Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

Abstract

The extensive livestock production industries are vital to the national economy of Australia. Continuing improvements to extensively-raised livestock welfare is desirable, necessary and in some situations mandatory, if the social license for animal sourced food and fiber production is to continue sustainably. However, meeting increasingly high welfare standards is challenging. The changing climate in this millennium, has seen the occurrence of two of the most severe drought periods on record in Australia, resulting in complex welfare issues arising from unforeseen disease, trade and environmental catastrophes. The onset of the first drought coincided with an uncontrolled epidemic of ovine paratuberculosis. It ended just prior to a temporary ban on live export of tropical cattle to Indonesia that induced a major market failure and led to severe morbidity and mortality on some beef properties. The second drought period progressed in severity and culminated in the most extreme bushfires recorded, causing unprecedented levels of mortality, morbidity and suffering in farmed animals and wildlife. Temperature extremes have also caused periodic heat-associated or cold-induced hyopthermia losses, requiring increased vigilance and careful management to reduce both temperature-induced stress during transport and the high ovine peri-parturient losses traditionally observed in extensive sheep farming. Several issues remain controversial, including surgical mulesing of wool sheep to manage flystrike, and the continuing live export trade of sheep and cattle. However, in reviewing the increasingly complex welfare challenges for the extensive livestock population industries that are export trade dependent and remain vulnerable to welfare activism, it appears progress has been made. These include development of prescribed livestock welfare Standards and Guidelines and the introduction of the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) to address export concerns. Further, the sheep mulesing crisis led to improved producer welfare attitudes and practices, including pain management during aversive husbandry procedures that is now occurring globally. Finally, innovations in animal welfare surveillance and assessment, are additional encouraging signs that suggest improving change management of extensive farm animal welfare is occurring that provides lessons well-beyond Australian shores.

Extensive Sheep and Goat Production: The Role of Novel Technologies towards Sustainability and Animal Welfare

“…Sheep production in Australia is mainly based on extensive systems, primarily designed for wool production using the Australian Merino (AM) breed. In recent years, these production systems have been increasingly exposed to droughts that compromise animal welfare and the economic viability of farms due to undernutrition [ 79 ]. Moreover, AM sheep are highly susceptible to myiasis (caused by blowfly strikes), which compromises their health and welfare [ 80 ].…”

Environmental Quality and Compliance with Animal Welfare Legislation at Swedish Cattle and Sheep Farms

“…Recently developed innovative husbandry systems often take different aspects of sustainability into account [25,26], but the majority of animal production systems are traditional and may be more or less good in the different areas [13,[27][28][29]. In addition to these inherent limitations of animal production systems, landowners and farmers themselves may vary in their management, making it difficult to predict sustainability results even when regulations on infrastructure design and management are enforced.…”

The Neuroimmune Interface and Chronic Pain Through the Lens of Production Animals

“…For example, exposé type journalism revealed mulesing practices in Australia, leading to global outrage and boycotting of Australian wool products in some countries ( Hampton et al, 2020 ). These sorts of reactionary approaches often stem from disengaged industries and misinformed responses from groups and individuals outside of the industry – abrupt bans and boycotts ultimately harm global relations, industry, communities, and animals ( Windsor, 2021 ). Uncovering potential welfare concerns using a scientific approach followed by open communication and engagement between interested parties often leads to sustainable improvements or alternatives to practice that benefit animals, the industry, and consumers ( Windsor, 2021 ).…”

“…Identifying and addressing animal welfare concerns, such as acute and chronic pain, requires reliable objective measurements for creating effective solutions and monitoring progress ( Windsor, 2021 ). Objective measurements of pain are difficult as pain itself is a subjective experience and animals are unable to describe that experience ( Grace et al, 2010 ).…”

“…Objective measurements of pain are difficult as pain itself is a subjective experience and animals are unable to describe that experience ( Grace et al, 2010 ). When it comes to measuring the long term impacts of disease and various practices involved in managing large groups of animals in a productive system the current methods available to us rely largely on subjective empirical data and there is still a lot that is unknown ( Windsor, 2021 ), particularly when it comes to persisting pain or chronic pain conditions ( Kleinhenz et al, 2021 ). Objective and reliable measures of pain would present exciting opportunities to assess pain and address it where necessary.…”