Abstract
In Europe, minimal standards for the protection of veal calves are defined in EU directives.
These standards however do not necessarily guarantee a sufficient level of animal welfare as each
farm has specific conditions for housing and management that may cause welfare issues. There
is a demand for a scientifically-approved on-farm animal welfare assessment tool. In this study,
animal-based measures for the assessment of 5 welfare aspects, i.e. human-animal relationship,
abnormal oral behaviours, respiratory, gastrointestinal and locomotion problems in veal calves
were developed and assessed for their validity, feasibility and repeatability on a large sample
of 174 veal farms across Europe. Factors such as season had an effect on the outcome of the
welfare assessment. They should be considered carefully during welfare assessments and
should be taken into account when evaluating and comparing farms. After this validation
phase, factors imposing a potential risk and factors potentially beneficial for welfare were
identified on farms. Twenty-two measures belonging to the 5 welfare aspects were selected for
a risk factor analysis. For each measure the best model (with all factors significantly affecting
the measure and with the highest R2) was selected using logistic regression. The best models
explained between 16 and 48% of the variance. The factors that were significant in the models
were related to several characteristics of the farm such as production and housing system
(e.g. number of calves per pen, type of floor), batch of calves (e.g. breed, weight at arrival),
management of calves and farmer’s experience (e.g. use of babyboxes, year of experience), feed
and feed distribution system (e.g. amount of milk powder, type of solid feed). Knowing these
factors and understanding their effect on the outcome of welfare measures can help in advising
farmers in their effort to improve welfare of veal calves. Risk factors for the welfare of calves
could be further investigated and risk factor analyses could be implemented once larger data
sets become available from future welfare assessments. More research in specific experimental
set-ups could be performed, to determine causality between risk factors and welfare measures.
This can contribute to the provision of scientifically-sound advice to veal farmers and the
improvement of veal calf welfare.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level (WAFL 2014) |
Editors | L. Mounier, I. Veissier |
Place of Publication | Wageningen, The Netherlands |
Publisher | Wageningen Academic Publishers |
Pages | 171-171 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789086862474 |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Event | WAFL2014 6th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare - Clermont Ferrand, France Duration: 3 Sept 2014 → 5 Sept 2014 |
Conference/symposium
Conference/symposium | WAFL2014 6th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare |
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Country/Territory | France |
City | Clermont Ferrand |
Period | 3/09/14 → 5/09/14 |