BODY CONDITION SCORING OF HORSES AND CATT LE - A TOOL IN VETERINARY SERVICES RELATED TO ANIMAL-WELFARE

The control of husbandry by veterinarians with the prospect of animal welfare demands a valuation of the nutritional status of farm animals. The situation of main importance is a suspected undernutrition. A pro longed failure in nutrient and energy supply results in mobilisation o f body fat as well as body protein; Especially the protein depletion i ncludes a loss of capacity of several essential functions, e. g. of th e immune system or the respiratory tract. Undernutrition is often clas sified as stress, but the typical parameters for stress related reacti ons offer no sufficient informations to valuate a case of undernutriti on. A usefull tool to justify the nutritional status of an animal is t he amount:of body fat by sonographic measurements. Processes related t o reproduction are rather sensible to a reduction of body fat; althoug h they are less expensive by energy point of view compared to exercise or milk production. Measuring body fat offers the oportunity to descr ibe the degree of undernutrition and to appreciate, if a malnourished animal is damaged accordingly the definitions of animal welfare. Howev er, the equipment and the experience to use sonographic methods is oft en not available for veterinarians, who are responsible in official co ntrol of husbandry. But the visual and manual procedures to proof defi ned areas, mainly related to back fat thickness, well known as the bod y condition scoring, alternatively can be used. The body condition sco re systems, as defined for cows, sheep and horses, are proofed by diff erent experiments with regard to accuracy and reproducibility. They co mpletely cover the demand in precision to valuate body fat and in cons equence the nutritional status of an animal.