and A.P.; data curation, A.G., M.R., and M.B.; writingoriginal draft preparation, M.R.; writingreview and editing, A.P. be considered acceptable for short journeys, as the risk of transporting calves that are too young is low. Navel healing should be defined as the scarring of the umbilical wound, which occurs no earlier than 3C4 weeks of life. Transporting calves with a completely healed navel should be considered best practice because it ensures that calves that are too young are not transported and therefore guarantees higher animal welfare standards. Abstract Dairy male calves are at risk of welfare compromise as they are usually transported at a very young age. The European Union has set Indibulin a completely healed navel requirement for calf transport; moreover, a minimum age is established for longer journeys. However, this requirement has proven to be prone to misinterpretation. This study aimed to clarify what is meant by navel healing and to provide strong elements for reaching a consensus. The navels of 299 dairy calves (55 males, 244 females) aged 0C90 days were examined and Indibulin scored 1 to 5 according to their healing status. Based on our results, a Indibulin completely dry and shriveled navel (score 3) would imply a 25.5C38.0% ACAD9 risk of transporting too young calves. Alternatively, the presence of a scab covering the umbilical wound (score 4) would entail a 4.3% risk of transporting calves less than 10 days old and could be considered good practice for transporting calves (except for journeys exceeding 8 h). Conversely, complete navel healing (score 5) guarantees that calves that are too young are not transported; therefore, it should be considered best practice for transporting calves in general and the minimum requirement for transporting calves for journeys exceeding 8 h. 0.0001). All the calves with umbilical score 1 were less than 10 days old. The majority of calves with score 2 were less than 10 days of age; however, the navel stump was dry only in its Indibulin distal portion also in a 10-day-old calf and in two 15-day-old calves. The 47% of the calves with a completely dry and shriveled navel stump (score 3) were aged less than 10 days, but the navel stump was still present even in calves over one month old (6%). Conversely, calves with score 4 (no umbilical stump, but scab or granulation tissues over the umbilical wound) had been distributed over-all the observed age brackets, from one day to 2 a few months previous. Finally, inside our test, just two calves significantly less than 3 weeks previous (particularly, 19 and 20 times old) had a totally healed navel, i.e., just 3% of most calves with rating 5. The contingency desks designed for the evaluation of the various scenarios are proven in Desk S1, Desk S2, Desk S3, Desk S4, Desk S5 and Desk S6; the full total email address details are summarized in Desk 2, which ultimately shows the possibility that calves with an umbilical rating of at least 3 (totally dried out and shriveled, inflexible umbilical stump), 4 (no umbilical stump, but scab or granulation tissues over the umbilical wound), or 5 (totally healed umbilical wound) had been significantly less than 10 times previous (suit for journeys within 100 km), at least 10 times previous (suit for journeys much longer than 100 km), or over the age of 2 weeks (suit for journeys exceeding 8 h). Desk 2 Possibility and 95% C.We. (%, in mounting brackets) that calves with an umbilical rating of at least 3 (totally dried out and shriveled, inflexible umbilical stump),.