Euthanasia of Danish dairy cows evaluated in two questionnaire surveys.
BACKGROUND
Mortality risk in Danish dairy cows has more than doubled since 1990 (from 2% in 1990 to 5% in 2005). Until now, registrations about dead cows in the Danish Cattle Database have not included information about whether the cow died unassisted or was euthanized.


METHODS
We interviewed a random sample of 196 Danish dairy farmers that had reported a dead cow to the Danish Cattle Database in 2002 and 196 dairy farmers that had reported a dead cow in 2006. Our objectives were to evaluate the proportion of euthanized cows, changes in the behaviour of farmers regarding euthanasia of cows over the years and possible reasons for these changes.


RESULTS
It seems that the threshold for euthanasia of cows among farmers has changed. Farmers generally reported a lower threshold for euthanasia compared to 5-10 years ago.


CONCLUSIONS
The threshold for euthanasia of cows has, according to the dairy farmers, become lower. This might have positive impacts on animal welfare as more seriously ill cows are euthanized in the herds and not put through a period of suffering associated with disease and treatment or transported to a slaughterhouse in poor condition.
Thomsen
Peter T
PT
Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, Welfare and Nutrition, Tjele, Denmark. PeterT.Thomsen@agrsci.dk
Sørensen
Jan Tind
JT
D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003625:Data Collection; D003718:Denmark; D037901:Euthanasia, Animal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires