Welfare status of dairy cows reared from large scale dairy farms in Midlands Province -Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe a lot of studies have been done on nutrition, breeding, physiology and health of farm cows but with little or no consideration of the impacts of these studies on cow welfare. As a result political importance and practical progression of cow welfare is still lagging behind in the country...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Veterinary research communications 2024-12, Vol.48 (6), p.4169-4178
Main Authors: Matore, Zivanayi, Woods, Pamela S. A., Mutibvu, Tonderai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Husbandry - methods
Animal Welfare
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brief Report
Cattle - physiology
Dairy cattle
Dairy farms
Dairying - statistics & numerical data
Developing countries
Farms
Female
LDCs
Life Sciences
Manures
Risk Factors
Seasons
Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science
Zimbabwe
Zoology
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Summary:In Zimbabwe a lot of studies have been done on nutrition, breeding, physiology and health of farm cows but with little or no consideration of the impacts of these studies on cow welfare. As a result political importance and practical progression of cow welfare is still lagging behind in the country just like most developing countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the welfare status of dairy cows from large scale dairy farms through an assessment of risk factors/drivers and indicators of cow welfare. For this study 728 dairy cows from all the 31 large scale dairy farms in Midlands Province, Zimbabwe, were selected for the study noting down risk factors and indicators of dairy cow welfare during both the dry and rainy season. Human avoidance distance test results revealed that 81% of the cows were touched by the approaching stockpeople, whereas 19% could not be touched, and this was significantly associated with breed of the cow (χ 2  = 115, DF = 9, P  
ISSN:0165-7380
1573-7446
1573-7446
DOI:10.1007/s11259-024-10543-5