Symposium review: Animal welfare in free-walk systems in Europe

摘要

Providing more space per animal, soft bedding, andfree roaming in animal housing systems is widely presumedto be beneficial for the welfare of the animals.This observational study aimed to investigate the basisof this assumption in free-walk housing systems (FWS)for dairy cows in Europe. The dairy cattle Welfare Qualityassessment protocol was adapted for application toFWS, and the focus was on animal-based measures,from individual cow scoring to comfort around resting.The study was conducted on 41 farms [21 FWS and20 cubicle housing (CH)] from 6 European countries(Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Slovenia,and Sweden) displaying a variety of management systems.A total of 4,036 animals were scored. We founddifferences in animal welfare under different managementconditions. The hindquarters and lower hind legsof cows from FWS were dirtier than those of cows inCH, but we found no difference in the dirtiness of uddersor teats. Cows from FWS showed fewer hairlesspatches in all body areas except the neck; fewer lesionsin the lower hind legs and hindquarters; and less swellingin the lower hind legs, flanks, and carpus than cowsfrom CH. The prevalence of sound cows appeared to behigher in FWS, and moderate lameness prevalence waslower compared with CH. We found no difference inthe prevalence of severe lameness between systems. Weconducted a total of 684 observation sessions of comfortaround resting, consisting of 830 lying down and 849rising up movements. Cows in FWS took less time tolie down, had less difficulty rising up, and had fewercollisions with the environment during both behaviorsthan cows in CH. Cows lay partly or completely outsidethe supposed lying area less frequently in FWS thanin CH. Cows in FWS adopted comfortable lying positionsmore often compared with CH, showing a higheroccurrence of long and wide positions than cows inCH. Short positions were more common in FWS, andnarrow positions were slightly more common in CH.We found large variations in animal-based measuresbetween study herds and within housing systems. However,the observed patterns associated with each systemdemonstrated differences in cow scoring and comfortaround resting. This study shows that a wide rangeof good and bad management practices exist in FWS,especially related to cow hygiene.