Early calf slaughter: impact of industry-led policy interventions on trends in Ireland, 2024.

ABSTRACT: The dairy industry produces a surplus of male calves with low monetary value and slaughtering them at a young age has been used as a means of disposal, raising ethical concerns. In 2024, changes to the dairy industry quality assurance standards were introduced to prevent this practice in Ireland. The objectives of the present study were to explore trends in calf slaughter, measure the effects of the intervention, and to identify any unintended consequences of the industry-led policy. The data on 16,598 <56-day-old calves slaughtered from a total of 1,937,533 born, January to May 2024, were obtained from national databases. We fitted negative binomial regression models to the count of slaughtered calves per birth herd to assess associated contributory factors. The study revealed that there

SUBMITTER: Oakes S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12690647 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature