Association between animal-based measures and register-based welfare indicators in dairy cows : a study of the advisory service "Ask the Cow" and the web report "Animal Welfare Signals"

Abstract: Animal welfare can be measured in several different ways; for example by using animal-based measurements. It has been shown that register data from the Swedish Official Milk Recording Scheme can be helpful when identifying herds at risk of having poor animal welfare, which led to a development of the advisory service of ‘Ask the Cow’ and the web report ‘Animal Welfare Signals’. The aim of this project was to find out if register data from ‘Animal Welfare Signals’ can be used as a screening tool for detecting herds at risk of having poor animal welfare and in need of an ‘Ask the Cow’. ‘Ask the Cow’ and ‘Animal Welfare Signals’ preferably should present the same view of reality; herds with most weaknesses in animal welfare should be identified in both systems. Welfare indicators in ‘Animal Welfare Signals’ were used as a test-kit for identifying herds at risk of having poor animal welfare according to the gold standard of ‘Ask the Cow’. Herds were classified as having poor animal welfare if they had two or more welfare remarks and a herd got a welfare remark if they were among the 10% worst herds. Results indicate that limits for the 50th and 90th percentile currently applied within ‘Ask the Cow’ are not consistent with limits given by the study and therefore current limits need to be followed up. The highest found sensitivity was 0.73 and the highest found specificity was 0.71. All negative predictive values found in the final test-kits were considered high, and therefore herds with a good animal welfare are identified to a high degree. All of the final test-kits were not particularly consistent with each other, therefore it is recommended to apply several welfare indicators when identifying herds at risk of having poor animal welfare. However, the welfare indicator of age at first calving was found in all final test-kits and can therefore be considered particularly interesting. ‘Ask the Cow’ and ‘Animal Welfare Signals’ reflect the same view of animal welfare, but as result reviles it is recommended to use both of them when assessing animal welfare at herd level.