Welfare assessment protocol applied to dairy cows (updated)

Principles	Welfare Criteria		Measures (all on farm)
Good feeding	1	Absence of prolonged hunger	Body condition score (percentage of too fat/too thin animals)
	2	Absence of prolonged thirst	Number and type of water points Flow rate Cleanliness of water points Functioning of water points
Good housing	3	Comfort around resting	Time needed to lie down Percentage of animals colliding with housing equipment during lying down Percentage of animals lying partly/completely outside the lying area Cleanliness scores (udder, flank and upper legs, lower legs)
	4	Thermal comfort	-
	5	Ease of movement	Presence of tethering Access to outdoor loafing area and/or pasture
Good health	6	Absence of injuries	Lameness prevalence (locomotion score) Number of integument alterations (hairless patches, lesions/swellings, overgrown claws)
	7	Absence of disease	Respiratory disorders (coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, ocular discharge, increased respiratory rate)Enteric disorders (diarrhoea) Reproductive disorders (milk somatic cell count, vulvar discharge) Mortality Culling rate
	8	Absence of pain induced by management procedures	Routine mutilations (dehorning, tail docking; procedure, age, use of anaesthetics/ analgesics)
Appropriate behaviour	9	Expression of social behaviour	Incidence of agonistic behaviours
	10	Expression of other behaviours	Qualitative behaviour assessment
	11	Good human-animal relationship	Avoidance distance at the feeding place
	12	Absence of general fear	-

Welfare assessment protocol applied to beef cattle (updated)

Principles	Welfare Criteria		Measures
Good feeding	1	Absence of prolonged hunger	Body condition score (percentage of too thin animals)
	2	Absence of prolonged thirst	Number and type of water points Functioning of water points Cleanliness of water points Water flow Number of animals using the water points
Good housing	3	Comfort around resting	Time needed to lie down Cleanliness score (one side of the body)
	4	Thermal comfort	-
	5	Ease of movement	-
Good health	6	Absence of injuries	Lameness prevalence Number of integument alteration (hairless patches, lesions/swellings, overgrown claws)
	7	Absence of disease	Respiratory disorders (coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, ocular discharge, increased respiratory rate)Enteric disorders (diarrhoea, bloated rumen) Mortality Culling rate
	8	Absence of pain induced by management procedures	Routine mutilations (dehorning, tail docking, castration; procedure, age, use of anaesthetics/ analgesics)
Appropriate behaviour	9	Expression of social behaviours	Incidence of agonistic behaviours Incidence of cohesive behaviours
	10	Expression of other behaviours	Qualitative behaviour assessment
	11	Good human-animal relationship	Avoidance distance at the feeding place
	12	Absence of general fear	-

Welfare assessment protocol applied to veal calves (updated)

Principles	Welfare Criteria		Measures
Good feeding	1	Absence of prolonged hunger	Body weight in comparison to an optimum (normal – lean – very lean)
	2	Absence of prolonged thirst	Provision of water Timing of water supply Cleanliness of the drinkers Number of water points
Good housing	3	Comfort around resting	Prevalence of calves lying with no legs stretched Cleanliness scores (lower legs, upper legs and flank, perineal area)
	4	Thermal comfort	Air volume per calf Air renewal (estimated) Relative humidity Temperature Ammonia concentration
	5	Ease of movement	Type of flooring/bedding Percentage of animals slipping when walking
Good health	6	Absence of injuries	Skin alterations Lameness prevalence
	7	Absence of disease	Respiratory disorders (coughing, increased respiratory rate, nasal discharge) Enteric disorders (diarrhoea, bloated rumen) Anaemia Dull calves Mortality
	8	Absence of pain induced by management procedures	Routine mutilations (tail docking; procedure, age, use of anaesthetics/ analgesics)
Appropriate behaviour	9	Expression of social behaviours	Prevalence of social horning Prevalence of social licking
	10	Expression of other behaviours	Prevalence of locomotor play Prevalence of abnormal oral behaviours
	11	Good human-animal relationship	Calf escape test Human approach test
	12	Absence of general fear	Novel object test (percentage of calves touching the object)

In order to organise the farm visits, basic information such as timing of farm routines (milking, feeding, etc.) is needed in advance, i.e. when contacting the farm. Farm visits start with giving the farmer an overview of the assessment system and requesting a short interview. The animal- and resource-based measures are then collected. Assistance by the farmer is not needed for these stages of the protocol. Usually at the end of the visit, an interview with the farmer takes place, which focuses on management aspects.
So far, Welfare Quality® assessment systems have been applied to 90 dairy, 140 beef and 220 veal farms in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. In addition, the dairy cattle assessment system has been taken up by several other projects outside Welfare Quality®.
Completion of the assessment takes currently between 5 and 8 hours, total duration depending on herd size and number of buildings as well as the ease and speed with which the assessor can measure certain parameters, such as behavioural tests or clinical investigations. In general, the protocols proved to work well in the on-farm situation. Some measures need to be carried out at certain times of the day, but there is also some flexibility in the system, e.g. the timing of the farmer interview. A limited number of measures had to be removed from the protocol for feasibility reasons. Other measures have been refined, e.g. a more detailed recording of alterations of the integument, taking into account different body regions.
The vast majority of farmers responded positively to the application of the protocols. Perhaps even more importantly, they show a high level of interest in the animal-based parameters, which is information they are not provided with usually. Also, the farmers didn’t regard the duration of the farm visits as problematic.
More information: Christoph Winckler, christoph.winckler@boku.ac.at