Animal category: Cattle

Scientific review proposing a new conceptual framework it calls the circular welfare economy (CWE), intended to facilitate the transition to sustainable agriculture. The CWE applies the notion of circularity to welfare, defined as the quality of life as it is perceived by the individual animal itself. It also considers human integrity, defined as openness and honesty, to be a prerequisite for sustainability.

Report summarizing the main welfare problems faced by broilers, fish, pigs, dairy cows and rabbits in intensive farming and the main shortcomings of current European legislation in this respect.

Scientific review setting out to identify, synthesize and discuss recent studies on the effects of heat stress on cattle reproduction. It seeks to identify and encourage possible strategies to mitigate the negative effects of heat stress on cattle reproduction.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.