Animal category: Cattle

Development of a data-driven method for assessing health and welfare in the most common livestock species in Switzerland: The Smart Animal Health project

Beat Thomann, Hanno Würbel, Tahibault Kuntzer, Christina Umstätter, Beat Wechsler, Mireille Meylan, Gertraud Schüpbach-Regula

Published in 2023

Article describing how a method was developed to assess health and welfare on individual Swiss livestock farms using information from agricultural databases and supervised machine learning. This method made it possible to score the animal health and welfar management performance of farms in a way comparable to on-farm assessment by trained staff.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Animal-based measurement, Livestock system, Welfare indicator

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Welfare of calves

Søren Saxmose Nielsen, Julio Alvarez, Dominique Joseph Bicout, Paolo Calistri, Elisabetta Canali, Julian Ashley Drewe, Bruno Garin-Bastuji, Jose Luis Gonzales Rojas, Christian Gortazar Schmidt, Mette Herskin, Virginie Michel, Miguel Ángel Miranda Chueca, Barbara Padalino, Paolo Pasquali, Helen Clare Roberts, Hans Spoolder, Karl Stahl, Antonio Velarde, Arvo Viltrop and Christoph Winckler

Published in 2023

EFSA opinion identifying fifteen highly relevant negative welfare consequences, the most common being respiratory disorders, inability to engage in exploratory or foraging behavior, gastroenteric disorders and group stress. It recommends a space provision of at least 3m2 per calf, keeping the calf with its mother for a minimum of 24 hours, after which calves should be kept in stable groups and soft bedding should be provided.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Animal adaptation, Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Risk management, Housing, Living environment, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Livestock systems, Societal issues

Welfare implications on management strategies for rearing dairy calves: A systematic review. Part 1-feeding management

Patricia Carulla, Arantxa Villagrá, Fernando Estellés, Isabel Blanco-Penedo

Published in 2023

Systematic review of the literature identifying feed replacement, colostrum and weaning as the main issues in  managing dairy calves that impact health and welfare. They play a role in a calf's physiology and health, emotional state and cognitive judgment.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Livestock systems

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Assemblée nationale: réponse écrite à la question n°5240 : Absence d’étiquetage concernant l’abattage rituel 

Question: Serge Muller (RN - Dordogne). Answer: Ministry of the Interior

Published in 2023

Answer to a question on the possible introduction of labelling to show "slaughter with stunning" or "slaughter without stunning", to enable all consumers to make informed purchases.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines

Keywords:Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress

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Advancing the quantitative characterization of farm animal welfare

Harriet Bartlett, Andrew Balmford, Mark A. Holmes, James L. N. Wood

Published in 2023

Paper developing welfare indicators for use in life cycle assessment (LCA) and different ways of aggregating them, then testing them on British pig farms. It shows that farms in the same LCA class have the same types of quality labels, and that the details of the way in which LCA welfare measures are established have little impact on the classification of farms based on their welfare levels.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Environment, Welfare indicators, Living environment

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Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/372 of 17 February 2023 laying down rules on the recording, storing and sharing of written records of official controls performed on livestock vessels, on contingency plans for livestock vessels in the event of emergencies, on the approval of livestock vessels and on minimum requirements applicable to exit points (Text with EEA relevance)

EU Commission

Published in 2023

Implementing regulation laying down the necessary necessary for carrying out inspections on vessels carrying livestock. It creates a Europe-wide electronic database so that all data required for inspections is centralised.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep, Pigs

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Transport

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Obtaining an animal welfare status in Norwegian dairy herds-A mountain to climb

Conor Barry, Kristian Ellingsen-Dalskau, Randi Therese Garmo, Stine Grønmo Kischel, Christoph Winckler, Camilla Kielland

Published in 2023

Scientific paper to determine the animal welfare status in Norwegian free-stall dairy herds as assessed using the Welfare Quality® assessment protocol. It shows that in most herds, animals have a positive relationship with humans but have difficulty lying down and a high prevalence of integumentary lesions.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Animal adaptation to the environment, Animal-based measurement, Housing, Human-animal relationships, Welfare indicators

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Final report of an audit of Spain carried out from 22 March to 26 July 2022 in order to evaluate animal welfare controls during transport by livestock vessel to non-EU countries

EU Commission

Published in 2023

DG SANTE audit report concluding that Spain has significantly improved its system of official controls since the previous Commission audit. However, veterinary inspectors do not always have sufficient knowledge or support to carry out controls properly and ports do not have facilities to allow animals to wait in good conditions if they are delayed.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep, Pigs

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Transport

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Final report of an audit of Italy carried out from 7 February to 2 May 2022 in order to evaluate the protection of unweaned calves during long journeys

EU Commission

Published in 2023

DG SANTE audit report concluding that Italy has invested significant resources in official controls concerning the welfare of calves during transport, but that there are inconsistencies in these official controls that have not been corrected.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories: Bovines

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Transport

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Final report of an audit of Portugal carried out from 14 March to 4 July 2022 in order to evaluate animal welfare controls during transport by livestock vessel to non-EU countries

EU Commission

Published in 2023

DG SANTE audit report concluding that the official controls carried out by Portugal on sea carriers and livestock vessels prior to loading are adequate and effective in minimising the risk of injury or undue suffering for animals during transport by livestock vessels to third countries.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep, Pigs

Keywords:Societal issues, Human-animal relationships, Stress, Transport

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