Farms

Twelve dairy donkey farms, selected with a blocked randomization process matched for the North-Centre-South parts of Italy, were visited between June and September 2015. The selected regions were Lombardia, Abruzzo and Sicilia. Local authorities provided the contact details of dairy donkey farmers in their area. Farmers were contacted over the phone or by e-mail by researchers to introduce the project and to plan an on-farm visit. All the contacted farmers participated on a voluntary basis. The number of donkeys per farm varied between 19 and 170 (mean=54,50±47,86).

Questionnaires

Farmers were asked to fill out two questionnaires: the first one on the animal management and the second on milk production. The animal management questionnaire contained questions about nutrition, health management, housing, final destination of donkeys and foals (e.g. pet, work, meat production), weaning methods, management of male donkeys intended for meat production and distances travelled to reach slaughter. The questionnaire on milk production contained questions about average milk production per farm, use of milk (e.g. human consumption, cosmetics, processing into other food products such as ice-cream or sweets), sales channels (e.g. on the farm, consortium, supermarket, independent store, specialist or non-specialist store, restaurant, other), terms of sale (e.g. fresh raw milk, pasteurized milk, frozen milk, lyophilized milk), methods to reduce bacteria, marketing channels and consumers’ characteristics.

Following the method adopted in (7) to evaluate the welfare of donkeys kept for different purposes, the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for donkeys (8) was used, in the present study to evaluate the welfare of dairy donkeys. Results of the welfare assessment were partially published in (6).

Data collection and data analysis

Data was collected using Open Data Kit application (developed by the University of Washington, Department of Computer Science and Engineering), a digitalized system available for Android devices (9). Data was downloaded from the server to a Microsoft Excel file (Microsoft Corporation 2010) and subsequently descriptive statistical analysis were performed with SPPS 22 statistical package (IBM SPSS Statistic 2013).

Animal management questionnaire

The number of donkeys per farm varied from 19 to 170 donkeys (mean 54,50±47,86). Of a total of 244 females, 120 were lactating and 124 were dry jennies, aged between 36 and 288 months (mean=88,87). A total of 27 stallions, aged between 24 and 180 months (mean=90,46), lived on the visited farms; one farm had no stallions, since they shared it with another farm. Most of the farms (N=6) had mixed breed donkeys, while the remaining ones kept only one breed (e.g. Grigio Siciliano, Sardo, Martina Franca, Ragusana and Amiata). Donkeys were usually kept semi-extensively (pasture with shelters) all day long, with the exception of two farms where they were stabled during the night. Shelters were not present on three farms. Except for three farms where donkeys were kept all together, animals were grouped according to their production characteristics: in particular, lactating and dry jennies were usually separated to better manage feeding and milking procedures. Results of jennies and stallions management are reported in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively.

Table 1. Management of jennies

Table 2. Management of stallions

A total of 169 foals (102 female and 67 male) were present on the assessed farms. No farms used artificial milk, therefore, the foals received colostrum from and were nursed by their mother until 6-12 months old (mean=8,83±2,12). Additional feed was introduced between 0 and 12 months (mean=6,58±3,85). The weaning process differed from farm to farm: on five farms foals remained with their mother after weaning and were not separated; on two farms foals were weaned one at a time, starting with the oldest, which created a new group of yearlings on the farm; on the remaining farms (N=5), one jenny was taken away at a time letting the group settle down again until the next jenny was removed. Donkeys were milked on 11 of 12 farms. For the milking procedures, foals were separated from their mothers four (N=3), six (N=5) or 12 hours (N=3) before milking. During the separation period, foals were usually housed in paddocks near their mothers (N=10), with the possibility of visual and/or tactile contact. In the remaining farm, foals were totally separated from their mothers with no visual or tactile contact possible. Male foals not intended for reproduction were sold directly to the slaughterhouse (N=6), to other farms where they were going to be used for assisted therapy (N=3) or to private owners as pets (N=2). The remaining farm adopted all the possibilities mentioned above. Foals were sold between three and 18 months (mean=10,42±3,73).

Most of the visited farms (N=10) were family run, only two farms had employees. The number of donkeys cared for by a single person varied from five to 103 animals (mean=38,33±33,19). Night care was guaranteed on 10 farms. The veterinarian was called every month for routine checks by three farmers, while the other farmers called the vet only when needed. Vaccinations were regularly performed only on two farms; most (N=10) of the interviewed farmers did not consider vaccinations useful for the health of donkeys. Nine farmers regularly dewormed young and adult donkeys, one farm dewormed just foals and only two farmers did not consider it necessary to deworm animals. Two farmers called the farrier every three months, six farmers less frequently, while four farmers never called the farrier. Most of the farmers declared that they had the ability to perform hoof correction autonomously.

Milk production questionnaire

Eleven farms produced donkey milk for sale (mean milk production per jenny/day was 1355±509 ml); the remaining farm was brand new and it was not yet producing nor selling milk. Milk was intended for human consumption (N=11), eight farms also produced cosmetics and four additionally transformed milk into confectionery products. The main sales channel was direct to the consumer (N=11), other options were a small consortium (N=1) and a non-specialised shop (N=1). The marketing channels were websites and social networks (N=8) and word of mouth (N=8). None of the sampled farms sold milk to paediatric wards. Consumers mostly bought fresh milk directly on farm more than once a week (N=5) or less frequently (N=6). The answers to the question “what influences consumers’ purchasing decisions?” were rather vague and in most cases could be interpreted as the need to drink donkey milk because of health reasons. All the consumers, as reported by farmers, were children in the household. All the farms but one performed mechanical milking, the remaining one did manual milking; machines used were modified from a goat milkmaid. Nine farms milked once a day, the remaining one milked upon request. All the farmers adopted a method of cleaning and disinfection of the teats: damp cloth, disinfectant or pre-dipping. Five farms performed pasteurization, four refrigerated the milk, one farm performed filtering and one farm froze the milk. All the farms but one periodically carried out milk analysis, with eight farms searching for somatic cells (22916,7±34851,5 SSC/ml) in addition to bacterial count (134166,7±229383,3 cfu/ml). All the farmers declared not to use any drugs on lactating donkeys. It remains to be investigated if and how lactating donkeys were treated when ill.