Meaningfulness of design criteria in relation to claw disorder and mortality of fattening bulls

Summary

To prove the meaningfulness of design criteria in relation to claw disorder and mortality of fattening bulls a cohort analysis was carried out on 50 farms with housing systems characterised by fully slatted floor, deep litter or litter+concrete floor. Hoofs of the bulls were collected after slaughtering and examined for pathological findings. Space allowance, feeding space, pen depth and quality of the floor were integrated into a TGI-40 protocol and related to the incidence of early losses.
Slatted floor pens were characterised by a low space allowance and a low pen depth. In contrast, dimensions of pens with deep litter and litter+concrete floor were clearly larger but showed a wide and overlapping variation in the different design criteria. Hoofs on animals from deep litter and litter+concrete floor were in a worse condition than hoofs on animals from fully slatted floor. Early and total animal losses were higher in slatted floor than in litter systems. Early losses correlated significantly with the scores of the TGI-40 protocol (r=-0.31). Additionally, the group of the 25% best farms in relation to scores showed a significant lower incidence of early losses compared to the remaining farms. Design criteria integrated into a scores system provide information for the farmer how to reduce the risk for early losses.
(SUNDRUM, A. and I. RUBELOWSKI (2001): Meaningfulness of design criteria in relation to animal health. Acta Agric. Scand., Sect A, Animal Science 30, 48-52.)