Table 1.

Farm characteristics of 33 veal fattening farms in Switzerland. The categories with the corresponding numbers of farms and percentages are indicated for categorical variables. The median, quantiles (25th, 75th), and interquartile range (IQR) values at the farm-level are indicated for continuous variables.

Categorical Variables	Category	Number	[%]
Stocking routine	continuous	16	48.5
	all-in-all-out	17	51.5
Physical contact among calves of neighboring pens	Yes	18	54.5
	No	15	45.5
Shared air space among pens	Yes	10	30.3
	No	23	69.7
Refusing sick calves upon arrival 1	Yes	20	64.5
	No	11	35.5
Disinfection of pens after use 1	Yes	11	35.5
	No	20	64.5
Early slaughter before reaching farm’s average slaughter weight 1	Yes	7	21.8
	No	25	78.1
Access to outdoor pen	Yes	27	81.8
	No	6	18.2
Feeding of CMT-positive milk 1,2	Yes	21	65.6
	No	11	34.3
Vaccination against respiratory pathogens 1,3	Yes	24	77.4
	No	7	22.5
Continuous Variables	Median	25th Quantile	75th Quantile	IQR
Number of calves fattened annually	63.8	43.2	119	75.8
Maximum number of calves per pen	20	10	25	15
Maximum number of calves per barn (barn capacity)	31.5	24.8	46.5	21.8
Total number of birth farms	15.5	10	23.3	13.3
Number of birth farms per ten purchased calves	3.3	2.1	5.5	3.4
Median duration of the fattening period (days)	114	108	123	15
Median average daily weight gain (kg live weight/day)	1.3	1.3	1.4	0.1
Median carcass weight (kg)	128.7	124.2	132.3	8.1
Mean farm mortality (%)	5.1	3.2	7.4	4.2
Median TIDDD (farm-level treatment days per calf and year)	17.1	5.2	36.5	31.3
Purchased calves (%)	94.1	64.3	100	35.7
Median age at purchase (days)	33	29	35	6
Median age at sampling (days)	107	87	130	43
Unwanted early slaughter 4 (%)	0	0	0	0

¹ Information was not available for all farms. ² CMT: California mastitis test, positive = score 2 or higher [44]. ³ Bovilis^® Bovigrip, MSD Animal Health, Lucerne, CH or Rispoval^® RS/Rispoval^® RS +PI3, Zoetis, Delémont, CH. ⁴ Defined as slaughter after a fattening period of >70 days [5].