1 Welfare

Concepts in Animal Welfare for Dairy Veterinarians

Whitney Knauer, VMD PhD
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota

Beth Ventura, MS PhD
Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota

Summary

  1. Be able to define animal welfare using the OIE definition and understand the difference between welfare inputs and measurable outputs.
  2. Apply the 3 Sphere’s welfare framework to a situation/procedure that we may commonly perform as dairy veterinarians.
  3. Understand the dairy veterinarians role in assurance programs (specifically FARM)

Introduction

In 2010, the oath we all take when we are admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine changed. A provision emphasizing our role as benefiting society through the protection of animal welfare was added, highlighting the importance of animal welfare for practicing veterinarians.

Concepts of Animal Welfare

What is animal welfare?

According to the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health), animal welfare refers to the physical and mental state of an animal in relation to the conditions in which it lives. Animal welfare refers to what an individual animal experiences in its life. An animal experiences good welfare if the animal is healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain or fear and distress, and is able to express behaviors that are important for its physical and mental state.

From a veterinary perspective, animal welfare and animal health are intertwined, as good animal welfare requires disease prevention, appropriate veterinary care, shelter, management of nutrition, a stimulating and safe environment, humane handling, and humane slaughter or killing. We often use terms like animal care, animal husbandry and humane treatment to refer to animal welfare, but these terms are related to the inputs we give the animal, while animal welfare relates to how the animal responds to those inputs (e.g. morbidity/mortality, body condition, injury/lameness, behavioral expression, physiology).

For More Information See: Recommendations for Animal Welfare from the OIE

Link to AVMA Animal Welfare Principles

Based on the OIE Guiding Principles for Animal Welfare, the AVMA has developed eight integrated principles for developing and evaluating animal welfare policies, resolutions, and actions.

In accordance with these, in 2011 the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) Animal Welfare Committee developed Guiding Principles of Animal Welfare:

Defining Animal Welfare

Animal welfare can be defined or characterized in several different ways. Though the Five Freedoms (more info in this link to the history of the five freedoms) provides a classic interpretation of animal welfare, it has limitations as it generally describes different negative states (e.g. pain, injury, fear, discomfort, hunger) that animals should be free from, and gives limited guidance on what constitutes a good life. More recently, the Five Domains model where Mellor and colleagues attempt to incorporate positive welfare states into its definition. An alternative conception of animal welfare, the Three Circles/Spheres model, was proposed by Fraser et al. (1997) and utilizes a Venn diagram approach:

Through this definition, we are left to think about the Mind, Body, and Nature of individuals to make inferences about if an animal (let’s say a dairy calf or cow) is experiencing good welfare. For example, to assess an animal’s state of welfare, we can ask the following questions:

Body = Is the animal in good health? Good body condition? Is she growing well and performing as she should? Is she free from injury and disease?

Nature = Is the animal able to express her natural, motivated behaviors and in appropriate social groupings?

Mind = Does the animal have good emotional wellbeing? Is she free of fear, stress and pain? Is she able to experience positive affective states like pleasure and a sense of control over her environment? Does she have a good relationship with those around her, including a good relationship with people?

We can essentially apply this Mind/Body/Nature framework to any situation we put a food animal in to evaluate if her welfare is at risk and to identify steps we might take to improve her welfare. Let’s take the example of cautery disbudding a 4 week old calf:

BODY:

Positive impacts: we are removing cornual epithelium in order to prevent the calf from growing horns which could injure other animals and/or people. We are doing it at 4 weeks, which is early enough so we will not enter the cornual sinus and/or have to remove horn, thus reducing our chances of post-procedure complications.

Negative impacts: Inflammation to the surrounding tissues, risk of infection or other complications if the procedure is performed incorrectly. The wound takes weeks to fully heal.

NATURE:

Positive impacts: None

Negative Impacts: We are removing a naturally occurring part of a dairy cow, thus changing her inherent physical form to fit our management system.

MIND:

Positive impacts: None

Negative Impacts: Procedure causes pain in the short and longer term. Associated handling causes stress, and associated pain causes negative impacts in calf mood and changes the perception of people.

What can we learn from thinking about the procedure in this way?

  • Most of the benefits of disbudding are associated with human and cow safety (body)
  • Disbudding is a painful and stressful procedure therefore, we have an obligation to use pain control (see link to AABP dehorning guidelines) and/or find an alternative that may reduce pain)
  • Though we could argue that a cow in a barn has little need for horns as she might in the “wild,” removing naturally-occurring horns in an animal changes her inherent nature. Therefore, perhaps we should investigate ways to enhance/speed up the development of polled animals  (See link to news release about genetically engineered polled cows) to avoid the need for this procedure altogether.

Applying Animal Welfare as Food Animal Veterinarians

As described above, it is a useful exercise to think about things we do and recommend as veterinarians from an animal welfare perspective. We are well past the point of doing things “because we have always done them that way” and we should now be considering an animal’s welfare from a broader perspective than the maintenance of health only, in part because an animal’s mind and behavior closely interact with its health and vice versa. As dairy veterinarians, we often apply animal welfare principles in our work, for example, when advising about management changes (e.g. new barn design, social housing for dairy calves) and the use of pain mitigation for painful procedures or conditions (e.g. pain management for surgery, disbudding, moderate to severe lameness).

Another way dairy veterinarians are intimately involved with animal welfare in practice is through assurance and assessment programs and by helping dairies prepare and ensure that all standards are being met. For example, the National Milk Producers Foundation introduced the National Dairy FARM Program (link to Farmers Assuring Responsible Management website) in 2009, and we are now in the 4th version of the program. As a practicing vet, your role will be to help improve and maintain protocols specific to animal health, as well as have an active role in worker training and antibiotic stewardship.

Cattle Handling Scenario

One of your dairy clients asks you to collect milk samples from a few cows to culture for mastitis. As the handlers bring in the pen of cows, one first-calf heifer that recently calved stopped at the entrance of the milking parlor. The handlers tried to use the crowd gate to push her in, but they were not successful. The handlers then start to shout at the heifer, gently hit her rump, and hit a cane against metal bars to try to move her. When they finally get her into the parlor she only lets down a small amount of colostrum. You ask the handlers if they have received any animal handling training, and they say they have. You mention this scenario to the farm manager and he asks if you could review their animal training program and provide any recommendations for improvement.

  • What are your first impressions of the farm’s current training program
  • What do you need to know before advising your client about their animal handling program?
  • Work with your client to create an updated animal handling training program for their employees. The training program should meet the minimum criteria for the National Dairy F.A.R.M. Program, and should include the following information:
    • How often employees should be trained/retrained
    • What specific skills should be included in the training
    • Who conducts the training
    • A protocol for preventing and reporting animal abuse
  • Useful resource link to UMASH training

Protocol and SOP Creation

  • Create a protocol (what/when) for
    • Down cow daily observation
    • Calf Dehorning
  • Create a SOP (why/how) for
    • Euthanasia
    • Cornual nerve block
  • Resources (Food Armor SOP/Protocol Templates)

Additional Resources

Acknowledgments

Resources are linked throughout the text.

 

License

ODPM Review Materials Copyright © by valla020. All Rights Reserved.

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