Current welfare issues in beef cattle

Question 1

What is considered an animal welfare issue?

Answer 1

• Includes basic health and functioning, affective states and natural living
• We often focus mostly on basic health and functioning and neglect the other two
• There is a lack of perspective on what other stakeholders may consider a problem

Question 2

Consumer disconnect from production practices

Answer 2

• There is often a lack of understanding by consumers who claim to be knowledgeable or interested in the topic of food production
• Most concerning were the misconceptions about beef life cycle and how cattle are produced (ex. cattle raised quickly and fed cheaply, pumped with hormones and antibiotics that transfer to the meat we eat

Question 3

What is the top concerns on production practices?

Answer 3

• Animal welfare (29%)
• Animal diet (9%)
• Hormones
• Environmental impact (5%)
• Antibiotic usage (4%)
• Meat quality and safety (2%)
• Other (2%)

43% of responders to survey did not have any concerns

Question 4

Folk conceptions of welfare (non-expert people’s opinions)

Answer 4

1. Provision of choice (eg. Shade, cafeteria-style diets)
   - Give the animal the option to choose
2. Longevity, killing of young animals
   - For good meat, need to slaughter very young. Not easy to get around this.
3. Wasteful death (eg. Mass populations)
   - Not good for vet, producers, public, animal. The most we can do is provide good care, vaccines, and biosecurity to try and prevent this.
4. Aesthetics of methods of killing (eg. Effective stunning/bleeding)
   - All about efficiency and doing it without suffering
5. Aesthetics of the animal, and their environment (eg. Stocking density, transport)
   - How consumers think an animal should be raised compared to what they think they see
   - Related to ensuring animal has the right amount of space, resting time, etc.
6. Human kindness/stockmanship (eg. Health management, painful procedures)
   - Need to ensure they have proper handling, correct procedures, and vaccines

Question 5

Welfare concern- transportation

Answer 5

Often the only time the general public get to see animals used in agriculture
- Too hot and cold
- Clean or dirty
- Looks like little space

Animals can actually spend quite a lot of time be transported. Transport to pasture, farm, auction, feedlot, slaughter, fairs, other farms

There are important public and trade concerns worldwide

Question 6

Transport stressful events

Answer 6

• Unfamiliar sounds
• Unpredictable motions (stop-starts, turns)
• Temperature
• Water and feed restriction
• Handling during loading and unloading- Can be difficult to have the low stress handling because could be rushed and animals often are very opposed to going inside
• Crowding, commingling
• Issues related to cull cows

Question 7

Temperature at animal level in truck experiment

Answer 7

Put temperature sensors (animal level, ceiling, truck)

• Most of the time, temperature level at animal level during winter was in the thermoneutral zone (good)
• During the summer, often temperature levels were too high at the animal level

Question 8

Loss of body weight and transport

Answer 8

• Transport duration and ambient temperatures have a multiplicative effect on each other
• Higher temperature, more time in transport= Body weight shrinkage
• Differs based on feeder cattle, calves, and cull cattle (need to add ~1-4% more shrinkage)

Question 9

Animal health and time in truck

Answer 9

After 30hrs, large increase in lame, downers, and dead cattle

Question 10

Animal health and temperature

Answer 10

• Higher temperatures= increase in downer cattle
• Lower temperatures= increase in dead cows

Question 11

Looking at cattle transport fitness on arrival at auctions

Answer 11

3 categories (fit, compromised, unfit)

• After long hours in the trailer, more than 90% of cattle were in fit condition when going to auction or federal abattoir
• Poorest conditions found at provincial abattoir (lameness, injuries, lactation)- makes sense because these animals would only be allowed to go short distances

Question 12

Effect of rest stop duration during long-distance transport on welfare indicators (weaned beef calves)

Answer 12

• Now: Can go 36 hours before needing rest
• Rest time of 8hours to 12 hours did not seem to change the results therefore rest stop length have no consistent effect on welfare indicators

Question 13

How conditioning to travel, source and rest effects stress in beef cattle transport

Answer 13

• Rest did not have significant difference in animal welfare
• Source: auction or ranch did not have an effect on animal welfare
• Conditioned vs. unconditioned cattle showed an effect on animal welfare. When unconditioned, poor animal welfare was a result from transport.

Question 14

Conditioned vs unconditioned animal and its effects on animal welfare

Answer 14

Unconditioned animals had increases in fat breakdown (NEFA), inflammation (SAA and Hapatoglobin), muscle damage (CK), and discomfort (standing time)

Question 15

Poor Stocking density risks

Answer 15

Close proximity to other animals, human infrastructure and human handling may increase the incidence of stress-mediated diseases (eg. BRD)

Highly populated pens may impact feed consumption patterns, with potential implications on gut health (eg. Acidosis), feed efficiency, growth performance, and carcass value (eg. Marbling sore and liver abscesses)

Question 16

How much space allowance do cattle prefer in order to maintain normal social interaction?

Answer 16

Study showed:
- increased space allowance from 20-360 m2/hd reduced agonistic encounters
- The average inter-individual distance remained between 10-12m

Question 17

Beef cattle code of practice and Space

Answer 17

• All cattle in a group must have sufficient space to adopt normal resting postures at the same time
• Cattle kept in groups must be able to move freely around the pen and access feed and water
• Stocking density must be managed such that growth performance, normal behaviour, morbidity and mortality rates, and physical appearance are not adversely affected by crowding

Question 18

Feedlots and animal welfare perspective from general public

Answer 18

• General public believes them to be less natural for the animal, and therefore harmful to animals
• Not much research on feedlots and its impact on animal welfare. Will need to be addressed at some point.

Question 19

Feed bunk competition on feeding behaviour and growth performance

Answer 19

Study of animals eating and growing

• More dominant animals were slightly more successful with growth and ate slower which leads to less negative effects
• More displaced animals would eat faster because they know they might be pushed out. They are more likely to have higher levels of acidosis. Had less growth.

Question 20

Painful procedures for beef cattle

Answer 20

Short term pain and seem fine later on, however, they will likely have lower coping skills and be more stressed throughout their life due to these negative experiences

Painful procedures:
- Castration
- Dehorning
- Branding

Question 21

Castration

Answer 21

To avoid unwanted breeding, reduce aggression (improve animal human and animal safety) and improve carcass quality

Question 22

Castration practice requirements

Answer 22

Practice requirements for castration:
- Calves as young as possible, preferably less that 1 week
- must be under 6 months of age or need pain medication
- Must be performed by competent personnel using proper instruments
- Seek guidance from veterinarian on method, timing, pain control

Question 23

Dehorning/debudding

Answer 23

To decrease the risk of injury for handlers and other cattle, and minimize the economic loss due to carcass bruising

Question 24

Code of practice for dehorning/debudding

Answer 24

• Disbud as early as possible (less than 2-3 months)
• Performed by competent personnel with proper equipment
• Seek guidance from veterinarian on pain control
• Use pain control to mitigate pain associated with dehorning horn bud attachment

Question 25

Branding

Answer 25

• Permanent animal ID, easy to identify from a distance, and legally accepted as proof of ownership.
• May be required by community pastures, lending institutions, or for export

Question 26

Code of practice for branding

Answer 26

• All cattle must be identified using an approved ear tag as stipulated by applicable regulations
• Must be performed with the proper equipment, restraint, and by competent personnel
• Do not brand wet cattle due to risk of scalding

Question 27

Drugs for pain control

Answer 27

• Use of anesthetics or analgesics can also help to control pain, especially in older animals
• Oral meloxicam is the only one labelled for use during castration
• Drugs aren’t always used because lack of researched results on the drugs for these procedures, extra time needed to give it, extra money, and more effort.