Welfare Issues on Dairy Farms in Tripura, India, as Identified Through On-Farm Inspection.

Abstract

With the aim of identifying the welfare issues of dairy animals in field conditions in Tripura state, the study was carried out across 3 purposively selected districts having maximum cooperatives and from each district 8 cooperative societies were selected at random, totaling 120 farmers (5 farmers from each cooperative). Farmers were grouped by herd size i.e. small (<3 animals), medium (3-8), and large (>8). Welfare was evaluated using 20 indicators-10 resource-based and 10 animal-based-divided into three components: animal housing and other facilities (30 score), feeds and feeding practices (30 score), and animal health, performance, and behavior (40 score), totaling 100. Overall mean welfare scores were: small herds 52.9 ± 0.5, medium 53.5 ± 0.5, and large 47.2 ± 1.1. Only 13.3% of farmers achieved "good" welfare (>60% score), while 80.8% were "average" (40-60%), and 5.8% fell into the "poor" category (<40%). Small and medium herd farmers had significantly higher welfare scores than large herd farmers (p < 0.05). The findings indicate that the majority of dairy farms in Tripura maintain average to poor animal welfare, with very few meeting acceptable welfare standards.