Study of animal welfare status in dairy cow herds in Hungary

Abstract

Animal welfare is a hot topic among consumers, producers and researches nowadays. The major welfare problems of dairy cows are mastitis, lameness, and any conditions which lead to impaired reproduction, inability to express normal behaviour, emergency physiological responses or injury. This paper summarizes preliminary results of project taken in 27 Hungarian dairy farms evaluating general animal welfare. The most important areas for improving animals? wellbeing are related to facilities and comfort of resting. Findings include slippery floors, cows struggling laying and standing in cubicles. Other measures include hair loss, hocks, neck rail injuries and number of thin cows (Body Condition Score 1 and 2). Mouldy silage and low quality of other feedstuff was also found. In conclusion, preliminary results confirm strong demand for monitoring farms and discussions with managers and farmers about welfare measures needed to be taken on farms immediately.Dobrobit zivotinja je aktuelna tema medju potrosacima, proizvodjacima i istrazivacima. Glavni problemi i pitanja u okviru dobrobiti zivotinja su mastitis, hromost, kao i svi drugi uslovi koji dovode do poremecaja u reprodukciji, nemogucnosti da zivotinje izraze svoje normalno ponasanje, i vanredne fizioloske reakcije ili povrede. U ovom radu se daje prikaz preliminarnih rezultata projekta sa 27 farmi mlecnih goveda u Madjarskoj u oceni opste dobrobiti zivotinja. Najznacajnije oblasti za poboljsanje dobrobiti zivotinja se odnose na objekte i udobnost zivotinja, komfor i mogucnost odmora. Nalazi istrazivanja ukazuju na klizave podove, krave koje sa poteskocama leze odnosno stoje u boksovima, gubitak dlake, povrede, kao i brojna neuhranjena grla (ocena kondicije 1 i 2). Plesniva silaza i los kvalitet stocne hrane su takodje utvrdjeni. Kao zakljucak, preliminarni rezultati potvrdjuju snaznu potrebu za monitoringom farmi, kao i razgovorima sa upravnicima farmi o neophodnim merama koje se odnose na dobrobit zivotinja koje moraju biti preduzete odmah.