Table 6.
Summary of differences in animal welfare indicators between conventional and organic livestock production
| Number of articles | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal species | Welfare indicator | Total | Significant difference (P<0.05) | Data from <10 conventional (organic) herds/flocks | Value organic relative to conventional of significant differences (conventional=100) |
| Dairy cattle | Somatic cell count (×1000 cells/ml) | 8 | 3 | 1 (1) | 106, 107, 133 1 |
| Clinical mastitis (incidence/year %) | 4 | 2 | 0 (0) | 48, 55 | |
| Mastitis (prevalence bacteriology after parturition) | 1 | 1 | 1 (1) | 149 | |
| Mastitis (prevalence positive California Mastitis Test) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 122 | |
| Ketosis (incidence/year %) | 4 | 2 | 0 (0) | 36, 54 | |
| Milk fever (incidence/year %) | 3 | 2 | 0 (0) | 52, 59 | |
| Endometritis (incidence/year %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 56 | |
| Retained placenta (incidence/year %) | 2 | 1 | 0 (0) | 64 | |
| Helminths Ostertagia ostertagi (optical density ratio) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 124 | |
| Calving interval (days) | 4 | 3 | 0 (0) | 99, 102, 102 | |
| Longevity (days of productive life) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 106 | |
| Culling (% of cows per year) | 2 | 2 | 0 (0) | 75, 86 | |
| Mortality (rate) | 2 | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 2 | |
| Lying time (% of total time) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 88 | |
| Hock lesions (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 32 | |
| Activity (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 121 | |
| Aggression feeding gate (frequency) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 124 | |
| Beef cattle | Reproductive disorders (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 950 |
| Laying hens | Worm infections (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 275 |
| Pigs | Worm infections (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 165 |
| Leg problems (prevalence %) | 1 | 1 | 0 (0) | 21 | |
| Haptoglobin (blood concentration) | 1 | 0 | 1(1) | – | |
| Lactate (concentration) | 1 | 1 | 1(1) | 67 | |
| Broilers | Latency to lie (s) | 1 | 1 | 1 (1) | 222 |
| Hock lesions (lesion score) | 1 | 1 | 1 (1) | 33 | |
| Footpad lesions (prevalence %) | 1 | 0 | 1(1) | 6 | |
| Acute phase proteins (blood concentration) | 1 | 1 | 1 (1) | 114 | |
| Newcastle disease (mean antibody titers) | 1 | 1 | 0 (1) | 60 | |
| Infectious Bursitis (mean antibody titers) | 1 | 1 | 0 (1) | 232 | |
| Infectious Bronchitis (mean antibody titers) | 1 | 1 | 0 (1) | 200 | |
1
Article provided a higher somatic cell count of 50 000 cells/ml on organic farms, given a population average of 150 000 cells/ml.
2
On organic farms mortality was 0 and on conventional farms incidence of mortality was 16% per year.