Development of comprehensive biomarkers in milk to predict dairy cow welfare and health robustness

在魁北克和整个加拿大，对动物福利的重视正在增加。加拿大奶农(DFC)于2015年夏天发起了ProAction®倡议，以表明他们对可持续发展的承诺。ProAction®实施后，将强制要求每个加拿大奶牛场在2019年前遵守业务守则，要求奶农实现高水平的动物福利和健康。在这方面，制定评估和监测动物福利和健康状况的可靠指标非常重要。然而，据我们所知，还没有开发出用于检测牛奶样本中奶牛福利和健康状况的生物标记物。目标。这项研究的主要目标是开发可以常规记录的精确标记(例如，牛奶记录系统DHI收集的牛奶样本)，以检测福利和健康水平较低的牛群中的牛群和奶牛。确定了4个具体目标：1)确定和评估3种形式的福利和健康指标之间的关系：血浆、牛奶和动物行为；2)建立能够区分低福利和高福利奶牛的指标，其中动物的福利状态将与奶牛在其牛栏中提供的舒适度(从低到高)有关；3)定义和改进这些指标的使用(单独或联合使用)；4)通过DHI(傅里叶变换红外光谱)使用的光谱系统，评估检测福利状态变化的可能性。预期结果。1)对不同类型的福利和健康水平指标之间的关系有了新的认识。2)确定区分奶牛和牛群福利状况的指标。3)明确使用这些指标的条件。这些指标的开发将有助于及早发现健康和福利水平较低的奶牛和牛群，并在中期内提高魁北克和加拿大牛群的寿命，从而支持通过Novalait制定的行业优先事项。

The emphasis on animal welfare is increasing in Quebec and across Canada. Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) launched in the summer of 2015 the proAction® initiative demonstrating their commitment to sustainable development. Upon implementation of proAction®, it will be mandatory for each Canadian dairy to comply with the Code of Practice by 2019, requiring dairy farmers to achieve high level of animal welfare and health. In this context, the development of reliable indicators for assessing and monitoring the status of animal welfare and health is of high importance. However, to our knowledge, no biomarker has been developed for the detection of cow welfare and health status in a milk sample. Objectives. The main objective of this study is to develop precision markers that could be routinely recorded (e.g. milk samples collected by milk recording system DHI) to detect herds and cows within a herd experiencing lower level of welfare and health. 4 specific objectives have been defined: 1) Identify and assess the relationship between various markers of welfare and health, in 3 forms: plasma, milk and animal behavior; 2) Establish markers that can differentiate cows with a low and a high level of welfare, where the status of welfare of the animals would be related to the level comfort (ranging from low to high) provided to the lactating cow in her tied-stall; 3) Define and refine the use of these indicators (alone or in combination); 4) Evaluate the potential to detect changes in the welfare status through a spectroscopy system used by DHI (FTIR spectroscopy). Expected results. 1) New knowledge on the relationships between different types of indicators of the level of welfare and health. 2) Identifications of indicators to discriminate between cows and herds on their welfare status. 3) Clarification of the conditions for use of these indicators. The development of these indicators will allow early detection of cows and herds at risk for low levels of health and welfare, and in the mid term, improve cow longevity in Quebec and Canadian herds, thus supporting industry priorities developed through Novalait .