Management factors influencing cow milk quality and safety in the Indian megacity of Bengaluru

Ensuring animal welfare is a critical priority for livestock farmers in the face of urbanization. Rapid urban growth increases the demand for animal products but decreases availability of arable land around cities with negative implications for animal feed production. In urbanizing regions, livestock keepers resort to common pool resources for animal nutrition. Yet, the repercussions of urbanization on the quality of common pool feed resources, animal health, production and product safety, remain unstudied. Additionally, understanding how resource-constrained urban farmers cope with sudden shocks, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, is critical. In this thesis, the effects of urbanisation on the health of dairy cattle in the Greater Bengaluru region in southern India are examined on the basis of interviews with 151 farmers. Among the interviewees, 47% and 77% used vegetation growing in and around lakes and food leftovers to feed their dairy cattle, in addition to cultivated feed and concentrates. While the lake fodder was nutritionally similar to high-quality pasture, 43% of collected samples contained toxic heavy metals. Although 60% of the farmers believed that their cows were healthy, a logit model showed negative effects on cattle health associated with regular use of lake fodder and inadequate drinking water supply. In conjunction with the previous study, the transfer of heavy metals from feed to milk was studied in a second step. Monitoring cattle nutrition in 39 dairy farms during monsoon, winter and summer revealed high cadmium (Cd) concentrations in lake fodder during summer, resulting in increased daily Cd intake. Despite this, no traces of Cd were detected in milk samples, and chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb) concentrations were generally within acceptable limits. In contrast, elevated concentrations of all three elements in faeces raised concern about of environmental pollution when animal dung is used as organic manure on cropland. The results suggest location- and season-specific recommendations for the use of lake fodder based on pollution levels and emphasise the overall need for quality control of animal feed. Raising farmers' awareness of the risks of heavy metal uptake by their animals could encourage compliance with regulations without completely banning lake fodder use in urban areas. In parallel with the heavy metal analyses, the milk samples were also analysed for protein and fat content, as well as milk fatty acid profiles. Winter milk had higher concentrations of linoleic acid and n-6 fatty acids, while summer milk contained more oleic acid and unsaturated fatty acids. Milk from urban cows consistently had higher concentrations of linoleic acid, n-3, n-6 and unsaturated fatty acids than milk from peri-urban and rural areas. This demonstrates the potential of alternative feedstuffs collected from common land to produce high quality milk for urban consumers. Finally, the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on small dairy farms was analysed. The survey of 129 farms before and after the first lockdown in India revealed remarkable changes in feed supply, milk yield and milk marketing strategies that were caused by this shock. The proportion of farmers not feeding their cows with concentrates increased from 1% to 7% and the proportion not offering dry fodder increased from 20% to 33%, mainly due to escalating feed prices. Overall, the cumulative daily milk yield of the 129 farms decreased from 3905 to 2861 liters, due to 30% of lactating cows being sold after the lockdown. These findings underscore the importance of supporting farmers’ crisis management through measures such as feed storage, milk processing into products with long shelf-life and insurance schemes to ensure a stable milk supply for urban consumers in the face of global crises. In summary, although the commonly used lake fodder offers nutritional advantages, its high heavy metal content is a cause for concern. Despite this, milk concentrations of heavy metals are within officially defined safety margins, and therefore a categorical ban of the feeding of lake vegetation is not justified. Despite the limited feed resources in urban areas, dairy farmers are resilient and produce high quality milk using a variety of alternative feed resources. Nevertheless, external shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic impact smallholder dairy farming negatively and highlight the need for cooperatives and relevant authorities to quickly mitigate constraints on feed availability and milk sales in such situations.