Review: Compliance standards for dairy cattle welfare in European countries

TL;DR

This paper reviews dairy cattle welfare regulations in European countries, highlighting challenges for small farms and suggesting more flexible approaches.

Contribution

The paper provides a comparative analysis of compliance frameworks for dairy cattle welfare in Alpine countries, emphasizing their unique strategies and health monitoring.

Findings

Large-scale regulations can be overly restrictive for small mountainous farms, risking exclusion and harming animal welfare.

Health monitoring programs are essential for standardized diagnosis and data aggregation across countries.

Each Alpine country has a personalized strategy for dairy cattle welfare, with differences in regulatory flexibility and integration.

Abstract

•Over the past fifty years, animal welfare regulations in dairy farming have undergone significant changes worldwide. Each country has adapted its strategies to local needs.•Large-scale regulatory and certification systems are now widespread but can sometimes be overly restrictive, creating difficulties for traditional small-scale dairy farms in mountainous regions such as the Alps and elsewhere. These farms may find it difficult to meet stringent standards due to structural, economic and environmental constraints, risking exclusion and potential harm to animal welfare. At the same time, it is essential to recognise the cultural and economic value of small traditional farms from a sustainability perspective.•To address these issues, future regulations or amendments to existing ones should adopt flexible or inclusive approaches, such as compensatory measures, and balance ethical considerations, resource management and local conditions.•Health monitoring programmes, whether stand-alone or integrated into general welfare policies, should give absolute priority to accurate and standardised diagnosis. This allows for the aggregation of data across countries and supports regions with small farms and local breeds, ultimately strengthening animal welfare outcomes.

Over the past fifty years, animal welfare regulations in dairy farming have undergone significant changes worldwide. Each country has adapted its strategies to local needs.

Large-scale regulatory and certification systems are now widespread but can sometimes be overly restrictive, creating difficulties for traditional small-scale dairy farms in mountainous regions such as the Alps and elsewhere. These farms may find it difficult to meet stringent standards due to structural, economic and environmental constraints, risking exclusion and potential harm to animal welfare. At the same time, it is essential to recognise the cultural and economic value of small traditional farms from a sustainability perspective.

To address these issues, future regulations or amendments to existing ones should adopt flexible or inclusive approaches, such as compensatory measures, and balance ethical considerations, resource management and local conditions.

Health monitoring programmes, whether stand-alone or integrated into general welfare policies, should give absolute priority to accurate and standardised diagnosis. This allows for the aggregation of data across countries and supports regions with small farms and local breeds, ultimately strengthening animal welfare outcomes.

Over the last half century, animal welfare in livestock farming, particularly dairy cattle farming, has received increasing attention. Animal welfare legislation, as well as private and state-regulated standards and frameworks concerning animal welfare in dairy farming, has flourished globally, particularly in Europe. This study uses a modified systematic review approach to provide an overview of the various compliance frameworks (CFs) relating to dairy cattle welfare across Europe. These are classified according to the type of approach in: qualitative, or those that require only the achievement of a certain level of welfare; progressive, or those that encourage the constant improvement of welfare; disruptive, or those that propose a breakthrough in the management system, geared towards promoting welfare; and health monitoring programmes, considered separately. A qualitative assessment is conducted on nine selected CFs concerning the welfare of dairy cattle in five Alpine countries (France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Their different characteristics (organisation type and approach, interface with other relevant databases, covered subjects, and other qualitative features) are compared and presented in tabular form. This analysis reveals further differences between the CFs that transcend the type of approach adopted. Each country employs a personalised strategy. One distinction between the CFs is the presence of regulatory possibilities to integrate or compensate for shortcomings in certain areas, such as the absence of elements that promote welfare as regulated by the standard, with other virtuous practices. Furthermore, the comparison shows that health monitoring programmes are provided for in all states, thus underlining their continuing relevance.

Image, graphical abstract

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