Animal Welfare Assessment in Cattle Breeding in the Natural Savannah of the Colombian Orinoquia.

Animal welfare in breeding cattle farms in the natural savannas of the Colombian Orinoquia has been qualitatively described as high, but standardized quantitative assessments were lacking. This study aimed to evaluate cattle welfare in a natural savanna breeding system using a comprehensive protocol based on the Welfare Quality® framework adapted for extensive systems, encompassing four welfare principles (good feeding, appropriate housing, good health, and appropriate behavior) and 12 criteria with 60 indicators. Data were collected during the dry season (January-March 2023) on 65 farms with commercial Brahman herds in La Primavera municipality, Vichada department, assessing 386 adult animals. The mean overall welfare index score was 63.1% ± 12.4 SD (range: 38.5%-87.2%), with 53.8% of farms classified as "high" and 15.4% as "excellent." Scores by principle were good feeding 89.5%, appropriate housing 95.1%, good health 74.0%, and appropriate behavior 56.5%. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) indicated that access to veterinary support was the factor most significantly associated with higher good-health scores (β = 4.2; 95% CI: 1.8-6.6; p = 0.001). Improvement opportunities were identified primarily in painful procedures (disbudding and castration) performed without analgesia (87.7% of farms) and in basic health record-keeping. The high frequency of exploratory and social behaviors, together with low fear-response rates, suggests predominantly positive human-animal relationships. This study provides the first quantitative baseline for cattle welfare on breeding farms in natural savannas of Colombia, within the One Welfare framework.