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The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms.

ABSTRACT: Many protocols have been developed to assess farm animal welfare. However, the validity of these protocols is still subject to debate. The present study aimed to compare nine welfare assessment protocols, namely: (1) Welfare Quality^© (WQ), (2) a modified version of Welfare Quality (WQ Mod), which has a better discriminative power, (3) WelzijnsWijzer (Welfare Indicator; WW), (4) a new Welfare Monitor (WM), (5) Continue Welzijns Monitor (Continuous Welfare Monitor; CWM), (6) KoeKompas (Cow Compass; KK), (7) Cow Comfort Scoring System (CCSS), (8) Stall Standing Index (SSI) and (9) a Welfare Index (WI Tuyttens). In addition, a simple welfare estimation by veterinarians (Estimate vets, EV) was added. Rank correlation coefficients were calculated between each of the welfare assessment protocol scores and mean hair cortisol concentrations from 10 cows at 58 dairy farms spread over the Netherlands. Because it has been suggested that the hair cortisol level is related to stress, experienced over a long period of time, we expected a negative correlation between cortisol and the result of the welfare protocol scores. Only the simple welfare estimation by veterinarians (EV) (ρ = -0.28) had a poor, but significant, negative correlation with hair cortisol. This correlations, however, failed to reach significance after correction of p-values for multiple correlations. Most of the results of the different welfare assessment protocols had a poor, fair or strong positive correlation with each other, supporting the notion that they measure something similar. Additional analyses revealed that the modified Welfare Quality protocol parameters housing (ρ = -0.30), the new Welfare Monitor (WM) parameter health (ρ = -0.33), and milk yield (ρ = -0.33) showed negative correlations with cortisol. We conclude that because only five out of all the parameter scores from the welfare assessment protocols showed a negative, albeit weak, correlation with cortisol, hair cortisol levels may not provide a long term indicator for stress in dairy cattle, or alternatively, that the protocols might not yield valid indices for cow welfare.

SUBMITTER: van Eerdenburg FJCM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7998858 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Hair cortisol is a stress indicator and could be used to assess the pigs' exposure to stressors in the weeks/months prior to non-invasive hair sampling. The main aim of this study was to describe the hair cortisol concentration (HCC) variability between individuals within a batch, between farms and between batches within a farm. The secondary aim was to determine how the number of sampled pigs influences the characterization of HCC within a batch. Twenty farrow-to-finish pig farms were recruited considering the diversity of their management practices and health status (data collected). Hair was sampled in two separate batches, 8 months apart. The necks of 24 finishing pigs were clipped per batch the week prior to slaughter. To describe the variability in HCC, an analysis of the variance model was run with three explanatory variables (batch, farm and their interaction). To identify farm clusters, a principal component analysis followed by a hierarchical clustering was carried out with four active variables (means and standard deviations of the two batches per farm) and 17 supplementary variables (management practices, herd health data). We determined how the number of sampled pigs influenced the characterization of HCC within a batch by selecting subsamples of the results. HCC ranged from 0.4 to 121.6 pg/mg, with a mean of 25.9 ± 16.2 pg/mg. The variability in HCC was mainly explained by differences between pigs (57%), then between farms (24%), between batches within the same farm (16%) and between batches (3%). Three clusters of farms were identified: low homogeneous concentrations (n = 3 farms), heterogeneous concentrations with either higher (n = 7) or lower (n = 10) HCC in batch 2 than in batch 1. The diversity of management practices and health statuses allowed to discuss hypotheses explaining the HCC variations observed. We highlighted the need to sample more than 24 pigs to characterize HCC in a pig batch. HCC differences between batches on six farms suggest sampling pigs in more than one batch to describe the HCC at the farm level. HCC variations described here confirm the need to study its links with exposure of pigs to stressors.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Professional caregivers working in child and youth welfare institutions are frequently faced with the complex mental health issues, emotional needs and challenging coping strategies of clients with cumulated traumatic experiences, leaving them prone to developing high levels of stress, burn-out and compassion fatigue. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a milieu-therapeutic approach that aims to promote the self-efficacy and self-care of youth welfare staff by guiding them to a better understanding of their own and their clients' stress symptoms and countertransference. Despite increasing efforts to implement TIC practices, and more widespread recognition of their value in youth welfare systems, there is a lack of studies evaluating the effectiveness of this approach. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of TIC practices in youth welfare institutions on both the physiological stress of staff members and clients' physical aggression towards their caregivers. . METHODS:Data was obtained from a longitudinal study investigating the effectiveness of TIC in 14 residential youth welfare institutions. Our sample consisted of 47 youth welfare employees (66.0% female) aged from 23 to 60?years (M?=?37.4, SD?=?10.4?years). Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) and occurrences of client physical aggression were assessed at four annual measurement time points (T1 to T4). RESULTS:Participants in five institutions employing TIC practices (intervention group) showed significantly lower HCC at T4 than staff members from institutions who did not receive training in TIC (control group), indicating reduced physiological stress levels. At T4, the intervention group reported significantly less physical aggression than the control group. CONCLUSIONS:TIC might be a promising approach for reducing the emotional burden of employees and institutions should invest in training their staff in TIC practices. More research is necessary, to investigate the benefits and efficacy of TIC, both to youths and staff members, and to foster a better understanding of which specific factors may contribute to stress reduction.

Dataset Information

The Relation between Hair-Cortisol Concentration and Various Welfare Assessments of Dutch Dairy Farms.

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