Main critical factors affecting the welfare of beef cattle and veal calves raised under intensive rearing systems in Italy: a review

This review describes the principal causes of poor welfare in beef cattle and veal calves raised in intensive husbandry systems in Italy. Nowadays there are no specific regulations in force for beef cattle welfare. However, a document produced in 2001 by the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare of the European Commission on Health and Consumer Protection identified the main causes of inadequate welfare levels in the different cattle rearing systems in Europe. In Italy and in the Po Valley in particular, the beef cattle farms are mainly finishing units characterised by animals kept at high density in multiple pens and fed high starch diets. Under these rearing conditions the limited space allowance is one of the most important issues impairing animal welfare. Other risk factors for poor welfare related to the housing structures are type of floor, space at the manger, number of water dispensers and lack of specific moving and handling facilities. Microclimatic conditions can be critical especially during the summer season when cattle can experience heat stress. The feeding plan adopted in the Italian beef farms may be another factor negatively affecting the welfare of these animals due to the low content of long fibre roughage which increases the risk of metabolic acidosis. In the veal calf rearing systems there has been a mandatory introduction of the new system of production according to the European Council Directives 91/629/EEC and 97/2/EC. Farms had to adopt group housing and to provide calves with an increasing amount of fibrous feed in addition to the all-liquid diet. Despite this specific legislation, several risk factors for calves' welfare can still be identified. Some of them are related to the housing system (type of floor, air quality, feed and water supply equipment and lack of loading facilities) and some others to the feeding plan (type and amount of roughage, quality of milk replacers). Recent studies have shown that the welfare of veal calves and beef cattle can be severely affected by the quality of the stockmanship and particularly by negative human-animal interaction.