Abstract :
There is a diversity of small ruminant production systems across Europe, which range from
extensive upland and mountain systems with a low stocking rate and sometimes minimal
supervision to more intensive and/or housed systems, for example for milk production
from sheep and goats. This diversity, more prevalent than for other livestock species, leads to
difficulties in evaluating the welfare of the individual animals concerned (because the experiences
of animals are so different) with a related difficulty in creating common criteria for
evaluating welfare across Europe as a whole, and in individual countries. Nevertheless, even
without a valid, transparent and agreed basis for the evaluation of individual enterprises, it
is still possible for livestock advisers and veterinarians, in collaboration with producers, to
be proactive and to recommend on-farm measures, which could raise the general standard
of care and, importantly, to have a major impact on the welfare of individual animals in
these systems.
