Qualitative assessment of dairy cattle welfare

Abstract

The present study was aimed to apply a methodology recently developed for the qualitative assessment of animal behaviour to the evaluation of dairy cattle welfare. Six farms (2 tie stall - TS, 2 straw yard - SY and 2 cubicle systems - CU) were filmed to produce six 3.5 min videos. Each of them contained 4 clips: - overall view of the barn (1 min); - feeding (1 min); - milking (1 min); - zoom on individual animals (30 sec). Ten University students were selected on the basis of their sensitivity to animal welfare issues and instructed to provide qualitative assessment of videos using Free Choice Profiling (FCP) methodology. Data gathered from FCP were subjected to Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA). GPA showed a significant consensus among observers (P<0.001). The 2 main dimensions of the consensus profile explained 39.5 and 26.8% of the total variation, respectively. Observers characterised the first dimension with terms ranging from constrictive to comfortable, unrestricted conditions and the second one in terms of cleanliness/dirtiness. Farms TS scored less on the first dimension, being more restrictive and coercive than SY (P<0.05) and CU (P<0.10), whereas no differences were observed between these two latter systems. On the second dimension CU received scores higher than SY (P<0.10) as the former were considered cleaner and more hygienic. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted using the scores of the farms on the first two dimensions of GPA and the data gathered through the Bartussek et al.’s ANI 35L 2000 scheme by trained assessors. The two main dimensions of PCA explained 91% of the total variation. The first dimension of GPA (unrestricted; 0.39), ANI’s sheet 1 (Locomotion; 0.42), sheet 2 (Social interaction; 0.42) and sheet 6 (Summary scores; 0.43) showed higher loadings on the first component of PCA, whereas the second dimension of GPA (cleanliness; 0.61), sheet 3 (Flooring; 0.45) and sheet 4 (Stockmanship; 0.49) were more correlated with the second component of PCA. We concluded that qualitative assessment may be used for the evaluation of dairy cattle assessment by untrained observers thus providing a potential tool to address public concerns about animal welfare.