Main description:

This book provides a comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the welfare of cattle. It starts with a consideration of animal welfare science and its application to the management of cattle and moves through to discussions of the challenges and opportunities for providing good welfare for cattle in farming and husbandry systems across the globe. The first section comprises three chapters that discuss the social, behavioural and physiological methods that can be used to assess welfare in cattle. The second section considers the welfare challenges of beef and dairy cattle in extensive and intensive systems. The third section details welfare challenges such as at slaughter, during handling and in the growing period and details solutions such as the use of sensors and application of animal breeding techniques. The final section addresses welfare challenges and solutions in achieving sustainability, in smallholder farms in Africa and new entrant dairying in Asia and cow shelters in India.

This work makes a valuable contribution to the field of animal welfare and modern livestock farming. It is a must-read for researchers and students, veterinarians as well as industry personnel and informed farmers and producers.

Contents:

Part 1: Background.- chapter 1: A good life for cattle: Concepts and Progress.- Chapter 2: Using behaviour to understand and assess welfare in cattle.- Chapter 3: Assessingcattle welfare: physiology and immunology.- Part 2: Challenges in different systems.- Chapter 4: Housing of Dairy Cattle: Enhancing Movement Opportunity in Housing Systems.- Chapter 5: Welfare of dairy cows in pasture-based systems.- Chapter 6: Welfare of beef cattle in extensive systems.- Chapter 7: Welfare of beef cattle in intensive systems.- Part 3: Consideration of key aspects of cattle welfare.- Chapter 8: The Welfare of Cattle at Slaughter.- Chapter 9: The human-animal relationship and cattle welfare.- Chapter 10: Welfare at calving and of the growing animals.- Chapter 11: Precision Livestock Farming Technologies for Dairy and Beef Production.- Chapter 12: Strategies and tools for genetic selection in dairy cattle and their application to improving animal welfare.- Part 4: Case studies.- Chapter 13: The sustainability of cattle production systems.- Chapter 14: The sheltering of unwanted cows in India.- Chapter 15: Cattle Welfare in Smallholder Dairy and Pastoralist Beef systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.- Chapter 16: Welfare and health challenges of 'new entry' dairying: A Practitioner's Perspective.