The growing sensitivity of consumers about animal welfare and the awareness of its impact on food security and safety recently influenced international policies and law scenario. To response to these needs, in 2018, the Italian Ministry of Health commissioned the development of a system named ClassyFarm able to categorizes the level of risk arising from farm animal welfare. The experts involved in the project provided specific checklists to analyze different animal species and housing system. The developed welfare measurement protocols consist of both resource-based and animal-based measures and are divided into three areas: (Area A) “Farm management and staff training”, Area B) “Housing and equipment”, (Area C) “Animal-based measures”. The aim of this study was to measure welfare conditions in cattle herds reared in the Aosta Valley through the ClassyFarm checklist for tie-stall dairy cattle. The scores (%) for each area of assessment were divided into three classes (insufficient, acceptable, and optimal) while the total Animal Welfare Score (AWS), obtained by summing the scores of the 3 areas, was divided into five classes. The total AWS showed the majority of the farm included in good to optimal result.

Transportation is a recurring event in a farm animal’s life, and it is considered one of the main stressors with possible negative repercussions for both the health and welfare of farm animals. The objective of the present study was to examine the effect of transportation on some blood variables of 45 young bulls moved from their original farms to a livestock collection centre. Transportation took no more than 8 h and was carried out between January and March 2021. Blood samples were taken before transportation (T0), upon arrival at the collection centre (T1), and 7 days after arrival (T2). Samples were processed for blood cell count, clinical chemistry analyses, serum protein electrophoresis, and the evaluation of innate immunity parameters. The results showed a typical stress leukogram with neutrophilia and changes in the neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio. No significant alterations were observed in either serum proteins or pro-inflammatory cytokines. Significant, albeit transient, alterations were observed in some clinical chemistry parameters after transportation, which could be accounted for by stressful conditions such as the transportation itself and handling and mixing with other animals. Our results indicated that the adopted transportation conditions only slightly affected the blood variables under study with no significant impact on animal welfare.