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

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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 .