Developing a farm audit to address the problems of stock welfare on small holder dairy farms in Asia

  • J B
N/ACitations
Citations of this article
9Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The welfare of an animal relates primarily to its ability to cope, firstly with its external environment, such as housing, handing by humans, weather and the presence of other animals, and secondly with its internal environment, such as specific injuries or illnesses and nutritional status. Direct animal measurements are good indicators of animals' current well-being and help identify longer term animal welfare problems. These should integrate long term consequences of past husbandry practices, be non-intrusive, and free from observer bias. Many welfare protocols are based on the five "basic freedoms" for good animal welfare, namely freedom from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, fear and distress and freedom to express normal behaviour. To be objective, welfare indicators need to be quantifiable and scientifically based. This review presents a list of key performance indicators of stock welfare specifically relevant to tropical small holder dairy farms. They can be separated into six different categories, such as nutrition, reproduction, disease, external appearance, environmental injury and behaviour. The review also presents a standard approach for estimating an animal welfare index well suited to the thousands of smallholder dairy farmers throughout tropical Asia.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

J, B. M. (2015). Developing a farm audit to address the problems of stock welfare on small holder dairy farms in Asia. International Journal of Livestock Production, 6(2), 26–34. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijlp2014.0235

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free