Description of the subject. The demand for animal products is increasing due to human population growth. In addition, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems, which are the subject of much debate. Objectives. This study aims to assess the sustainability of small dairy farms in the North of Tunisia. Method. Sustainability scores were calculated on the basis of individual interviews conducted on 107 dairy farms using a tool based on indicators covering the three dimensions of sustainability (agroecological, socio-territorial and economic). It allows a quantitative assessment of farms simultaneously on three scales. The questionnaire encompasses these three scales of sustainability, and each scale is composed of a set of indicators. These indicators are aligned with the objectives and scale of analysis, reliable and simple to understand, and incorporate variables for easy measurement. The final sustainability score is the lowest value of these three scales. This analysis is combined with PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and Ascending Hierarchical Classification (AHC), statistical analyses to classify the farms into groups according to the final score. Results. The average results of the sustainability assessment show that the highest performances are recorded for the agroecological (65 points) and economic (63 points) scales, while the socio-territorial dimension penalizes the total sustainability of the farms (56 points). The descriptive analysis of the IDEA method provides a representative picture of the sustainability of small Tunisian dairy farms in the North. The PCA and AHC analyses of the data allowed the identification of four groups of livestock systems according to the components of sustainability. The first is represented by the least sustainable farms. The second group consists of farms with acceptable agroecological and socio-territorial sustainability, but very low economic sustainability. The third group is made up of farms with the best economic sustainability, acceptable socio-territorial sustainability but the lowest agroecological sustainability. The fourth group is associated with the most sustainable farms at all three scales. Conclusions. The overall results show that there is no dissociation between agroecological, socio-territorial and economic sustainability, and that improvements must therefore be made simultaneously on all three scales.

Demand for animal products is expected to increase due to human population growth, resulting in a need for increased production. At the same time, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sus-tainability of dairy cattle farms belonging to three farming systems (rainfed, irrigated, and mixed) at the northeast zone of Tunisia using the IDEA method (version 3). Collected data of 102 farms were subjected to an analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS software (version 9.4). Results showed that the socio-territorial scale was the limiting factor for all systems and that the irrigated sys-tem had the lowest scores of agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales, compared to the other ones, but it recorded the highest score for the economic scale. The best agro-ecological and socio-territorial scores characterized the mixed system. However, it had the lowest score on the economic scale. Finally, the rain-fed system was exhibited medium performances of the three scales. It was concluded a differ-ence between the three farm systems, but there was no disassociation between the three sustainability dimensions; thus, improvements should proceed across all scales simultaneously.

In Tunisia, dairy farming faced several problems limiting the improvement of the milk sector, mostly at the level of small farmers. These difficulties are related to the milk quality affected by the feed quality distributed throughout...

This study aimed to assess the welfare of Tunisian sheep in extensive sheep production systems using animal-based measures of ewe welfare. This study encompasses the first national survey of sheep welfare in which animal-based outcomes were tested. Animal-based welfare measures were derived from previous welfare protocols. Fifty-two Tunisian farms were studied and a number from 20 to 100 animals by flock were examinated. The whole flock was also observed to detect clinical diseases, lameness, and coughing. The human-animal relationship was selected as welfare indicators. It was evaluated through the avoidance distance test. The average avoidance distance was 10.47 ± 1.23 and 8.12 ± 0.97 m for a novel person and farmer, respectively. The global mean of body condition score (BCS) was 2.4 with 47% of ewes having a BCS of two, which may be associated with an increased risk of nutritional stress, disease, and low productivity. Ten farms had more than 7% of lambs with a low body condition score, which may be an indication of a welfare problem. The results obtained in the present study suggest that the used animal-based measures were the most reliable indicators that can be included in welfare protocols for extensive sheep production systems.