Animal Welfare and Behaviour

Led by UBC’s Dan WearyMarina (Nina) von Keyserlingk, the Animal Welfare and Behaviour research team explores the ethical treatment of food animals, calf welfare, cow comfort and management, feeding behaviour, lameness and the general management of dairy cattle.

Activities in this area include:

  • Developing on-farm methods of detecting lameness
  • Determining the relationship between environmental factors, such as flooring surface, and lameness
  • Improving cow comfort: free stall design and management
  • Using feeding behaviour as an early predictor of disease
  • Developing group housing strategies
  • Improving methods of feeding milk to calves
  • Minimizing stress during weaning
  • Minimizing pain and distress during routine painful procedures (e.g., dehorning, castration)

For more information, please visit the UBC Animal Welfare Program website.