Care of Confined Cattle
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21423/aabppro19995439Keywords:
animal welfare, housing system, environment, injury, disease, lameness, mastitis, fertility, enteric problem, pneumoniaAbstract
The assessment of welfare and what is right for the cow is extremely difficult. It has been proposed (Webster 1984) that housing systems be assessed according to the degree that animals housed within them are free from 5 considerations:
1. Freedom from hunger and malnutrition
2. Free from thermal and physical discomfort
3. Freedom from injury and disease
4. Freedom from fear and stress
5. Freedom to express normal behaviour.
It is likely that, of all of these, freedom from injury and disease are the most important and these are the 2 issues which will be considered in this paper. The major diseases associated with environmental stress in dairy cattle are lameness, mastitis and fertility. For housed stockyoung, enteric problems and pneumonia are the most important.
