words
- animal health and welfare planning;
- dairy cow;
- implementation;
- Welfare Quality
Copyright © 2015 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
