Reducing use of antimicrobials — Experiences from an intervention study in organic dairy herds in Denmark

With the aim of phasing out the use of antimicrobials 23 Danish organic dairy producers from the same organic dairy company participated in Stable School farmer groups from February 2004 to March 2005 in order to go through a common learning and development process towards their common goal. Data on production and herd health were evaluated from two years before to three years after the start of the Stable Schools. For comparison, data was collected from the remaining 35 herds delivering to the same dairy company, 118 organic dairy herds delivering to other dairies and 115 conventional herds. On average, the project herds were smaller with lower production and had half the incidence rate of mastitis treatment than the organic herds from other dairies before the start of the project. The incidence rate of mastitis treatments was reduced considerably from 20 treatments per 100 cow years to 10 treatments per 100 cow years after the project period. Somatic cell count (SCC) and scores for acute and chronic intramammary infections did not change significantly during the study period, and milk production increased at the same rate as in the other herd groups. The incidence rate of mastitis treatments or the reduction of the incidence rate could be related to the herd SCC or the prevalence of blind quarters. The incidence rates of locomotive disorders and reproductive disorders were lower in the project herds compared with herds from other dairies before the project start, and the differences increased during the project period though the reduction of the incidence rates in the project herds was not statistically significant. It is concluded that the farmers participating in the Stable Schools managed to reduce the use of antimicrobials in their herds also after the project period without apparent negative effects on production and udder and herd health

Dilemma og synergi i økologisk husdyrhold: Dyrevelfærd, naturlighed og fødevaresikkerhed

I økologisk husdyrbrug er det målet at give husdyrene mulighed for naturlig adfærd (sv. beteende), og at sikre deres velfærd. Det er også målet at producere mad af en høj kvalitet og naturligvis uden risici for forbrugerne. Herudover skal husdyrbruget såvel som alle andre økologiske brug leve op til nogle basale økologiske mål. Ofte bliver det fremstillet som om at nogle af disse mål er modsatrettede – og det må vi nødvendigvis forholde os til i økologisk jordbrug. I det følgende illustreres, at nogle af de målsætninger, som umiddelbart fremtræder som dilemmaer, langt hen ad vejen kan forenes og derigennem skabes måske de løsninger, der bliver søgt efter

Combining Ethological Thinking and Epidemiological Knowledge to Enhance the Naturalness of Organic Livestock Systems

Organic livestock farming places strong emphasis on conditions that allow animals to exhibit behavioural needs. This involves the provision of a natural environment and, in particular, outdoor conditions and a reliance on natural forages. Such environments also allow animals to be effectively integrated into crop production. However, there are potential disease risks associated with these conditions, with control options being partly limited by restrictions on chemoprophylactic measures. Examples from dairy and poultry production demonstrate how a basic understanding of ethology and a knowledge of disease epidemiology can enhance the welfare of animals whilst satisfying the ecological objectives of organic farming. Existing epidemiological models and published data can be used to examine the potential ensuing health hazards and control possibilities and to suggest alternatives

Lavt forbrug af antibiotika i økologiske malkekvægsbesætninger

De økologiske principper lægger stærk vægt på, at sygdomme skal forebygges, og at fokus skal være på dyrenes velfærd og at undgå sygdom. Dette afspejles i reglerne for økologisk husdyrhold, som absolut ikke forleder én til at betragte medicin og sygdomsbehandling som en ’smart og billig genvej til sygdomsfrihed i besætningen’. EU-reglerne anviser, at alternativer til antibiotika skal foretrækkes, hvis de har en dokumenteret effekt. De økologiske regler i USA er endnu mere restriktive. Der mister et dyr den økologiske status for altid efter antibiotikabehandling og anvendelsen er derfor meget begrænset. Alle regelsæt har dog en fælles hovedvægt på sundheds- og velfærdsfremme og at holde dyrene sunde og robuste. Der er efterhånden samlet mange erfaringer ind fra økologiske besætninger, som har nedsat deres antibiotikaforbrug ganske væsentligt over de seneste år. I projektet ECOVIT (’Sundhedsfremme i økologiske besætninger’) undersøger vi forholdene omkring lavt forbrug af antibiotika og behandlinger, der kan være et alternativ til antibiotika. I projektet ANIPLAN (’Minimising medi-cine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning’) arbejder vi sammen med 6 andre europæiske lande om at finde frem til principper for aktiv planlægning i besætningen for bedre velfærd og sundhed. I projektgruppen i ECOVIT syntes vi, at det var på tide at samle trådene og diskutere både erfaringerne fra økologiske landmænd, som vi har interviewet, og fra besætninger, som vi har undersøgt. Der er gennemført velfærdsvurderinger i en del besætninger, og data er analyseret fra en lang række besætninger. Det er baggrunden for denne workshop, som blev afholdt på Forskningscenter Foulum i december 2009. Vi har samlet indlæggene på forskellig vis – som de præsentationer, der blev givet eller i form af skrevne indlæg – og har opsummeret eftermiddagens diskussion

Manual til Kalveliv 100. – Vurdering af kalvenes velfærd i økologiske besætninger

Tanken bag denne velfærdsvurdering er at give landmanden nogle hjælpemidler til at vurdere sine kalve og overveje hvilke ændringer og forbedringer, de eventuelt har brug for, og som passer ind i besætningens strategi. En af de vigtigste målsætninger for et økologisk husdyrhold er at give dyrene gode vilkår i overensstemmelse med deres naturlige behov. Ofte er kalvene den mest forsømte gruppe i en malkekvægbesætning. De giver ikke mælk, og værdien af en kalv er meget lille. Netop derfor er det relevant at se på kalvenes velfærd. I en økologisk besætning bør der ikke være nogen gruppe dyr, som er overset. Stærke og sunde kalve, der ikke får noget knæk i deres opvækst, udvikler sig til stærke og sunde køer. Ved at lade kalvene leve i en gruppe og møde forskellige udfordringer – for eksempel forskellige fodermidler fra en tidlig alder og forskellige udfordringer på udearealet – ruster vi dem bedre til deres voksenliv

Development and Daily Management of an Explicit Strategy of Nonuse of Antimicrobial Drugs in Twelve Danish Organic Dairy Herds

Promotion of animal health and well-being at the individual animal and herd level is an important goal in organic farming. At the same time, chemical products affecting the natural balance among living organisms are prohibited in all areas of the organic farm. From an animal welfare point of view, however, no animal must suffer. Therefore, veterinary drugs are allowed under the European Union’s regulations for organic farming, despite the fact that they are powerful cell toxins affecting both pathogenic and necessary bacteria, and as such in organic terminology, are regarded as “chemical” or “artificial” products. In this article, we present and discuss interviews with 12 Danish organic dairy producers who claim that minimized use or nonuse of antimicrobial drugs is an explicit goal. The dairy producers were at different levels with regard to reduced antimicrobial treatment. An explicit strategy of no antimicrobial treatments is based primarily on a long-term effort to improve herd health, and secondarily, on finding alternative treatments for diseased animals. Improved hygiene, outdoor access, use of nursing cows, and blinding of chronic mastitis quarters were the main techniques in developing a strategy of not using antimicrobial treatments in the herd by dairy producers. Producers’ perception of disease changed from something unavoidable to a disturbing break in the daily rhythm that often could have been avoided. Change toward a nonantimicrobial strategy was gradual and stepwise. All dairy producers in this study desired to preserve the possibility of using antimicrobial drugs in emergencies

Recommendations to the formulation of EU regulation 2092/91 on livestock production

Within the SAFO network, the workpackage on standard development has focussed on the topic, on how and to what degree the EU-Regulations con-tribute to the objective of a high status of anima health and food safety in organic livestock production. Results and conclusions from the discussions at 5 SAFO workshops are presented

Danish Stable Schools for Experiential Common Learning in Groups of Organic Dairy Farmers

The farmer field school (FFS) is a concept for farmers’ learning, knowledge exchange, and empowerment that has been developed and used in developing countries. In Denmark, a research project focusing on explicit nonantibiotic strategies involves farmers who have actively expressed an interest in phasing out antibiotics from their herds through promotion of animal health. One way of reaching this goal was to form participatory focused farmer groups in an FFS approach, which was adapted to Danish conditions and named “stable schools.” Four stable schools were established and went through a 1-yr cycle with 2 visits at each of the 5 or 6 farms connected to each group. A facilitator was connected to each group whose role was to write the meeting agenda together with the host farmer, direct the meeting, and write the minutes to send to the group members ater the meeting. Through group focus interviews and individual semistructured qualitative interviews of all participants, the approach of the farmers’ goal-directed work toward a common goal was judged to be very valuable and fruitful and based on a common learning process. Complex farming situations were the focus of all groups and in this context, problems were identified and solutions proposed based on each farmer’s individual goals. In this article, we describe the experiences of 4 stable school groups (each comprising farmers and a facilitator), and the common process of building a concept that is suitable for Danish organic dairy farming

Contributions to variability of clinical measures for use as indicators of udder health status in a clinical protocol

A cross-sectional observational study with repeated observations was conducted on 16 Danish dairy farms to quantify the influence of observer, parity, time (stage in lactation) and farm on variables routinely selected for inclusion in clinical protocols, thereby to enable a more valid comparison of udder health between different herds. During 12 months, participating herds were visited 5 times by project technicians, who examined 20 cows and scored the selected clinical variables. The estimates of effect on variables were derived from a random regression model procedure. Statistical analyses revealed that, although estimates for occurrence of several the variables, e.g. degree of oedema, varied significantly between observers, the effects on many of these estimates were similar in size. Almost all estimates for occurrences of variables were significantly affected either parity and lactation stage, or by both e.g. udder tissue consistency. Some variables, e.g. mange, had high estimates for the farm component, and others e.g. teat skin quality had a high individual component. Several of the variables, e.g. wounds on warts, had a high residual component indicating that a there still was a major part of the variation in data, which was unexplained. It was concluded that most of the variables were relevant for implementation in herd health management, but that adjustments need to be made to improve reliability

Coccidiose hos kvæg: En oversigt over coccidiearter, patogenese, epidemiologi og forebyggelse specielt i økologiske besætninger

Coccidiose hos kalve forårsages af arter af de encellede parasitter, Eimeria, der findes vidt udbredt i alle verdensdele, og som giver anledning til diarré og utrivelighed hos især unge og modtagelige dyr. Hos kvæg findes 12 forskellige Eimeria arter, der adskiller sig fra hinanden med hensyn til morfologi, livscyklus og patogenitet. Infektion med Eimeria kan diagnosticeres ved forskellige la-boratoriemetoder, hvorved bl.a. antallet og arten af coccidier forsøges fastslået. Således skabes grundlag for bestemmelse af hvilke forebyggende tiltag, der eventuelt bør iværksættes. Ved under-søgelse af 258 kalve fra 25 danske økologiske malkekvægsbesætninger fandt vi Eimeria-arter i alle (100%) besætninger og i 88% af kalvene. De fleste kalve udskilte meget lavgradige mængder af coccidier i gødningen, medens nogle havde særdeles høje coccidieudskillelser. Coccidiose er en multifaktoriel sygdom, og sværhedsgraderne af sygdommen varierer derfor fra subkliniske tilfælde til nogle med løs, pastøs fæces af en enkelt dags varighed eller profus diarré med dysenteri, tenesmus og evt. mors. De kliniske symptomer tillægges traditionelt tilstedeværelsen af coccidiearterne Eimeria zuernii og E. bovis. Kalvens modtagelighed for coccidiose afhænger bl.a. af råmælksforsyning og immunitet, ernæringsstatus, stress, og evt. forekomst af andre sygdomme (f.eks. samtidige helminth- eller virusinfektioner). Endelig har også miljøet betydning for udvikling af coccidiose, herunder opstaldningstæthed, klima og hygiejne. Total udryddelse af coccidier er ikke muligt pga. parasittens ubikvitære forekomst og resistens i miljøet, men kalven kan styrkes ved sikring af tilstrækkelige råmælksmængder og ved opretholdelse af høj hygiejne i kælvningsboksen, samt efterfølgende opstaldningsforhold. Aktiv immunisering (vaccination) har endnu ikke vist sig effektiv i større målestok. Der foreligger ikke yderligere retningslinier for forebyggelse i perspektiv af de økologiske regler. Kalve, der har klinisk coccidiose, bør isoleres fra de øvrige kalve og gives væsketerapi for at opretholde væskebalancen. Den bedste behandling er imidlertid forebyggelse - med fokus på belægningsgrad og høj hygiejne inklusive rigeligt med tør strøelse