Context European beef production is facing fresh challenges on various fronts: increasing public concern on animal welfare; declining EU meat consumption; and, conversely, expected growth in global demand for meat. The Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (CReNBA) has developed an assessment protocol for collecting information about beef cattle welfare and biosecurity conditions, with the intention of better understanding animal needs and disseminating best practices. Aims The protocol was applied on Italian and Irish farms, and the results were used as a starting point for a specific statistical analysis for comparing animal welfare and biosecurity levels in the two countries. Methods The protocol consists of animal-based measures and non-animal-based measures (management-based and resource-based indicators) and has been designed to determine the major hazards and benefits that can influence cattle health and welfare, including the presence of biosecurity issues. The outcomes of welfare and biosecurity assessments conducted during November 2016–July 2017 of 40 Irish beef herds reared indoors were compared with those of 85 Italian beef units assessed over the same period. Differences obtained within each beef-unit distribution were calculated by the VARNC index (diversity index), and a distance estimate of the beef-unit distribution from a hypothetical ideal condition was calculated by using the distance from ideal (dfi) index. Key results The dfi index revealed that Irish farms were closer to the ideal condition for the measures ‘experience and training of stockpersons’, ‘water provision’, ‘handling facilities’, ‘restraint facilities’, and ‘temperature, humidity and ventilations conditions’. Italian farms were closer to the ideal condition for ‘diet calculation and feed quality’, ‘feeding management’, ‘feeding place dimension’, ‘cleanliness of water points’, ‘cleanliness of floors’, ‘type of floors’, ‘cleanliness of animals’, and ‘integument alterations’. In contrast to the Italian farms, there was particular awareness of the importance of biosecurity on Irish farms. Conclusions The results revealed intrinsic management and housing differences between the two rearing systems, although only few dissimilarities were found in the animal outcomes: in fact, the assessment of the animal-based measures gave very similar results for the two countries, except for ‘cleanliness of the animals’ and ‘integument alterations’. Implications In the face of global challenges affecting the pursuit of farming sustainability, farmers should be encouraged to improve safeguards for animal welfare and reduce the spread of animal diseases. This can be achieved by facilitating knowledge exchange internationally.

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动物福利和生物安全评估：意大利和爱尔兰肉牛饲养系统的比较

背景 欧洲牛肉生产在各个方面都面临新的挑战：公众对动物福利的关注日益增加；欧盟肉类消费量下降；相反，全球肉类需求的预期增长。意大利国家动物福利参考中心 (CReNBA) 制定了一项评估协议，用于收集有关肉牛福利和生物安全条件的信息，目的是更好地了解动物需求并传播最佳实践。目标 该协议应用于意大利和爱尔兰的农场，结果被用作特定统计分析的起点，以比较两国的动物福利和生物安全水平。方法 该方案由基于动物的措施和基于非动物的措施（基于管理和基于资源的指标）组成，旨在确定可能影响牛健康和福利的主要危害和利益，包括生物安全的存在问题。将 2016 年 11 月至 2017 年 7 月期间对室内饲养的 40 只爱尔兰牛群进行的福利和生物安全评估结果与同期评估的 85 只意大利牛肉单位的结果进行了比较。每个牛肉单位分布内获得的差异通过 VARNC 指数（多样性指数）计算，牛肉单位分布与假设理想条件的距离估计值通过使用与理想的距离 (dfi) 指数计算。主要结果 dfi 指数显示，爱尔兰农场更接近于“饲养员的经验和培训”、“供水”、“处理设施”、“限制设施”和“温度、湿度和通风条件”措施的理想条件. 意大利农场更接近“饮食计算和饲料质量”、“饲养管理”、“饲养场所尺寸”、“饮水点清洁度”、“地板清洁度”、“地板类型”、“养殖场清洁度”的理想条件。动物”和“外皮改变”。与意大利农场相比，爱尔兰农场特别意识到生物安全的重要性。结论 结果揭示了两种饲养系统之间的内在管理和饲养差异，尽管在动物结果中发现的差异很少：事实上，除了“动物的清洁度”和“外皮改变”之外，对基于动物的措施的评估对两国的结果非常相似。影响 面对影响追求农业可持续性的全球挑战，应鼓励农民改善动物福利保障并减少动物疾病的传播。这可以通过促进国际知识交流来实现。