display

Hanover (dpa) - In Germany, many cows are too lean, lame or end up too early in the slaughterhouse.

Calf mortality is also high, as a study by a research team from Hanover, Berlin and Munich revealed on Tuesday.

According to this, every tenth calf


does not reach

the fourth

month of life

due to stillbirth or death during rearing

.

Male calves are sick more often and are less well cared for than females.

Depending on the region, a fifth to more than a third of the dairy cows per farm are too lean.

In addition, many animals are lame - in the north it is 22.8 percent of the animals, in the east 39.4 percent and in Bavaria 22.7 percent.

For the study, the researchers regularly visited 765 dairy cow farms in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony (north region), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt (east region) and in Bavaria (south region) over a period of around three years.

A total of 186,000 animals were examined, and animal owners were also interviewed.

Researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover, the Free University of Berlin and the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich took part in the study.

The study was funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

The study reveals large differences between the farms examined, the authors wrote.

This is due on the one hand to regional characteristics and the size of the company, on the other hand to the type of management.

Many farms are run conscientiously with regard to animal health, but there is a "not insignificant proportion" of farms where lameness, calf diseases or metabolic diseases are more common.

display

However, the data basis is uncertain because it is often based on estimates, wrote the study authors.

Animal owners often underestimated the number of illnesses in animals.

The researchers recommended, for example, a legally stipulated hygiene ordinance, the establishment of hygiene sluices, purchased animals must be in quarantine, sufficient protective clothing must be available, as well as a minimum amount of space for sick pens for calves, young animals and cows.

The vast majority of cases of lameness, namely more than 90 percent, are due to claw diseases.

Reasons are too long a pressure load due to long standing times or inadequate claw care, infectious diseases


, on the other hand, are mainly

due to poor

hygiene.

Lameness causes pain and stress in the animals and means economic losses due to treatment costs and lower milk yield.

Final report of the study