The “Manual for the welfare assessment and bio safety in breeding cattle for meat”, prepared by the National Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (CRENBA) and published by the Institute of Experimental Animal Disease Prevention of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna (IZS) of Brescia, Italy, addresses the need of creating a balanced and objective assessment system, easy to apply, that also allows comparisons between different farms on the basis of the measurements themselves ensuring greater objectivity of the assessment provided.

According to the developed methodology, the evaluation of the welfare level of a farm includes both aspects relating to the structures and management (evaluated through the so-called “non-animal based measures” – N-ABMS), and those linked to the animals’ reactions to their living conditions (measured through the “animal-based measures” – ABMS).

In detail, the aspects of farming considered a priority by the system refer to the stable staff, to the condition of the facilities and equipment that are in daily contact with the cattle, the micro-climatic conditions and certain social and health aspects. The choice of the aspects to be evaluated fell on those easily measurable by objective surveys in almost all the Italian beef cattle farms. The ultimate goal is to compare the different farms on the basis of these assessments, ensuring a greater objectivity to the assessment provided.

The assessment on farm animal welfare and bio-security is done through a checklist consisting of 56 items, divided into 5 areas: corporate and personal management; facilities and equipment; animal based measures (ABMS); bio-security; great risks and alarm systems. Each item has a triple (negative, acceptable, positive) or double (negative and positive) response option.

The result of the evaluations is a numerical value expressed on a scale from 0 to 100, capable of identifying the general conditions of well-being of animals.

The Sustainable Meat Project