Table 24.

Summary of EKE parameters

EKE components	Description
Animal category	Calves reared for white veal meat. It was assumed that: calves left the dairy farm where they were born at the age of 2 weeks, were transported to the auction market and then to the veal farm or transported directly from the farm of origin to the veal farm. At arrival, they were placed either in an individual pens or in a group pen; transport and commingling increased the risk of respiratory disorders; and the prevalence of respiratory disorders peaked at approximately 6 weeks of age (approximately 3 weeks after arrival at the veal farm). Six weeks of age was the age of the calves considered in the EKE for the estimation of respiratory disorders prevalence.
Husbandry system	White veal rearing systems
Exposure variable of interest	Group size
Welfare consequence	Respiratory disorders
ABM	% of animals affected by respiratory disorders in a group at the age of 6 weeks. The period of 6 weeks were selected as the age of interest for the EKE because it was assumed that a group pen would experience the peak of respiratory disorder prevalence at this stage. This was due to the fact that calves arrive at the veal farm at about 2–4 weeks old, during a time of low immunity, and respiratory disorder can take a couple of weeks to develop and become apparent. Respiratory disorder was defined as animals presenting one or more of the clinical signs: ‘Increased respiratory sounds at lung auscultation, or moderately increased respiratory sounds together with coughing and/or nasal discharge (increased respiratory sounds were defined as obviously increased bronchial (or vesicular) breath sounds or presence of adventitious sounds synchronous with breathing) or coughing or sneezing for > 2 days’ (adapted from Svensson and Liberg (2006). Animals showing one or more of these signs were considered to have respiratory disorders.