The ecosystem services framework describes the benefits that natural environments provide to human populations. Mountain ecosystems are extremely diverse and in fact support about one quarter of terrestrial bio- diversity. The provision of ecosystem services in mountain areas depends upon good animal welfare and vice versa . Thus, proper assessment methods are needed to measure and ensure good welfare levels in moun- tain areas. In this study, we have tested five animal-based measures collected in eight mountain dairy farms and compared them to data collected in 124 small-scale dairy farms. Despite obtaining better mean results when looking at selected animal-based indicators in comparison to reference data, great variability was observed between farms similarly to what reported in other studies. Future research should aim at creating a reference database of animal-based measure collected in mountain farms only as well as measuring dairy cow welfare on pasture conditions considering that is a common practice in mountain dairy farms and often involves an abrupt change in husbandry and management systems.

Animal welfare and ecosystem services in mountain areas

ZULIANI, ANNA;Romanzin, A.;BOVOLENTA, Stefano
2016-01-01

Abstract

The ecosystem services framework describes the benefits that natural environments provide to human populations. Mountain ecosystems are extremely diverse and in fact support about one quarter of terrestrial bio- diversity. The provision of ecosystem services in mountain areas depends upon good animal welfare and vice versa . Thus, proper assessment methods are needed to measure and ensure good welfare levels in moun- tain areas. In this study, we have tested five animal-based measures collected in eight mountain dairy farms and compared them to data collected in 124 small-scale dairy farms. Despite obtaining better mean results when looking at selected animal-based indicators in comparison to reference data, great variability was observed between farms similarly to what reported in other studies. Future research should aim at creating a reference database of animal-based measure collected in mountain farms only as well as measuring dairy cow welfare on pasture conditions considering that is a common practice in mountain dairy farms and often involves an abrupt change in husbandry and management systems.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1091446
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