Animal welfare in livestock farming

There is an increasing focus on animal welfare in livestock farming. The Dutch government wants entirely animal-friendly livestock farming by 2040. But what does such livestock farming look like? And how can we achieve it? The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine contributes to this important task with education and research on animal health and welfare.

When it comes to animal welfare, the main focus for a long time has been on preventing disease, stress and pain in animals within the existing (intensive) livestock farming system. In animal-friendly livestock farming, we start again and the starting point is the intrinsic value and integrity of animals as living beings with feelings, who can experience pain and pleasure.

We want animals to be able to exhibit their natural behaviour. This means that instead of adapting the animal to its environment (by cutting off beaks or removing tails, for example) we want to adapt the environment to the animal (by more space or different food, for example).

Read the parliamentary letter: interpretation of regulations on animal-friendly livestock farming (in Dutch)

Consequences of intensive livestock farming

After World War II, the population grows and economic prosperity increases in the Netherlands. People earn more and more money and start eating meat more often. Farmers start producing on a larger scale and more efficiently. This gave rise to intensive livestock farming. A system in which we produce as much meat, eggs and milk as possible at the lowest possible cost. This provides us with a lot of food and income. The downside of this economically successful system is that it can cause problems for our environment (such as the nitrogen problem), public health (air quality and infectious diseases that can pass from animals to humans - zoonoses) and thus animal welfare (e.g. claw marks in cows, feather pecking in chickens, tail biting in pigs).

How do we assess animal-friendly livestock farming?

When does an animal feel comfortable and what does that look like? Several scientists from our faculty sit on the Council on Animal Affairs (Raad voor Dierenaangelegenheden (in Dutch). This council has formulated six principles that animal-friendly livestock farming must comply with:
 

  1. Recognition of the intrinsic value and integrity of the animal

  2. Good nutrition

  3. Good environment

  4. Good health

  5. Natural behaviour

  6. Positive emotional state

Animation (in Dutch) about animal-friendly livestock farming. Source: www.rda.nl

How does the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine contribute to animal centered livestock farming?

In Veterinary Medicine, we study the health and welfare of the individual animal and of animal populations. We study diseases, as well as animal behaviour and welfare. We study what animals' needs are, what they need for a healthy life, what requirements we should place on their kept environment, and measure their quality of life.

Dialogue

We work closely with others. Wageningen University & Research is of course an important partner, but so are numerous other organisations. In doing so, we look beyond the boundaries of scientific disciplines and initiate dialogue.

During the Dialogue on animal-friendly livestock farming, we engaged with animal protectionists, livestock farmers, politicians, veterinarians, researchers, civil servants and other professionals on what such farming could look like in 2040.

Knowledge of animal health and animal welfare

The transition to animal-friendly livestock farming is complex. In doing so, we also need, for example, lawyers, economists, behavioural scientists and biodiversity experts. If you want to give animals more space, but consumers don't want to pay for it and cheap meat from abroad remains available, that affects the income of farmers and the Dutch economy, for example. Our added value as a faculty lies in our knowledge of animal health and animal welfare.

Train future vets

In addition, with our education, we train future vets in the principles of animal-friendly livestock farming. Students learn to practice operations in real-life situations at our educational farm the Tolakker.

It’s great when farmers are motivated to become ‘greener’, but we also need to pay attention to animal health and animal welfare. My goal is to play a part in that later on, as a vet.”

Thus, after graduation, they can work as practising veterinarians, policy makers at a ministry or inspectors at the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). This is how they help monitor and enhance animal welfare in livstock farming.

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