{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,15]],"date-time":"2025-12-15T14:20:32Z","timestamp":1765808432769,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]],"date-time":"2025-01-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1736985600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Welfair\u00ae certificate has become an important part of food chain integrity for animal welfare assessment in several countries, relying on a rigorous audit that verifies compliance with legislation and assesses animal welfare through the Welfare Quality Protocol (WQP). Dairy cattle farmers are encouraged to conduct internal audits beforehand to self-assess the farm\u2019s animal welfare level. Since early 2023, the Welfair\u00ae scheme has proposed simplified audits to shorten the time needed for internal audits. Ten measures are selected from the WQP, five of which must always be assessed: body condition, water provision, lameness, integument alterations, and pain management in disbudding. The main objective of this study was to determine whether analyzing the results of these five key indicators helps in identifying welfare problems, ultimately leading to a better final score. To test this, seven Portuguese commercial dairy farms were randomly selected to conduct a simplified internal audit followed by a certification audit. Considering the circumstances of our study, the visits proved essential to promoting better welfare practices, which positively influenced the final classification. However, areas that require improvement (such as the lack of an accurate risk analysis of the simplified audits provided by the Welfair\u00ae scheme) were identified and are discussed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani15020237","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]],"date-time":"2025-01-16T06:46:10Z","timestamp":1737009970000},"page":"237","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Simplified Internal Audits of the Welfare Quality Protocol in Dairy Farms: Are They Effective in Improving Welfare Practices?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0495-2135","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Francisca","family":"Ferreira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Concerta International Consulting, 1050-215 Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Catarina","family":"Stilwell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Concerta International Consulting, 1050-215 Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3733-3223","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"George","family":"Stilwell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Laboratory, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, Lisbon University, Av. Universidade T\u00e9cnica, Alto da Ajuda, 1330-477 Lisbon, Portugal"},{"name":"Associate Laboratory for Animal and Veterinary Sciences (AL4AnimalS), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"363","DOI":"10.1017\/S0962728600000762","article-title":"Overall assessment of animal welfare: Strategy adopted in Welfare Quality\u00ae","volume":"18","author":"Botreau","year":"2009","journal-title":"Anim. Welf."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Valente, D., and Stilwell, G. (2022). Applying a new proposed welfare assessment protocol to suckler herds from three different autochthonous breeds. Animals, 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/ani12192689"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1188","DOI":"10.1017\/S1751731107000547","article-title":"Aggregation of measures to produce an overall assessment of animal welfare. Part 2: Analysis of constraints","volume":"1","author":"Botreau","year":"2007","journal-title":"Animal"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1942","DOI":"10.1017\/S1751731117003597","article-title":"Inter-observer reliability of animal-based welfare indicators included in the Animal Welfare Indicators welfare assessment protocol for dairy goats","volume":"12","author":"Vieira","year":"2018","journal-title":"Animal"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Welfare Quality (2016). Welfare Quality\u00ae Assessment Protocol for Cattle, Version 2, Welfare Quality Network. Available online: https:\/\/www.welfarequalitynetwork.net\/media\/1319\/dairy-cattle-protocol.pdf."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"(2023, July 04). Certificado Welfair. Available online: https:\/\/www.animalwelfair.com\/en\/certificado-welfair\/."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tifs.2014.03.009","article-title":"Best practice framework for animal welfare certification schemes","volume":"37","author":"Main","year":"2014","journal-title":"Trends Food Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1978","DOI":"10.1017\/S1751731114002018","article-title":"Navigating the iceberg: Reducing the number of parameters within the Welfare Quality\u00ae assessment protocol for dairy cows","volume":"8","author":"Heath","year":"2014","journal-title":"Animal"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applanim.2012.11.013","article-title":"The correlation of Qualitative Behavior Assessments with Welfare Quality\u00ae protocol outcomes in on-farm welfare assessment of dairy cattle","volume":"143","author":"Andreasen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"461","DOI":"10.1017\/S1751731113002267","article-title":"On-farm animal welfare assessment in beef bulls: Consistency over time of single measures and aggregated Welfare Quality\u00ae scores","volume":"8","author":"Kirchner","year":"2014","journal-title":"Animal"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.1017\/S0962728600031328","article-title":"Long-term consistency of selected animal-related welfare parameters in dairy farms","volume":"16","author":"Winckler","year":"2007","journal-title":"Anim. Welf."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4961","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2011-5169","article-title":"The welfare of dairy cows is improved in relation to cleanliness and integument alterations on the hocks and lameness when sand is used as stall surface","volume":"95","author":"Andreasen","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3052","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.S0022-0302(06)72579-6","article-title":"Prevalence of lameness in high-producing Holstein cows housed in freestall barns in Minnesota","volume":"89","author":"Espejo","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"570","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2007-0452","article-title":"Effects of sand and straw bedding on the lying behavior, cleanliness, and hoof and hock injuries of dairy cows","volume":"91","author":"Norring","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2912","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.S0022-0302(04)73422-0","article-title":"Effect of free stall surface on daily activity patterns in dairy cows with relevance to lameness prevalence","volume":"87","author":"Cook","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tuyttens, F., de Graaf, S., Andreasen, S., De Boyer des Roches, A., Eerdenburg, F., Haskell, M., Kirchner, M., Mounier, L., Kjosevski, M., and Bijttebier, J. (2021). Using expert elicitation to abridge the Welfare Quality\u00ae protocol for monitoring the most adverse dairy cattle welfare impairments. Front. Vet. Sci., 8.","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2021.634470"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"185","DOI":"10.1016\/j.applanim.2004.07.002","article-title":"Designing better water troughs: Dairy cows prefer and drink more from larger troughs","volume":"89","author":"Teixeira","year":"2004","journal-title":"Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"(2023, September 17). Council Directive 98\/58\/EC of 20 July 1998 Concerning the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes. Official Journal of the European Communities, L 221, 08.08.1998, pp. 23\u201327. Available online: https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX%3A31998L0058."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5724","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2011-4443","article-title":"The dehorning of dairy calves: Practices and opinions of 639 farmers","volume":"94","author":"Gottardo","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11995","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2021-20411","article-title":"Disbudding and dehorning practices for preweaned dairy calves by farmers in Wisconsin, USA","volume":"104","author":"Jaraceni","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11653","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2020-18299","article-title":"Conditioned place aversion of caustic paste and hot-iron disbudding in dairy calves","volume":"103","author":"Ede","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"(2023, November 17). Esclarecimentos T\u00e9cnicos\u2014DGAV. Available online: https:\/\/www.dgav.pt\/destaques\/noticias\/esclarecimento-tecnico-n-o-10-dgav-2023-descorna-de-bovinos\/."},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"112","article-title":"Inter-observer agreement in the assessment of lameness in sheep","volume":"198","author":"Phythian","year":"2013","journal-title":"Vet. J."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6264","DOI":"10.3168\/jds.2012-6129","article-title":"Evaluating results of the Welfare Quality multi-criteria evaluation model for classification of dairy cattle welfare at the herd level","volume":"96","author":"Bokkers","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Dairy Sci."}],"container-title":["Animals"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-2615\/15\/2\/237\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,8]],"date-time":"2025-10-08T10:29:58Z","timestamp":1759919398000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-2615\/15\/2\/237"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]]},"references-count":24,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1]]}},"alternative-id":["ani15020237"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ani15020237","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-2615"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2076-2615"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]]}}}