44. The role of Canadian veterinarians in improving calf welfare
Bibliographic record
Abstract
As advisors to dairy farmers, veterinarians are ideally positioned to influence the health of the dairy herd. Recent studies have demonstrated that dairy cattle veterinarians are also concerned about animal welfare, specifically on issues related to the housing environment, painful conditions and procedures, and managing disease of the adult animals. However, less is known regarding their perspectives on calf welfare. The goal of this study was to engage cattle veterinarians in an in-depth discussion to gain a better understanding of what they think about calf welfare, as well as provide clarity on what they feel is their responsibility in improving the welfare of dairy calves. Focus groups (n=5), that collectively had 33 participants representing five Canadian provinces and different geographical regions, were conducted as part of a continuing education workshop for Canadian cattle veterinarians. Two trained individuals undertook exploratory data analysis using applied thematic analysis where initial themes were identified and used to develop a detailed codebook to guide the coding process. All transcripts were coded twice to further test the validity of the initial codes and themes. Four major themes were identified: (1) Veterinarians prioritized calf health; frequently trading off this issue for other issues such as the calf's social needs. (2) Veterinarians see their role in improving calf welfare within the context of shifting norms of calf management, believed to be consequence of pressure from within their profession, but also arising from pressure from their clients and the public. (3) Veterinarians see their role as one of exerting social influence, primarily as an educator of their clients. Finally, (4) veterinarians see their responsibility in improving calf welfare as shaped by their personal values and professional ethics. Our results indicate that the veterinarians participating in this study are concerned about a range of calf welfare issues, believe they should be more involved in calf management on farms, and see their role in improving calf welfare as shaped by their own values, the needs of their clients, and the concerns of the public.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.014 | 0.019 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.024 | 0.008 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.007 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".