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Behavioural observation is an essential part of routine welfare assessment protocols for captive wild animals and Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) can be included as measure of their emotional state. This study aims to develop a QBA Fixed List (FL) for brown bears (Ursus arctos), to test its reliability and to investigate the potential effect of the individual characteristics of the bears and season on the QBA outcomes. Observations and/or video-recordings were performed on 24 brown bears kept in three FOUR PAWS (FP) Sanctuaries. A list of 20 terms was created based on preliminary observations and assessments. Reliability between four observers was tested by calculating the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of the four main Principal Components (PC) and each QBA term scored on 20 two-minute videos, after online training sessions. The correlation between direct versus video observations was investigated through Spearman rank correlations calculated on the first two PC of QBA performed by one observer on 32 twenty-minute observations. Finally, the effect of sex, age, time since rescue (Length of Stay -LoS-), and season was investigated using non-parametric analysis on QBA PC performed by the same observer on 41 twenty-minute videos. Results showed a good sampling adequacy. The agreement between observers was met in all four PC with ICC values from 0.63 to 0.95 and in most terms with ICC values from excellent (> 0.90) to moderate (0.50–0.75), except for Apathetic and Bored. Data from direct and video observations showed a significant correlation among each PC (Rs =0.69 for PC1, p 0.001; Rs =0.67 for PC2; p 0.001). The four main PC on QBA performed on the 41 twenty-minute videos, used to test the effects of sex, age, LoS, and season, explained 74.5% of variance. Positive and negative mood descriptors loaded on PC1, PC2 described activity levels, PC3 dealt with emotions of joy and suffering and PC4 with frustration. Sex affected PC2, females were more Positively occupied and Inquisitive. Older bears (>20 years) were more Bored and In pain than younger bears. Newly arrived bears ( 4 years. Bears showed more positive mood during spring and more negative during summer. Results of the study encourage the application of the developed FL in routine welfare assessments in FP Sanctuaries to monitor bear welfare throughout the seasons, their adaptation process from rescue onwards and to promptly identify changes due to the aging of the animals.

Background: The approach to farm animal welfare evaluation has changed and animal-based measures (ABM), defined as the responses of an animal or effects on an animal, were introduced to assess animal welfare. Animal-based measures can be taken directly on the animal or indirectly and include the use of animal records. They can result from a specific event or be the cumulative outcome of many days, weeks, or months. The objective of the current study was to analyze the use of general ABM codified terms in the scientific literature, the presence of their definitions, and the gap mapping of their use across animal species, categories, years of publication, and geographical areas of the corresponding author's institution. The ultimate aim was to propose a common standard terminology to improve communication among stakeholders. In this study, data models were populated by collecting information coming from scientific papers extracted through a transparent and reproducible protocol using Web of ScienceTM and filtering for the general ABM codified terms (or synonyms/equivalents). A total of 199 papers were retained, and their full texts were assessed. The frequency of general codified ABM terms was analyzed according to the classification factors listed in the objectives. These papers were prevalently European (159 documents), and the most represented species was cattle. Fifty percent of the papers did not provide a definition of the general ABM terms, and 54% cited other sources as reference for their definition. The results of the study showed a very low penetration of the general codified ABM term in the literature on farm animal welfare, with only 1.5% of the papers including the term ABM. This does not mean that specific ABM are not studied, but rather that these specific ABM are not defined as such under a common umbrella, and there is no consensus on the use of terminology, not even among scientists. Thus, we cannot expect the stakeholders to use a common language and a standardized terminology. The recognition and the inclusion of ABM in the lists of commonly accepted abbreviations of scientific journals could be a first step to harmonize the terminology in the scientific literature.

Simple Summary Automatic milking systems (AMS) are spreading rapidly among farms. The contribution of AMS to speeding up the milking process and increasing yield is unquestionable. Nonetheless, thanks to continuous research, AMS have shown the potential to improve animal welfare. In this review, we carried out a comprehensive systematic review of the scientific and industrial research on AMS over the last 20 years. The objectives of this study were to identify the tendencies and gaps of research on AMS and to help the scientists addressing future research. The results showed that, despite the interest in milk production, some gaps remain on the improvement of milk quality. Moreover, future research tendencies will likely be related to animal welfare, sensing technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Abstract Over the last two decades, the dairy industry has adopted the use of Automatic Milking Systems (AMS). AMS have the potential to increase the effectiveness of the milking process and sustain animal welfare. This study assessed the state of the art of research activities on AMS through a systematic review of scientific and industrial research. The papers and patents of the last 20 years (2000–2019) were analysed to assess the research tendencies. The words appearing in title, abstract and keywords of a total of 802 documents were processed with the text mining tool. Four clusters were identified (Components, Technology, Process and Animal). For each cluster, the words frequency analysis enabled us to identify the research tendencies and gaps. The results showed that focuses of the scientific and industrial research areas complementary, with scientific papers mainly dealing with topics related to animal and process, and patents giving priority to technology and components. Both scientific and industrial research converged on some crucial objectives, such as animal welfare, process sustainability and technological development. Despite the increasing interest in animal welfare, this review highlighted that further progress is needed to meet the consumers’ demand. Moreover, milk yield is still regarded as more valuable compared to milk quality. Therefore, additional effort is necessary on the latter. At the process level, some gaps have been found related to cleaning operations, necessary to improve milk quality and animal health. The use of farm data and their incorporation on herd decision support systems (DSS) appeared optimal. The results presented in this review may be used as an overall assessment useful to address future research.

This Research Reflection raises awareness of the need to broaden perspectives and levels of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches when considering on-farm dairy cattle welfare. It starts with a brief overview of current animal welfare issues on dairy farms and how they are perceived by different stakeholders. Some divergences in points of view are discussed in more detail and the first steps in networking are mentioned. Particular emphasis is given to both milk and dairy product waste in industrialized countries and the potential effects of its reduction on changes in the production system. The needs for a quantification of such quota and retailer involvement are also analyzed from the perspective that on-farm animal welfare is directly linked to the amount of milk that might be removed from the food chain by adoption of welfare-friendly management, such as cow-calf systems.

Precision livestock farming dictates the use of advanced technologies to understand, analyze, assess and finally optimize a farm’s production collectively as well as the contribution of each single animal. This Work is part of a research project wishing to steer the dairy farms’ producers to more ethical rearing systems. To study cow’s welfare, we focus on reciprocal vocalizations including mother-offspring contact calls. We show the set-up of a suitable audio capturing system composed of automated recording units and propose an algorithm to automatically detect cow vocalizations in an indoor farm setting. More specifically, the algorithm has a two-level structure: a) first, the Hilbert follower is applied to segment the raw audio signals, and b) second the detected blocks of acoustic activity are refined via a classification scheme based on hidden Markov models. After thorough evaluation, we demonstrate excellent detection results in terms of false positives, false negatives and confusion matrix.

The impact of the current practice of feeding veal calves with large amounts of solid feed (SF) on the prevalence of specific disorders on rumen, abomasum, liver and claws was investigated through a post-mortem inspection at the abattoir. Forty-one batches (“batch” referred to a group of calves of the same breed, coming from the same farm and belonging to the same slaughter group) of crossbred male calves from dairy breed were randomly inspected at 213.6 days old. On average 16.0 rumens, 15.6 abomasa, 15.1 livers, and 30.5 hind claws were checked per batch. Rumens were evaluated for the presence of hyperkeratosis and plaques; abomasa for the presence of lesions in the pyloric area; livers for the presence of lipidosis, abscess or fibrous adherence; and claws for the presence of sole hemorrhages. More than 60% of rumens per batch had signs of hyperkeratosis and plaques, and 80 to 100% of abomasa per batch showed at least 1 lesion in the pyloric area. On average 24% of livers per batch were diseased and about 65% of claws per batch had sole hemorrhages. Affected abomasa were positively correlated to rumens with plaques. Claws with sole hemorrhages tended to be positively correlated to rumens with hyperkeratosis. Calves of inspected batches were fed 311 ± 31 kg DM/cycle of milk-replacer and 158 ± 44 kg DM/cycle of SF containing more than 85% of corn grain. Based on the recorded prevalence of alterations, this feeding strategy should be reconsidered in order to improve veal calves' welfare.

Intensive fattening of late-maturing breeds on concrete or rubberized slatted floors is the prevalent beef production system in mainland Europe. The rationale behind this study is that specific beef breeds with different slaughter weights might have a diverse response to different flooring systems. The study aimed at assessing whether growth performance, health, behaviour and claw condition of two beef breeds, Charolais (CH) and Limousine (LIM), would be affected by their housing on concrete (CS) or rubber-covered (RCS) fully slatted floor. A total of 228 CH (116 on CS; 112 on RCS) and 115 LIM (57 on CS; 58 on RCS) were housed in four and two commercial farms, respectively, in groups of 9.0 ± 2.1 animals/pen with an average space allowance of 3.1 ± 0.2 m2. Draining gaps of CS and RCS pens were 16.9 ± 1.7% and 11.6 ± 1.2% of the total surface, respectively. Bulls of both breeds had similar initial body weight (429.4 ± 31.5 kg for CH; 369.6 ± 31.7 kg for LIM), and they were slaughtered when they reached suitable finishing. Charolais had a higher final body weight (BW) than LIM (750.8 ± 8.6 v. 613.7 ± 10.9 kg; P < 0.01), and bulls of both breeds on RCS had higher average daily gain than on CS (1.47 ± 0.02 v. 1.39 ± 0.02 kg/day; P < 0.05). The percentage of bulls early culled or treated for locomotor disorders were reduced by RCS only for LIM, while RCS tended to prevent the occurrence of bursitis for both breeds. During two 8-h behavioural observations, bulls on RCS performed more head butt/displacements and chases than on CS, and they reduced the frequency of abnormal lying down events. The use of RCS increased mounts’ frequency only in LIM, while its reduced drainage capacity impaired only the cleanliness of CH. Postmortem hoof inspection showed longer claw dorsal wall and diagonal lengths, and sharper toe angles for CH on RCS than LIM on both floors. Results of this study point out that fully slatted floors, regardless of being rubberized or not, are not suitable for bulls finished at a final BW above 700 kg due to their detrimental effects on health and welfare. The use of RCS could be recommended as an alternative to CS only if bulls are slaughtered at a lower final BW (around 600 kg), like in the case of LIM breed.

The research aimed at evaluating the effect of three versus two daily distributions of solid feed on veal calves’ health, behaviour, and rumen and abomasal mucosa alterations with the rationale that three distributions might improve calves’ health and welfare. The study was carried out in two veal calf farms that provided different amounts of solid feed (farm A 200 kg DM/calf; farm B 150 kg DM/calf) during the fattening in addition to liquid milk-replacer. It involved 342 calves in farm A and 108 calves in farm B. The change from two to three solid feed distributions/day started for half calves/farm after the third month of fattening when farm A was feeding 800 g and farm B 600 g DM/calf/day. Health status, blood haemoglobin, and behaviour were assessed on farm at different times. Calves’ carcass weight was recorded and rumens and abomasa were inspected post mortem. Increasing solid feed distributions did not improve calves’ health but it reduced non-nutritive oral behaviours (4.8 versus 3.2 ± 0.4% for two and three distributions/day, respectively) by prolonging the time spent eating solid feed. Carcass weight was similar between treatments. Three daily solid feed distributions did not reduce the prevalence of rumen mucosa hyperkeratinisation and abomasal alterations, worsening the frequency of rumen plaques. As the partition of daily dose of solid feed in three distributions is more time and labour consuming, its benefits addressing only the reduction of non-nutritive oral behaviours seem not sufficient to justify the routinely adoption of this practice by veal producers.

This cross-sectional study aimed to assess in post-mortem the prevalence of specific claw disorders and their location on the sole in hind feet of finishing beef cattle reared indoors under intensive production systems. Evaluation was made on animals that were introduced in the ordinary slaughterhouse planning, presumably with no signs of impaired locomotion or severe lameness. A total of 4292 hind feet (right and left) belonging to 153 batches were collected (average feet/batch 28.1 ± 5.62 (SD)) in 3 abattoirs in Northern Italy at 3 time points (April-June and September-October 2016; February–March 2017). One veterinarian performed the claw trimming first and then scored the presence of specific claw disorders and their position on the sole considering 7 zones (in the digital and interdigital areas). All claw disorders in a specific zone were recorded as binary (presence/absence). Infectious (ILS), non-infectious (NILS), and global (GLS) scores were calculated considering both the type of claw disorder detected and the number of zones affected. Non-infectious disorders were the most common diagnoses among batches, mainly on the lateral claws and in the heel-sole junction area. In particular, white line abscesses and ulcers (sole and toe ulcers) were also found as two of the most debilitating and painful lesions with a non-negligible frequency. Infectious diseases, when occurring in a batch, spread to almost all feet. As expected, GLS distribution on the total feet inspected showed a non-harmful condition, given that the worst scores from 3 to 13 were assigned to a restricted sample of feet (15%) and were far from the maximum potential value of 50. However, the GLS of all batches monitored revealed 10 critical batches having no healthy feet or more than 50% of feet graded with the worst scores. Since right and left feet of the same animal showed similar clinical diagnoses, a more efficient claw health evaluation system should consider only one foot. Although all cattle inspected were supposed to have no evident locomotory problems before slaughter, the detection of several foot disorders and the considerable distribution in some batches might suggest poor conditions on farms affecting finishing beef cattle health, behaviour, and welfare. It is therefore advisable that possible predisposing factors of specific claw disorders on the farms of origin be investigated more deeply.

The aim of this study was to investigate management and feeding practices associated with on-farm loss rate (mortality) on 63 beef cattle farms in Austria, Germany and Italy with housing systems other than fully slatted pens. Information on mortality and 56 categorised factors relating to the cleanliness of animal facilities, health and feeding management, animal-human interaction, cattle transport and origin were gathered during on-farm visits. Samples of total mixed rations (TMRs) were collected and analysed for chemical composition and particle size distribution. Twenty-eight categorised factors were removed from the initial 56 due to exclusion criteria (missing data≥20% and/or monolevel factors with≥80% answers in one category). Mortality was the response variable in the risk factor analysis and the remaining 10 continuous covariates from TMR analyses and 28 categorised factors were independent predictors. Mean (±standard deviation) mortality, representing the proportion of dead, euthanased and early culled animals over the total number of animals bought in or reared in the previous year, was 2.8±3.5%. Fourteen factors were significantly associated with mortality in the bivariable analyses; seven factors were not considered further in the multivariable analysis due to collinearity. None of the factors related to TMR were associated with mortality. Four categorical factors, referring to biosecurity measures and management, were retained in the final multivariable model, with country effect. Buying cattle from only one farm, no mixing of animals during transport, presence of a dedicated sick pen and keeping production records were associated with lower percentage mortality.

Despite the well-known importance of an adequate colostral immunoglobulin (Ig) transfer to calf health and survival, failed transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) remains a widespread problem in dairy farming. The aim of this study was to investigate the management factors associated with FTPI in newborn calves, evaluating particularly the combined effect of delivery time, amount and quality of the first colostrum meal. The study was conducted from March to August 2014 on 21 Italian dairy farms. Farmers were asked as first to answer a farm-level questionnaire on calf management. Blood sampling was then performed on overall 244 calves (1 to 5 days of age) born from Holstein cows, and a sample of the first colostrum meal of each calf was collected. Individual information on calves and the respective colostrum management were recorded. Serum and colostrum Ig concentrations were assessed by electrophoresis. A mixed effects multivariable logistic regression model was used to investigate the association of the variables obtained from both the management questionnaire and the individual calf data with FTPI (calf serum Ig concentration 87.6 g/l) within 1.0 h from birth. Considerable improvements are still needed about colostrum management for newborn calves in dairy farms. The results of this study will help in developing farm-specific programs for reducing the occurrence of FTPI.

This study aimed at assessing whether a reduction in stocking density (SKD) would mitigate lameness and positively affect the performance and health of Charolais bulls in an Italian commercial farm. Bulls were distributed in groups of 10 or 8 animals/pen for high (HD) or low density (LD) corresponding to an individual space of 3.5 or 4.7 m2, respectively. Bulls were fitted with collars that measured rumination time and activity. Three 8-h observational sessions were conducted to record behaviors. Data about health conditions were collected daily. No differences were found in the animals&rsquo, performance. However, performance results might have been impaired by the culling rate experienced during the trial, which prevented from keeping a consistent SKD. Behaviors did not differ between groups, except for rumination time, which was higher for LD bulls during the third observation (p &lt, 0.05). However, rumination time, recorded by collars, did not vary among treatments. There were no differences in the percentage of sick or lame bulls, but the percentage of animals treated repeatedly due to relapse was higher for the HD group (p &lt, 0.05). It was concluded that a larger space allowance could improve the health of bulls kept on fully slatted floors.

Simple Summary The overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in dairy farming may lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance and thus to the reduction of the antimicrobial treatment efficacy against animal or human bacterial diseases. This study aims to investigate antimicrobial use differences in four farm groups: mountain farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production, and lowland farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production. From the results, we found a significant difference between mountain farms with dual-purpose breeds and lowland farms with specialized breeds for the overall antimicrobial use and for the use of those antimicrobial classes that are most important in human medicine. Mountain farms have a generally lower milk production and smaller herd size than lowland farms, provide cows with access to pasture, and limit concentrates in the diet. These management practices and the use of local/dual-purpose breeds could reduce the risk of production diseases and the consequent need for antimicrobial use. Abstract The quantitative assessment of antimicrobial use (AMU) in food-producing animals contributes to the provision of essential information for developing relevant and effective policies to reduce use and to control antimicrobial resistance. Information on AMU is available mainly for intensive dairy farming systems and specialized high-yielding breeds. The aim of this study is to investigate AMU in different dairy farming systems by comparing the treatment incidence in mountain farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production to the treatment incidence in lowland farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production. Significant differences were found only between the overall treatment incidence, as well as the treatment incidence of highest-priority critically important antimicrobials for human medicine, in lowland farms with high-yielding breeds and mountain farms with dual-purpose breeds. Mountain farms have a generally lower milk production and smaller herd size than lowland farms, provide cows with access to pasture, and limit concentrates in the diet. These management practices and the use of local/dual-purpose breeds could reduce the risk of production diseases and the consequent need for AMU.

Over the last 20 years, the dairy industry has implemented new technologies related to Automatic Milking Systems (AMS). AMS have the potential to maximise milk production and animals’ welfare, thanks to the voluntary milking access, but also to increase the resource efficiency and environmental sustainability of dairy farms. This study assesses the state of the art of research on AMS through a systematic review of patent trends in the last two decades. Patents of the last 20 years were extracted from the EspaceNet database. Terms appearing in title and abstract of a total of 154 patents were processed by text mining approach, ignoring low-frequency and meaningless words, and including stemming analysis to aggregate variant forms of the same word. Four clusters were identified: Components, Sensors, Process and Animal, which weights were 30%, 29%, 25% and 16%, respectively. The patent trend and the top contributing countries were evaluated. Moreover, for each cluster, a words frequency analysis was carried out in order to identify research tendencies. The results showed that the highest number of patents was yielded in the early 2000s, thus indicating the great interest to AMS in the initial period. The main contributing countries were The Netherlands and Sweden. The clusters trend pointed out that the focus on the animal and the sensing technologies was constant over time. In recent years, the priority of research shifted towards process efficiency and components. Detailed analysis of clusters allowed to appreciate an increasing interest in the animal health and body conditions over time (+249% and +391% from 2000 to 2019, respectively). Moreover, the study gave evidence of the evolution of the barn towards more efficient systems. The processes which showed increasing relevance were the ones related to facilities cleaning (+291%) and vacuum-based milking systems. The new sensing technologies focus primarily on imaging, allowing to develop new decision models (+348%). Results suggest that AMS patents are moving their attention towards more efficient and sustainable systems. This trend represents an important opportunity for a significant increase in the sustainability of the dairy sector, not only for animals but also for the farmers through the efficient use of the resources, thus enhancing the perception of sustainability by the consumer.

This research aimed at assessing the effects of a ceiling fan ventilation system on health, feeding, social behaviour and growth response of finishing young bulls fattened indoors during a mild summer season. A total of 69 Charolais young bulls were housed in six pens without any mechanical ventilation system (Control) and in six pens equipped with ceiling fans. The experimental period lasted 98 days from June until mid-September 2014. Four experimental days were considered in order to assess the effect of the ventilation system under two different microclimatic conditions: 2 alert days at monthly interval with temperature humidity index (THI) between 75 and 78, and 2 normal days with THI⩽74. Health and behaviour of the bulls were evaluated through 8-h observation sessions starting after morning feed delivery. The study was carried out during a rather cool summer with a climate average THI of 68.9 and 4 days with average THI>75. Despite these mild climate conditions, ceiling fans lowered litter moisture and acted as a preventive measure for bulls’ dirtiness (odd ratio=47.9; 95% CI 19.6 to 117.4). The risk of abnormal breathing was increased for Control bulls (odd ratio=40.7; 95% CI 5.4 to 304.2). When exposed to alert THI conditions, respiration rate and panting scores increased and rumination duration dropped in Control bulls compared with bulls provided with a ceiling fan. During observations under alert THI, bulls spent less time eating, more time being inactive and consumed more water compared with normal THI conditions. Bulls’ daily dry matter intake measured during the observation sessions decreased on alert compared with normal THI days (P

This study aimed at calculating reference intervals for specific claws dimensions of healthy feet originating from intensively finished Charolais (CH) and Limousin (LIM) young bulls and heifers. Moreover, within a given breed × gender combination, measurements of healthy and affected claws were compared to investigate how claw conformation might change in relation to the housing on different types of floor. A total of 2237 CH feet (1324 bulls; 913 heifers) and 595 LIM feet (459 bulls; 136 heifers) were analyzed post-mortem during 20 sessions in three slaughterhouses in Northern Italy. Four measurements were performed on lateral claws of each hind foot: dorsal wall (DW) and total hoof (TH) lengths, heel height (HH) and toe angle (TA). Afterwards, a veterinarian trimmed the sole horn and assessed claw health condition by looking for specific disorders. A foot with no claw disorder was classified as -“healthy”, whereas when at least one claw disorder of different etiology was observed, the foot was classified as “affected”. A reduced dataset considering only healthy feet was used to calculate 95% reference intervals (RI) for each claw dimension according to breed (CH/LIM) × gender (bulls/heifers) combination. Relevant batch variance was detected for DW, TH and HH of CH heifers and for DW and TH of LIM heifers. These calculated RI might be used to assess claw condition and its predisposition to diseases in finishing beef cattle belonging to the tested beef categories. Affected claws belonging to both CH young bulls and heifers showed greater HH than healthy claws. In presence of claw disorders, CH young bulls and heifers housed on deep litter had longer DW and TH lengths, but only heifers showed shorter TA compared to healthy ones. Longer claws and higher heels of CH should be carefully monitored as indirect indicators of the presence of some disorders, particularly when housed on less-wearing surfaces. Claw health condition had no effect on conformation in LIM young bulls or heifers housed on different types of floor. The housing of young bulls, regardless of breed, on concrete slatted floor showed the highest occurrence of feet affected by any claw disorders, confirming the harmfulness of this type of floor for finishing beef cattle.

This study aimed at assessing the prevalence of lameness in a large number of batches of Charolais bulls housed in deep litter (DL) or fully slatted concrete (FSC) pens with different space allowance. Data from eight intensive beef farms located in Italy were recorded during 18 months. Five farms housed bulls in DL pens, with space allowance of 5.0 m2/head (two farms) and of 5.5 m2/head (three farms) respectively. Three farms housed bulls in FSC pens, with space allowance of 3.5 m2/head (two farms) and of 4.0 m2/head (one farm) respectively. Lameness events were categorized as: mild, when they did not impair the regular conclusion of the fattening cycle of the affected bull, or severe, when they imposed the early culling of the animal. Date and average body weight of each batch of bulls at arrival to farm and at slaughter were collected as well as those of severely lame bulls at the time of culling. The study analysed data of 314 batches for a total of 7201 bulls. Prevalence of bulls showing mild lameness was 1.23% and was similar between floor types. Severe lameness had a higher prevalence in bulls housed on FSC than on DL (1.86 vs. 0.56%; P

Cattle mortality has a relevant economic and environmental impact but it has been scarcely investigated in finishing beef cattle farms. Aim of this study was to investigate mortality rate in 45 intensive beef cattle farms located in North-Eastern Italy from 2010 to 2013 and to evaluate potential risk factors affecting it. Information from the Italian National Cattle Movement database, as source of mortality data, were crossed with descriptors of barn features and farm management gathered by an on-farm survey to identify factors influencing mortality at farm level, which could be of direct utility for the farmers to reduce cattle losses. Results showed an overall average mortality rate in the 4-year period of 1.4% ranging from 0% to 5.3%. Mortality occurred within the first half of the finishing period, on average 3.4 months after the arrival at the fattening unit. A multivariate regression model showed that mortality was affected by breed (P=0.020) and by floor type as trend (P=0.083). Pure Charolaise (Odds ratio=1.70, 95% Confidence interval=1.11-2.59; P

In the Alps, traditional dairy farms are small-scale operations where vertical transhumance from valley indoor housing systems to highland pasture-based systems is still practiced in summer. Vertical transhumance implies a substantial change of environment, available resources, and management practices from one season to another. In such systems, animal-based welfare measures need to be monitored throughout the year to capture the variation of welfare outcomes, based on which targeted welfare management plans can be implemented. Because the Welfare Quality assessment approach has been tailored to indoor housing and intensive farming systems, the European Food Safety Authority recently developed a welfare assessment protocol for small-scale dairy cattle farms adapted after the Welfare Quality framework. The aim of this study was to assess nonbehavioral animal-based measures as defined by this protocol at different time points for transhumant systems in the Alps. In total, 18 animal-based measures were assessed before, during, and after the mountain pasture period in a sample of 67 small-scale dairy cattle farms practicing vertical transhumance in neighboring provinces of Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. Significant differences between assessments were identified for dirtiness of legs and teats, hairless patches, lesions and swellings, claw condition, ocular discharge, and diarrhea whereas BCS, lameness/severe lameness, vulvar discharge, nasal discharge, and hampered respiration were unchanged between seasons. In addition, a benchmarking exercise was carried out to identify relative boundaries (worst quartile thresholds) for each animal-based measure and to contribute to the discussion about achievable welfare outcomes for the 2 husbandry conditions that characterize a transhumant system. Worst quartile thresholds indicated a high prevalence of dirtiness (>80%) when cows were kept indoors, high prevalence of hairless patches (65%) before pasture turnout, and high prevalence of very lean cows (>13%) throughout the assessments. On the other hand, the best quartile thresholds for most clinical conditions suggested that high welfare standards (zero prevalence) are widely achievable in mountain farms practicing vertical transhumance during all assessments. The thresholds identified through benchmarking should serve as the basis for an effective context-based welfare management strategy promoting continuous welfare improvement on-farm.

This cross-sectional study aimed at performing a risk factor analysis of on-farm housing and management factors associated with infectious and non-infectious claw disorders of intensively finished Charolais young bulls and heifers. Claws’ health condition of a total of 1305 animals belonging to 88 batches finished in farms located in the Eastern Po Valley (Italy) was assessed at slaughterhouse. Batch prevalence of feet affected by sole hemorrhage (SH) and white line abscess (WLA) was calculated and foot condition was summarized by infectious lesion (ILS) and non-infectious lesion (NILS) scores according to diseases’ etiology. Batch prevalence of feet with SH, WLA, and assigned to the worst score classes were the outcomes in the risk factor analysis. Information about rearing facilities and health management of the tested batches were gathered in each origin farm along with a dietary sample used for chemical and physical analyses. Five categorized factors and 30 continuous covariates were considered as independent predictors and a cluster analysis of the continuous covariates was performed to select the most representative ones. Percentage of feet/batch affected by SH was on average 57.0 ± 32.5 % (SD) and by WLA was 9.94 ± 12.7 %. Percentage of feet/batch with the worst ILS and NILS was 29.6 ± 32.8 % and 12.5 ± 14.1 %, respectively. Charolais bulls showed a higher risk of SH and WLA than heifers and an increasing dietary NDF content acted as preventive factor. Concrete slats increased the risk of SH. Animals slaughtered in winter had the highest risk of WLA and the increasing level of dietary water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) was a further risk factor. The risk for the worst NILS was lowest in spring and in presence of ventilation systems. It increased for bulls and in those batches fed diets with higher WSC content. Batches for which the farmer reported a higher prevalence of urgently slaughtered animals during finishing showed a higher risk of WLA and infectious claw diseases. The risk for infectious claw diseases was reduced in animals slaughtered in summer, housed on deep litter and fed diet with increased NDF content. It increased in farms where diet formulation was not under the nutritionist control. As general outcomes of the study, benefits for the claw health of finishing Charolaise may come from the use of the deep litter and ventilation systems, the involvement of a nutritionist in diet formulation, and the provision of diets with reduced WSC and increased NDF contents.

This Research Paper aimed to investigate donkey welfare in dairy husbandry systems and to identify the potential factors affecting it at animal level. In 2015, twelve dairy donkey farms (19–170 donkeys per farm, mean = 55 ± 48), distributed throughout Italy, were visited. On each farm, the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment protocol for donkeys was used by two trained assessors to evaluate the welfare of animals for a total of 257 donkeys assessed. The protocol includes animal-based indicators that were entered in a digitalised system. Prevalence of different scores at individual, farm and category level were calculated. Farmers were asked to fill out a questionnaire including information regarding the management of donkeys and their final destination. Answers to the questionnaire were then considered as effects in the risk factor analysis whereas the scores of the animal-based indicators were considered as response variables. Most of the donkeys (80·2%) enjoyed a good nutritional status (BCS = 3). 18·7% of donkeys showed signs of hoof neglect such as overgrowth and/or incorrect trimming (Min = 0% Max = 54·5%). Belonging to a given farm or production group influenced many of the welfare indicators. The absence of pasture affected the likelihood of having skin lesions, alopecia, low BCS scores and a less positive emotional state. Lack of routine veterinary visits (P< 0·001) and having neglected hooves (P< 0·001) affected the likelihood of being thin (BCS < 3). Belonging to specific production groups, lack of access to pasture and showing an avoidance reaction to an approaching human (AD) resulted in risk factors associated with a higher prevalence of signs of hoof neglect. Our results support the idea that lack of knowledge of proper donkey care among owners was behind many welfare issues found.

Polish Friesian male calves (n = 78) were used to investigate the effects of innovative feeding plans based on the provision of large amounts of solid feeds on growth performance, welfare, and carcass characteristics of veal calves. Groups of calves (initial BW 71.5 ± 3.7 kg) were fed 1 of 3 treatments (26 calves/treatment): 1) milk replacer plus corn grain (CG), 2) milk replacer plus an 80:20 mixture (as-fed basis) of corn grain and wheat straw (CGS), or 3) milk replacer plus a 72:20:8 mixture (as-fed basis) of corn grain, wheat straw, and extruded soybean, respectively (CGSES). All the treatments provided at least 170 kg DM/calf from solid feed throughout the 206 d of fattening. Type and concentration of milk replacer were the same for all calves throughout fattening. Calves fed CGSES received 96% of the daily amount of milk replacer delivered to CG and CGS to balance the dietary CP content. No differences (P ≥ 0.063) among treatments were observed for growth performance and DMI. Health status of CG calves was less than CGSES calves, as indicated by the greatest (P < 0.001) proportion of milk replacer refusal events and the greatest (P < 0.001) incidence of treatments for respiratory disorders. Inclusion of straw and soybean in the solid feeds increased (P < 0.001) the daily intake of iron in CGS and CGSES as compared with CG; however, blood hemoglobin concentrations measured at d 5 and 31 were greater (P < 0.05) than when measured on d 80, 122, and 206 of fattening. Feeding treatment did not (P ≥ 0.107) affect HCW, dressing percentage, or carcass color. Calves fed CG had heavier (P < 0.001) reticulorumens and more (P < 0.001) developed rumens than CGS and CGSES calves, but 84% and 68% of CG rumens (P < 0.001) showed overt signs of hyperkeratinization and plaques, respectively. These alterations of rumen mucosa were not detected in CGSES calves, and only 8% of CGS calves had rumen plaques. Regardless of feeding treatment, postmortem inspection recorded a prevalence of more than 84% abomasal lesions. When feeding veal calves with large amounts of solids, it is advisable to avoid the provision of corn grain alone and replace part of the cereal with a roughage source to improve calf health and prevent rumen mucosa alterations.

The human–animal relationship is an important component of the welfare of farm animals and for this reason animal responsiveness tests to humans are included in on-farm welfare assessment schemes that provide indicators for this. However, apart from the behaviour of stockpersons towards their animals, other factors may also influence animals’ reactivity to humans as observed through behavioural tests, which can add a further layer of complexity to the interpretation of test results. Knowledge of these factors may help a better interpretation of differences from one farm to another in the outcome of human–animal relationship tests, and may provide clues for improving the relationship between animals and humans. The main objective of this study was to identify whether management or environmental factors could influence the outcome of human–animal relationship tests in veal calves. Two tests were performed when calves were aged 14.9 ± 1.6 (SD) weeks in 148 veal farms: the voluntary approach of an unfamiliar human standing at the feeding fence and the reaction towards an unfamiliar human who entered the home pen and tried to touch each calf in a standardised way (Calf Escape Test (CET) – score 0 to 4). Questionnaires were filled in and interviews with the stockpersons were performed in order to obtain information on stockpersons, management, animal and building characteristics. The latency to touch an unfamiliar human at the feeding fence was significantly correlated with the CET scores. Total number of calves on the farm, space allowance, breed, environmental enrichment, stockperson's experience and season of observation influenced the percentage of calves that scored 0 in CET (i.e. calves that could not be approached). Type of milk distribution, type of breed and number of calves per stockperson influenced the percentage of calves that scored 4 in CET (i.e. calves could be touched). For both CET0 and CET4, the level of self-reported contacts by the stockperson (analysed only on the French subset of 36 farms) did not influence the results. This paper concludes that according to the tests conducted on veal calves on commercial farms, factors such as milk distribution method, breed of the calves or the level of experience of stockpersons with veal farming can have an impact on the results of tests focusing on human–animal relationships.

Confidence intervals for blood parameters used for nutritional and metabolic profile testing in cattle were calculated for clinically normal lactating Holstein cows, taking into account the effects of parity, stage of lactation, and season. Blood samples were collected from 740 cows in 33 Italian dairy herds according to a predefined protocol. Herds were visited during summer and the following winter, sampling 12 lactating cows at each visit (4 primiparous and 8 multiparous). Six cows were selected from the early-lactation group (days in milk: 10 to 89) and the other 6 were selected from the mid-lactation group (days in milk: 90 to 215). Cow selection criteria excluded animals clinically exposed to periparturient diseases as well as animals not considered in good health by a veterinary clinical examination. For each blood variable, outliers were identified and discarded. Data were then analyzed for their Gaussian distribution and variables with not normal distribution were log-transformed to adjust for lack of normality. Herd mean values were calculated for each blood parameter according to 3 main classification factors: parity (primiparous vs. multiparous), stage of lactation (early vs. mid) and season of production (summer vs. winter). The resulting data set was statistically analyzed using a mixed model with the fixed effects of these factors, their interactions, and the random effect of herd. General 95% confidence intervals were calculated for blood variables that showed a relevant herd variance component such as albumin, triglycerides, aspartate, urea, glucose, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, direct and total bilirubin, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. For the remaining parameters, specific confidence intervals were calculated for each level of the significant main factors. Parity affected blood concentration of total protein, globulin, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transferase, creatinine kinase, and phosphorus. Blood nonesterified fatty acids, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma glutamyl transferase, creatinine kinase and cholesterol were influenced by stage of lactation. The season of production had a significant effect on total protein, globulin, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase, phosphorus, sodium, and chlorine. The outcomes of this work will improve the accuracy of the biochemical profile as a tool for dairy practitioners to assess the metabolic status of lactating Holstein cows.