EU food safety body calls for avoiding calf disbudding 'if possible'
The recommendation is part of an extensive scientific opinion on the welfare of cattle in the beef sector.
The EFSA has previously issued similar opinions on calf welfare generally, as well as pig welfare. These opinions were provided in line with requirement under the EU's Farm to Fork Strategy, which requires the EFSA to publish scientific opinions on animal welfare in various sectors.
Ostensibly, these opinions will inform future animal welfare legislation coming from the European Commission.
In its latest opinion, which covers beef farming, the EFSA outlined conclusions and recommendations on beef farming in several areas, namely: housing conditions; minimum space allowance; welfare of cattle kept outside; welfare of fattening cattle in outdoor feedlots; weaning of suckler calves; disbudding/dehorning, castration and tail docking; breeding practices; and culling of cows.
The opinion says that, if possible, disbudding and dehorning should be avoided, and dehorning should not be conducted unless by veterinary indication on an individual animal.
The EFSA opinion calls for legal requirements for disbudding to be harmonised across the EU, in a way that would include the mandatory use of local anaesthesia and analgesia.
It says that surgical disbudding and caustic paste disbudding should be avoided, and that guidelines on correct use of disbudding irons should be made available.
For any method of horn removal, and particularly for extensively raised cattle, safe, non damaging and low-stress handling methods and facilities for animal restraint should be used to alleviate handling stress; and sedation prior to disbudding should be carried out, the EFSA says.
The scientific opinion from the EFSA goes so far as to say that the need for castration should be reconsidered and if possible, should be avoided.
If carried out, castration should be done before eight weeks of age, although further research is needed on potential effects very early castration, the EFSA says.
Regardless of the age of the animals, a combination of anesthesia and analgesia should be properly applied and continued as long as pain is likely to be experienced.
In the section on breeding practices, particular attention is given to hypermasculinity - the trait of increased muscle mass, including doubling muscling.
According to the EFSA, double-muscled cows experience increased difficulty in calving.
The scientific opinion recommends using breeding bulls that do not carry the gene mutations responsible for double muscling; and that selection strategies should also include traits for improved anatomical features, accounting for pelvic conformation for calving ease.
Avoiding double muscling and selecting for pelvic conformation traits is also recommended for promoting calving ease and lowering the need for C-sections, the EFSA says.
Other recommendations included in the EFSA's scientific opinion include:
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