Abstract

The purpose of this study was to improve knowledge about state of welfare in dairy sheep farms in Sardinia and, at the same time, to find a fast, unbiased and inexpensive system for detecting field condition of sheep farming. The survey was conducted on 79 farms Sarda sheep breed located in the province of Olbia-Tempio in the period 2009 to 2011. At the same time of the inspection of premises, an interview with the farmer was done and a special checklist was filled with questions and scoring information regarding company management and staff, reproduction, breeding, pasture, shelter and isolation, milking, feeding, hygiene and health. Possible indicators of well-being were investigated by developing statistical relationships of some parameters measured with the analytical determinations of somatic cell count (SCC) and total microbial count (TMC) obtained from bulk milk. The results confirmed the inevitable worsening of these parameters in farms valued as insufficient or scarce and a significant reduction of total microbial count and somatic cells in farms evaluated positively. On the basis of these findings, it is possible to improve, in the field of dairy sheep breeding, a standardized method of evaluation for health, with a reduced number of variables widely used in daily practice.

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