welfare

1) Milk use results:

Of the eleven farms visited which were producing donkey milk for sale, all produced milk which was intended for human consumption. Eight farms also produced cosmetics and four additionally transformed milk into confectionery products. The main sales channel was direct to the consumer (N=11), other options were a small consortium (N=1) and a non-specialised shop (N=1).  The marketing channels were websites and social networks (N=8) and word of mouth (N=8).  None of the sampled farms sold milk to paediatric wards.  Consumers mostly bought fresh milk directly on farm more than once a week (N=5) or less frequently (N=6).  All the consumers, as reported by farmers, were children in the household, and it was interpreted from the questionnaire that they needed to drink milk for health reasons.  All the farms but one performed mechanical milking, the remaining one   did   manual   milking; machines   used   were   modified from a goat milkmaid. Nine farms milked once a day, the remaining one milked upon request. All the farmers adopted a method of cleaning and disinfection of the teats: damp cloth, disinfectant or pre-dipping.  Five farms performed pasteurization, four refrigerated the milk, one farm performed filtering and one farm froze the milk. All the farms but one periodically carried out milk analysis, with   eight   farms   searching   for   somatic   cells (22916,7±34851,5 SSC/ml) in addition to bacterial count (134166,7±229383,3 cfu/ml). All the farmers declared not to use any drugs on lactating donkeys. It remains to be investigated if and how lactating donkeys were treated when ill.

2) Legislation results:

According to European Council Directive 98/58 donkeys kept for milk/meat production should be considered as farm animals. Also within the council directive are non-species-specific guidelines on minimum standards for the protection of animals bred or kept for farming purposes. Within European Regulations 37/2010 and &Italian Dlgs 193/2006 is stated that a veterinarian must prescribe pharmacologically active substances and commend an appropriate withdrawal period. No specific information regarding drugs for dairy donkeys is reported. Italian guidelines “Codice per la Tutela e la Gestione degli Equidi” state essential criteria for proper management of equines and make suggestions about nutrition and water provision, stable management, training, identification documents, transport, euthanasia and education of farmers; none of which are specific for donkeys or dairy donkeys. Italian Regional D.D. 461 17/06/2013 & Circolare 17 05/10/2005 & ALLEGATO A Dgr 513 03/04/2012 generically suggest that donkeys should be kept in good welfare conditions, but with no specific indication about how to guarantee a good welfare state.

3) Husbandry results:

Twelve farms were visited between June and September 2015 by two assessors. The welfare assessment was conducted on a representative sample of animals, using the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for donkeys, comprising 22 animal-based indicators. A total of 257 donkeys (females = 131; pregnant females = 73 gelding = 1; stallions = 52) of different breeds, aged between one and 360 months (mean = 65.70 ± 61.92) were assessed. Data was collected using ODK application and analysed with IBM SPSS Statistic 23. The proportion of donkeys with different scores for each welfare indicator was calculated.

4) Welfare assessment results

On the average, the assessed donkeys had a good welfare status. Most of the donkeys (80.2%) showed a good nutritional status (BCS = 3); the others tended to be thin (12.8% with BCS = 2) rather than fat (6.2% with BCS = 4). The main issue highlighted was hoof care: 18.7% of the donkeys showed signs of neglect. All the donkeys could express normal behaviour and interact with conspecifics. Most of the donkeys showed positive reactions to human-animal relationship tests; 20.9% donkeys were not used to be restrained with a head-collar; thus, it was not possible to assess them.