[Behavior and welfare of veal calves in individual crates and in group pens]

Criticisms passed by society regarding the welfare of veal calves in individual crates induced the development of an alternative, more friendly to animals: housing in groups of five calves fed from buckets and given small amounts of roughage. The pros and cons of individual and group housing with regard to the behaviour of the calves are discussed in the present paper, and particular attention is paid to 'preputial sucking', an important behavioural problem in group pens. In addition, a number of data on production aspects in each housing system is presented.