Jeffrey Rushen

University of British Columbia - Vancouver | UBC · Faculty of Land and Food Systems

The third edition of this book contains a total of 20 chapters (including 3 new chapters), including the implementation of an effective animal welfare programme; the importance of measurement to improve the welfare of livestock, poultry and fish; the social and ethical importance of agricultural animal welfare; the implementation of effective anima...

The overall goal of the study was to develop new recommendations for tie-rail placement combining both vertical and horizontal positions to improve dairy cow welfare. Four treatments were tested: 2 new tie-rail positions that followed the natural neckline of cows when feeding and rising [neckline 1 (NL1), neckline 2 (NL2)], current recommendation (...

Adequate time lying down is often considered an important aspect of dairy cow welfare. We examine what is known about cows' motivation to lie down and the consequences for health and other indicators of biological function when this behavior is thwarted. We review the environmental and animal-based factors that affect lying time in the context of a...

The use of tiestall housing for dairy cows is often criticized due to the reduced freedom of movement it offers for the animals. Maximizing comfort is especially important in tiestall farms to ensure an acceptable level of cow welfare. Motivating dairy producers to make financial investments directly aimed toward the improvement of their animals' w...

Motivating dairy producers to financially invest in the improvement of their animals' comfort and welfare can pose some challenges, especially when financial returns are uncertain. Economic advantages for dairy producers associated with increased animal welfare are likely to come from either a premium paid for the milk or increased productivity. Th...

Despite the growing popularity of automatic milking systems (AMS), or milking robots, in Canada, little documentation is available on how Canadian dairy producers experience the transition to this milking technology. The objective of this national study was to document the experiences of Canadian dairy producers during the transition to, and use of...

The objectives of this study were to determine the difficulty of implementing changes to improve cow comfort on Canadian dairy farms, to determine if any changes were implemented to improve dairy cow comfort following an initial cow comfort assessment, to categorize producers based on types of changes they made, to compare how producers in these ca...

Group housing of dairy calves with automated milk feeders (AMF) is increasingly being used, but the effect of introducing calves to the AMF at a very young age (<24 h) on calf performance, health, and welfare, as well as farm personnel labor requirements are unknown. The objective of this controlled trial was to investigate whether early (<24 h aft...

Automatic milking systems (AMS), or milking robots, are becoming widely accepted as a milking technology that reduces labour and increases milk yield. However, reported amount of labour saved, changes in milk yield, and milk quality when transitioning to AMS vary widely. The purpose of this study was to document the impact of adopting AMS on farms...

There is increasing interest in keeping dairy cows with their calves during the milk feeding period, and in reducing distress associated with separation. The aim of this study was to investigate how nutritional dependence upon the cow's milk affects behavioural responses to separation by both the cow and calf. For the first six weeks of life, depen...

In order for dairy producers to comply with animal welfare recommendations, financial investments may be required. In Canada, a new dairy animal care assessment program is currently being implemented under the proAction Initiative to determine the extent to which certain aspects of the Code of Practice are being followed and to assess the care and...

Improving animal welfare on farm can sometimes require substantial financial investments. The Canadian dairy industry recently updated their Code of Practice for the care of dairy animals and created a mandatory on-farm animal care assessment (proAction Animal Care). Motivating dairy farmers to follow the recommendations of the Code of Practice and...

Data on management practices used with automated milk feeders (AMF) are needed to identify factors associated with calf health in these systems. The objectives of this observational, longitudinal, cross-sectional study were to estimate the prevalence of calf diarrhea (CD) and bovine respiratory disease (BRD), and to identify factors associated with...

As part of a cross-sectional survey, Canadian dairy producers were asked a set of questions to (1) determine factors that influenced them to continue using manual milk feeding (MMF) systems or to switch to automated milk feeding (AMF) and (2) investigate producers’ perceived advantages and disadvantages regarding both feeding systems. A total of 67...

Lameness is one of the most important welfare and productivity concerns in the dairy industry. Our objectives were to obtain producers' estimates of its prevalence and their perceptions of lameness, and to investigate how producers monitor lameness in tiestall (TS), freestall with milking parlor (FS), and automated milking system (AMS) herds. Forty...

Automated calf feeding systems are increasing in use across the United States, yet information regarding health and mortality outcomes of animals in these systems is limited. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between farm management practices, housing, and environmental factors with mortality and health treatment rates...

Interest in housing dairy calves in groups is currently growing. Group housing using individual calf hutches, a resource already available in most dairy farms in North America, could provide a novel housing method that can be a simple way to implement group housing on farm. The main objective of this study was to determine whether pair housing dair...

Video stall lameness scoring (SLS) has been shown to be comparable to video locomotion scoring for evaluating lameness in dairy cows housed in tie-stalls and may be a more practical and easier method to measure lameness in a herd. We compared live SLS to video SLS and to live locomotion scoring. A total of 685 lactating cows subsampled from 27 comm...

Dairy calves in North America traditionally are housed individually and fed by manual milk feeding (MMF) systems with buckets or bottles. Automated milk feeders (AMF) allow for more natural milk feeding frequencies and volumes, and calves are usually housed in groups. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the prevalence of various milk...

Automated calf feeding systems are becoming more common on US dairy farms. The objective of this study was to evaluate calf health in these systems and to identify risk factors associated with adverse health outcomes on farms in the upper Midwest United States. Over an 18-mo period on bimonthly farm visits to 38 farms, calves (n = 10,179) were scor...

Cow comfort in tiestalls is directly affected by stall dimensions, for which some recommendations exist. To evaluate how well Canadian dairy farms with tiestalls complied with recommendations for stall dimensions, as well as the effect of compliance on cow comfort and cleanliness, we assessed lactating Holstein cows (n = 3,485) on 100 tiestall dair...

Automatic milking systems (AMS), or milking robots, are becoming increasingly common, but there is little documentation of how AMS have affected farms as a whole and what challenges and benefits producers are experiencing during their transition to AMS. The objective of this national survey was to document the effect of transitioning to AMS on prod...

Good calving management should not only ease the transition of cows into lactation, but also contribute to providing healthy replacement animals for the herd. Difficulty during parturition has been found to be detrimental to the offspring. Because of the association of obstetrical intervention with undesirable outcomes, the general management recom...

Within any type of housing system, there are differences between individual dairy calves in their health and welfare. Locomotor play is a high energy activity that is a sign of good health and welfare. In a series of experiments, we examined locomotor play in group housed un-weaned dairy calves (1 – 8 weeks of age) to determine the extent that indi...

Resting behaviors are an essential component of animal welfare but have received little attention in zoological research. African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) rest includes recumbent postures, but no large-scale investigation of African and Asian zoo elephant recumbence has been previously conducted. We...

Validation test of accelerometer using video analysis. Two Asian zoo elephants wore accelerometers in anklets for two consecutive nights and accelerometer data were compared with video recordings of recumbence activity. Additionally, Subject #2 wore a second accelerometer in the same anklet to test inter-accelerometer reliability. The most notable...

Mean recumbence and standard error for all subjects (n = 72). (DOCX)

Leg injuries on dairy cows are a common and highly visible welfare concern on commercial dairy farms. With greater attention being placed on food animal welfare and limited research being conducted on tiestall farms, this study aimed to identify prevalence and risk factors for hock and knee injuries on dairy cows housed in tiestall barns in Ontario...

Cross sucking by dairy calves occurs most commonly before weaning, but is of most concern in older animals where it has been claimed to cause mastitis and udder damage. Providing ad libitum milk allowance via a teat and gradual weaning reduces cross sucking, but low levels of this behavior still persist. Our aims were to understand why this behavio...

Lameness is a major concern to animal health and welfare within the dairy industry. Our objectives were to describe the prevalence of lameness in high-producing cows on farms with automated milking systems (AMS) and to identify the main risk factors for lameness at the animal and farm level. We visited 36 AMS farms across Canada and Michigan. Farm-...

Editorial: Pigs crying, silent fish and other stories about animal welfare assessment - Volume 10 Issue 2 - I. Veissier, H. Spoolder, J. Rushen, L. Mounier

Dairy calves weaned off milk at an early age show signs of hunger and can lose weight. We examined whether using automated feeders to wean calves according to individual voluntary solid feed intake reduced the effects of weaning. Female Holstein calves were housed in groups of 5 to 9. All calves were fed 12 L/d milk and ad libitum grain starter and...

Lying behavior is an important measure of comfort and well-being in dairy cattle, and changes in lying behavior are potential indicators and predictors of lameness. Our objectives were to determine individual and herd-level risk factors associated with measures of lying behavior, and to evaluate whether automated measures of lying behavior can be u...

Little information is available about current practices around calving in dairy cattle. The aim of this study was to describe calving management practices in the Canadian dairy industry related to housing, calving protocols, monitoring of parturition, and calving assistance. Information was gathered by in-person interviews from 236 dairy farms from...

Lying down and resting are important for optimal cow health, welfare, and production. In comparison with free stall farms with a milking parlor, farms with automated milking systems (AMS) may place less constraint on how long cows can lie down. However, few studies report lying times on AMS farms. The aims of this study were to describe the variati...

Mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT) testing has been used to investigate aspects of painful states in bovine claws. We investigated a handheld tool, where the applied stimulation force was monitored continuously relative to a pre-encoded based target force. The effect on MNT of two pre-testing habituation procedures was performed in two differen...

Lameness is a severe welfare problem and a production-limiting disease in dairy farming. The objectives of this study were to determine prevalence of lameness and investigate cow- and herd-level factors associated with lameness in dairy cows housed in freestall barns in 3 Canadian provinces. A purposive sample of 40 Holstein-Friesian cows was selec...

Dam rearing can provide health and welfare benefits, but separation and weaning are major welfare challenges. We investigated whether access to an additional source of milk from an automatic milk feeder (AMF) would improve weight gains after separation and weaning. During the first 6 wk of life (dam phase), calves were assigned to 1 of 3 treatments...

Holstein heifers (n = 57) were monitored using accelerometers and video observations with the objective of better understanding the behavioral expression of estrus, the variation within and between the heifers, and the possible sources of variation. IceTags recorded walking activity from 7 to 13 months of age. Activity peaks (n = 282) were obtained...

The time that dairy cows spend lying down is an important measure of their comfort and lameness and injuries to hocks and knees are associated with alterations in lying time. We examined whether automated measures of lying time could identify cows and farms with problems of lameness or leg lesions. Data were collected from 40 lactating Holstein dai...

Play behaviour has been proposed as a measure of good welfare in growing animals and locomotor play by calves is often reduced after weaning off milk. Adjusting weaning age according to individual calves' abilities to eat solid feed maintains energy intake and weight gain during weaning. We investigated the effects of this method of weaning on loco...

Recent nutrition research has shown the advantages of offering more milk to replacement heifers, a feeding strategy which favours the use of automated feeders for calves on dairy farms. The advantages of implementing computer controlled automation in dairy calf management include labour efficiency, increased feeding frequency, gradual weaning, impr...

Animal welfare is important because poor animal welfare is associated with poor animal production or health, and because consumer concern may influence market access. Requirements to meet international standards that deal with animal welfare will be of increasing importance to the meat industries. An animal has good welfare if it is healthy, comfor...

Dairy calves are often separated from the cow soon after birth and prevented from nursing, but little is known about the effects of nursing on the development of the cow-calf bond. This study evaluated the effect of nursing on affiliative behaviours between the dam and her calf including allogrooming, proximity and latency to reunite after a period...

Effective management and an appropriate environment are essential for dairy cattle health and welfare. Codes of practice provide dairy producers with best practice guidance for the care and handling of their cattle. New Canadian recommendations have been established for the dairy industry. The objectives of this study were to develop an on-farm ass...

We examined whether calves’ milk intake and activity in the days after birth predict later growth and the risk of illness. Female Holstein calves (n = 130) were housed in individual pens where they were allowed ad libitum milk from birth to 5 days of age. Daily milk intakes were recorded and accelerometers attached to the calves measured time spent...

Group housing of dairy calves with automated milk feeders has likely welfare and labour saving advantages but delays in the calves adapting to the feeding system may reduce these advantages. We examined factors that influence calves’adaptation to the feeders. In Exp. 1, 77 Holstein calves were reared in individual “baby” pens with free access to mi...

Abstract Text: Research is limited regarding best housing and management practices for automated calf feeding systems, particularly in terms of how these factors influence animal health and welfare. This ongoing study is characterizing health scores, morbidity and mortality of group-housed calves in US farms and relating these to housing and mana...

Abstract Text: The aim of this study was to compare a commercial (Heatime, SCR Engineers, Israel) and a research based (IceTag, IceRobotics, Scotland) activity monitoring system on their ability to measure estrus episodes in nulliparous heifers (n=57; 119 estrus episodes) starting at 12 mo old. Only heifers detected by Heatime system were evaluated...

Abstract Text: Lying stall configuration affects cow comfort. Lack of space for the cow may result from old facilities (stall size) and from efforts to keep the cow cleaner (tie-rail position). To evaluate effects of not following recommendations for stall configuration on cow comfort, 40 lactating Holstein cows from each of 100 tie-stall dairy f...

The use of caustic paste combined with a sedative is one of the least painful methods for disbudding. It is recommended to disbud at as early as 5 d of age. However, the sedative xylazine reportedly causes a decrease in core temperature. Furthermore, young calves do not thermoregulate efficiently. We investigated the effects of disbudding calves at...

A better understanding of when and where group-housed calves are most likely to defecate or urinate might permit improved housing design or more efficient use of cleaning routines. However, this is the first study to address the urination and defecation habits of calves. The primary aims of this study were to report the daily frequency of calves' u...

Lying time is an important measure of cow comfort, and the lying behavior of dairy cattle can now be recorded automatically with the use of accelerometers. To assess the effect that stall stocking density and the time that cows spend away from the home pen being milked has on the lying behavior of Holstein cattle, a total of 111 commercial freestal...

Injuries are a widespread problem in the dairy industry. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of and explore the animal-based and environmental factors associated with hock, knee, and neck injuries on dairy cows in freestall housing in Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Freestall dairy farms in the provinces of Ontario (n=40) and A...

The question of whether it is better to house animals in groups rather than alone deals with unresolved issues at the heart of animal welfare. In particular, we need to be able to rank different classes of threats to welfare (e.g. behavioural deprivation versus illness) on a single scale. In this chapter, we discuss the risk assessment approach to...

We compared 2 methods for identifying lame cows and estimating the prevalence of lameness in tiestalls. Cows (n = 320) in 9 tiestall herds were scored as lame both by the presence of limping while walking and by stall lameness scores (SLS). The SLS was based on the number of the following behaviors that the cow showed while standing in the tiestall...

Measures of acceleration have been used as automated measures of the locomotor play of calves. We examined which measures of acceleration were best correlated with locomotor play and how the sampling rate of the accelerometer affected the correlations. Accelerometers were attached to 30 6–7 week-old Holstein calves, each of whom was released into a...

A body condition score (BCS) in dairy cattle is a subjective assessment of the proportion of body fat that she possesses and is a common measure used in animal welfare assessment. The objectives of our study were to develop and implement a training program to produce highly repeatable BCS by many assessors as part of a cross-Canada epidemiological...

Manure is an important cause of dirtiness and disease for cows and can affect milk quality and human health. The aim of this study was to test whether we could stimulate cows to defecate at a particular location in order to reduce the spread of manure. A series of four tests with 12 lactating Holstein cows (days in milk = 137.5 ± 17.5 days, parity...