Scientific report on the effects of farming systems on dairy cow welfare and disease

No abstract available

This report categorises European dairy farming according to internationally used classifications of farming systems. Human and exogenous institutional factors are also important as they are superimposed on the farming system and affect the impact of the technical conditions of the system on the welfare, especially the health of the cows. The animals considered in this report are dairy cows, while lactating or not lactating, and calves and heifers that will become dairy cows. The welfare of dairy bulls is an important subject that is not covered in this report and it could be a subject of another report. The welfare of calves is covered in EFSA’s scientific opinion on intensively kept calves (EFSA, 2005) whereas many reports from EFSA and previous EU scientific committees concern cattle diseases.

Welfare and related concepts are discussed briefly in chapter 1. The methods of assessing welfare and potential indicators of good or poor welfare are also discussed. A section on the needs of dairy cows (Chapter 2) forms the basis for the list of factors used in the risk analysis, as explained in chapter 5.2 and in the related sections in each of the four separate Scientific Opinions on the risk assessments on leg disorders, udder disorders, behaviour problems together with fear and pain, and metabolic and reproductive disorders. These risk assessments are limited to milking cows, rather than dry cows, heifers, calves or bulls. They only concern the four important areas listed above and consequently there may be aspects of poor welfare in dairy cows that are not evaluated in the risk assessments.

The purpose of this Scientific Report is to describe dairy cow welfare and to consider ways in which welfare can be adversely affected and possibilities for its improvement. The range of factors which have important consequences for dairy cow welfare are discussed. They include cow genetics, housing (e.g. space and pen design, flooring and bedding material, temperature, ventilation and air hygiene), feeding (e.g. liquid feed, concentrates, roughage), management (e.g. grouping, weaning), and human-animal relations.

The measures used to assess welfare include behavioural and physiological measures, patho-physiological measures and clinical signs, as well as production measures.

The Scientific Report refers to infectious diseases where management methods are likely to affect their incidence. However, no attempt is made to review this topic. On the other hand, production-related diseases are discussed in detail. It is considered that leg disorders, mastitis and reproductive disorders are considered major components of poor welfare in dairy cows and therefore there are substantial sections on these topics. The genetic selection of dairy cattle over many years is considered to be a major factor leading to poor welfare in dairy cows. This topic is considered in detail in the Report and in the four Risk Assessments.