An interview with Lily Edwards-Callaway, Ph.D., Assistant Professor – Kansas State University
by Jason Ahola, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Beef Production Systems – Colorado State University
Animal welfare and well-being continues to be a topic garnering more and more attention from consumers. While activist groups seem to dominate the conversation with their sometimes extreme positions and messages, there is often little information conveyed about actual research and industry efforts to improve the welfare of food animals. To help provide more background about the current status of animal welfare research, Beef Issues Quarterly sat down with Lily Edwards-Callaway, Ph.D., whose research interests include understanding the relationship between physiology and behavior to improve livestock animal welfare. Her current projects focus on understanding and mitigating the pain associated with routine livestock management procedures such as castration and dehorning. In January 2012, she will begin a new position with the technical services of JBS involved in the company’s animal welfare programs.
Jason Ahola: Please tell us a little about your background since you do not come from a traditional livestock production operation.
Lily Edwards-Callaway: I grew up in Rhode Island and completed my B.A. in French at Amherst College in 2002. After teaching in Belgium for a year after graduating. I decided to continue my education in Animal Science, an area that I was always interested in but had not pursued as an undergraduate. As clichéd as it may sound, I have always liked animals and had a sincere interest in the research. I received my master’s degree at the University of Rhode Island in 2006 studying behavior and welfare of captive zoo species and completed a Ph.D. at Colorado State University under Dr. Temple Grandin in 2009 focusing on understanding and minimizing pre-slaughter stress of swine.
My role as a researcher means that I need to identify what problems exist and provide potential alternatives to traditional practices. Some of my current work involves exercise in feedlot cattle and routine exposure to handlers. The stress parameters we evaluate can give us a clue as to the benefit/cost of changes in routine management practices.
Before I moved to Colorado to begin my doctorate work, I had never seen a feedlot. I feel like when I first came into this field, I represented the average consumer. People are always going to eat meat but they are also going to expect those animals to have a certain quality of life. Most of us as consumers are not necessarily shocked by the harvest process or other production practices, but we all have concerns that animals are receiving the best care possible. Now, after being involved in this field for several years, I am no longer the “average consumer,” but I do have an unconventional background for an animal scientist, and feel like that can make a difference.
JA: Let's talk about the status of animal welfare research and the increasing interest in this field.
LEC: The field of animal welfare research is growing. Positions like the one I currently hold at Kansas State University, which allows me to specialize in welfare research and education, did not exist just a short time ago at land grant universities. Animal welfare has always been an integral part of other disciplines within animal science, but is now its own field. Much of this is driven by consumer interest; however, while some of the current ideas about what is acceptable as it relates to livestock welfare may originate with consumers, it is important to conduct research that allows us to understand the true benefits to improving animal welfare and that recommended changes in production practices are beneficial to producers. If an idea is too cost-prohibitive or unrealistic for farmers and ranchers, then there will be little benefit to improving animal welfare.
JA: Let’s discuss challenges the beef industry will face in terms of addressing animal welfare, particularly when not all answers will come from science (and research), and that funding for such research is very limited.
LEC: Consumers are looking for “change,” but since there is little understanding of current production practices and the current welfare status of livestock, being able to determine what level of change is appropriate is challenging. Consumers want to know that the animals that they eat were raised humanely. If we try to implement “change” in beef production systems, we have to make sure that the change is practical and not cost-prohibitive. Traditional practices are hard to change if there is no clear alternative offered. Animal welfare science is similar to any other field of science in that the researchers address a question and use the scientific method to find potential answers. Although the science can give us answers regarding what we can do differently, the science doesn’t tell us if what we are doing is acceptable or right. There is a big value judgment when we talk about issues concerning animal welfare and all of us, producers, consumers and scientists alike, have slightly different viewpoints regarding what is acceptable in terms of animal welfare.
Funding for this sort of research is also difficult to obtain. There is governmental funding available but the scope of topics covered under these opportunities is limited. Funding from industry, livestock organizations and interest groups is also available. The Dr. Temple Grandin Scholarship in Animal Behavior and Welfare was recently established at Colorado State University and is a good example of how industry can fund animal welfare research. Funding graduate students will not only make the research possible but it will also help train the future scientists and spokespeople.
Just as important as funding, is the cooperation from industry and farmers and ranchers to participate in animal welfare research projects. Their participation is invaluable as they can provide scientists with facilities and animals in addition to input regarding the practicality and producer acceptance of research solutions.
JA: Help the readers of BIQ understand the aspects of animal welfare that you think will be most important for the beef industry to address over the next five to 10 years.
LEC: I think if we look to other species, we can see that many of the concerns that have emerged as important in animal welfare surround the issue of behavioral restriction. We have seen so much attention with poultry, dairy and veal calves and what is viewed as their inability to express natural behavior in certain production scenarios. The beef industry faces somewhat different issues, even though feedlots are considered intensive systems, the animals still have an ability to express natural behavior.
Consumers want to reduce animal suffering, as do cattlemen, so production practices including castration, dehorning and branding are the potentially hot button issues. A proactive stance to explore pain mitigation that can be applied in a production system cost-effectively will be an area that deserves more attention and research. Even though consumers may understand or appreciate “why” animals are castrated (to reduce aggression, reduce injury), there is still the sentiment that “it still hurts.” My current research focuses on understanding the pain associated with currently used methods of castration and dehorning in addition to testing methods of pain mitigation. Until we have a pain relief solution approved that is cost-effective in a commercial production setting, we should also be conducting research focused on improving the current practices. Consumer pressure in this area is important as banding may be considered more “palatable” by some because it is bloodless, but it also may be a more painful method for the animal over a more sustained period. Research can validate that question.
Environmental stressors are also an area that the beef industry should continue to identify as an area of concern. Heat stress in feedlots is an example of an environmental stressor that can lead to welfare issues.
JA: Summarize what the industry needs to do to address consumers’ animal welfare concerns. Do the solutions revolve around more science, more third party verification programs, more consumer education, or more willingness to change traditional procedures or a combination of all of these things?
LEC: I think the answer revolves around a combination of all of these efforts, but it is important to focus on them strategically.
The “Agvocate” movement has become very popular, but unfortunately we are oftentimes talking to each other. So many of these efforts are not reaching out to the people who don’t believe or understand what we do in the livestock industry. Agvocacy efforts are positive, but I just believe we need to do more to reach out to those individuals and consumers who have a genuine interest in where their food comes from. Focusing on young children, especially those who are not growing up in rural environments is important.
I’m not sure if more third party verification programs are the answer as I fear the message becomes diluted. With too many options in the grocery store, consumers get overwhelmed and the verification programs just become “a dime a dozen.” More research is critical and that means we need more scientists and more funding in this area, but I think we can also be strategic and focus on simple, low-cost projects that give us a lot of information.
A willingness among farmers and ranchers to explore change is critical. Livestock producers have a unique camaraderie and peer pressure among themselves may be one of our best drivers for change.
Additional References
Effect of oral meloxicam on health and performance of beef steers relative to bulls castrated upon arrival at the feedlot. Journal of Animal Science. http://jas.fass.org/content/early/2011/09/30/jas.2011-4068.abstract?sid=93359530-ddb5-4d11-a39f-a727eacb9179
The effects of pre-slaughter pig management from the farm to the processing plant on pork quality. Meat Science. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0309174010002998
Use of exsanguination blood lactate to assess the quality of pre-slaughter pig handling. Meat Science. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030917401000207X
