Анжелика Александровна Ксенофонтова Livestock breeding is one of the fastest growing branches of agriculture worldwide. The living conditions of industrially grown animals are one of the most pressing ethical issues of our time. Farm animals with complex systems of sensations and emotions are very susceptible to disturbances in technological processes. Ensuring the survival and reproduction of animals on farms, people, unfortunately, can cause them great suffering because they do not satisfy many of the physical, emotional and social needs inherited from wild ancestors. Owing to many years of breeding, modern dairy cattle have a great genetic potential, which often cannot be fully achieved due to unbalanced feeding, unfavorable housing conditions and poor animal health. Feeding, maintenance and health of livestock are both basic zootechnical indicators and principles of animal welfare. Since it is the welfare of animals that is directly related to the quality and quantity of the products obtained, in the field of agriculture, methods should be applied that objectively and reliably assess the situation in the workplace. One of the recognized methods is Welfare Quality®, developed at Wageningen University and Research Center (Wageningen Universiteit en Researchcentrum) in the Netherlands. It implies the point-based evaluation of the principles of animal welfare, each of which, in turn, includes several criteria. The results obtained using the Welfare Quality® methodology allowed the authors to identify vulnerabilities in the feeding and keeping of dairy cattle under production conditions that negatively affected the health and behavior of animals and, as a result, the standard of animal welfare.
Научная статья 
behavior