The welfare of dairy buffalo

Abstract

The present paper addresses the issue of buffalo welfare. Firstly, the biological characteristics and behavioural needs of buffalo are considered. Subsequently, the effects of intensive farming and some animalrelated indicators, to be used for a monitoring scheme of buffalo welfare at farm level, are described. The attention was focused on the following indicators: excessive thinning or fattening assessed with Body Condition Score (BCS) systems; cleanliness (the presence of mud may be considered positively, whereas a thick and compact layer of dung may be regarded negatively); health status (lameness, hoof overgrowth, injuries, etc.); social, aggressive, oral abnormal behaviours; animal-human relationship (avoidance distance at manger); positive indicators (qualitative assessment of behaviour, etc.); housing factors. The indicators are discussed on the basis of their validity (meaningful with respect to animal welfare), reliability (reflecting the tendency to give the same results on repeated measurements) and feasibility (concerning time and money consumed). For some aspects, the differences between buffalo and dairy cattle are also highlighted.