Välfärdsproblem hos mjölkkor i stora besättningar

Abstract: The aim with the literature study is to inform about the risks that exists in large dairy farms(with focus on mastitis and hoof health) and to inform about the milk industry in Sweden.Personal comments from two study visits (Nötcenter Viken and Vadsbo Mjölk AB) arelinked together with the literature and forms into a discussion regarding sustainableagriculture versus the milk cow's welfare.The profitability for Sweden's milk farmers have decreased because of the decreased milkprice and current inflation. This leads to an increase in herdsize in order to make a profit.The milk cow herds in Sweden becomes fewer year by year and the herdsize increases. Theincreased herdsize can cause a decrease in the time the farmer spends per animal. This canaffect early disease detection and prolong the animals suffering.Swedish Board of Agriculture published (2008) statistics showing that today's milk cow ismedicated primarily because of two reasons; mastitis or hoof problems. Mastitis is thereason to two thirds of all treatments that are carried out. Mastitis causes pain for theanimal and economic losses for the farmer. The disease seems to increase with herdsize.Automated controls are developed in order to detect mastitis in an early stage. Differentindicators in the milk reveal if the cow suffers from mastitis or not. In order to induce thenumber of mastitis in a herd should among other thing good hygiene be maintained. Hoofdiseases cause infertility, weight reduction and contributes to big economic losses for thefarmer. 2% of the dairy cows registered in the Swedish kokontrollen are annually treatedbecause of a hoof disease. Automated controls in order to detect lameness are developedbecause of the difficulties of detecting lameness in a large herd. Lameness causes a changein the cow´s weight distribution over her four limbs. Measures of weight distribution aretherefore used as parameters.The risk of infection is higher in a large herd than in a smaller one because of the increasednumber of animals introduced. A possible infection can also affect a larger number ofindividuals. One should distribute the cows in a large herd into more stable buildings thenone with a maximum of 200-250 animals per building in order to sustain a reasonable animalhealth level.