The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between animal welfare scores (AWS) and milk production in dairy cattle. AWS traits on locomotion ability (LA), social interaction (SI), flooring (F), indoor conditions (IC) and stockmanship effect (SE) were scored by a 100 points scale in a total of 51 farms in Samsun region of Turkey. First lactation milk yield (FLMY) records of Brown Swiss and Simmental cows were used as milk production trait. All components were assessed by t-test to determine the effects of the welfare traits on FLMY. The overall mean of AWS was calculated to be 74.05±1.69, and therefore the farms were founded within a “suitable” class. It was estimated moderate correlations among the parameters except for AWS and SI, however, no statistically significant difference was estimated between AWS and FLMY of the cows. SE was revealed the most important factor on AWS of the farms. Finally, routine scoring cattle farms to decide their suitability for animal needs is advised to herd owners for managing rentable populations in the farms.

The objective of the present study was to determine the relationships between animal welfare score (AWS) and milk somatic cell count (SCC) in Anatolian buffaloes. The study carried out on 39 buffalo farms of Bafra district of Samsun province of Turkey between January and March 2020. To obtain AWS data, a scale with 1 to 100 points (1-25: poor, 26-50: moderate, 51-75: suitable and ≥76: excellent) was used. Locomotion ability (LA), social interaction (SI), flooring (F), indoor conditions (IC) and effect of stockman (S) were used to be AWS parameters. Milk samples were analyzed by SCC using a portable cell counter. The SCC values were transferred to log10 base before the analyses. To assess the effects of AWS on logSCC, independent sample t-test was performed. The relations of all parameters with each other were calculated by Kendall rank correlation method and the statistical analyses were carried out by SPSS 17.0. The highest and the lowest means were obtained from SI (79.66±1.28) and F (61.79±2.51), respectively. While the highest correlation was estimated between IC and AWS (r=0.724), all AWS parameters had approximately moderate relations with AWS. Positive or negative, but insignificant correlation coefficients were estimated between any traits and logSCC. The means of SCC (136841±15522 cells/ml) and AWS (68.70±1.67) of the present study were found within the suitable thresholds. Routinely keeping the records on AWS and its components, and adding AWS data to the herd management programs was suggested to the buffalo farm owners.

This research was carried out to investigate the possibilities of removing the heat stress that may occur in Anatolian water buffaloes with a fogging system and to determine the cooling efficiency of the system. In this context, two 24-headed groups were formed among the water buffaloes that were considered to have the same genetic similarities, were born in the same period and have the same lactation number. One group was housed under controlled shelter conditions (Shelter-I), where the ambient temperature can be controlled, and the other group was housed in existing farmer-raising conditions (Shelter-II). The same feed rations were applied to both buffalo groups. The cooling efficiency of the fogging system established in Shelter-I was between 45.6% and 85.7% positive. Temperature-Humidity Index values changed between 19.9 and 23.1 in Shelter-I and 19.5 and 26.4 in Shelter-II according to the maximum average data. According to these values, the level of stress in Shelter-II has reached very serious levels and affected the milk yield of buffaloes negatively. The corrected 305-day lactation milk yields were calculated as 1965.4 kg in Shelter-I and 1757.1 kg in Shelter-II. The differences between all data obtained for Shelter-I and Shelter-II were found statistically significant.