The use of animal-based health and welfare parameters – what is it all about?

Organic farming is characterized by several goals that are expressed in daily practices and in standards. Some of the important goals for organic production systems are naturalness, harmony on all levels of production, local recycling of resources, and the principle of precaution (Anonymous, 2002). For organic herds, good animal welfare is an explicit goal, and this includes that the overall goal for the organic farming systems regarding naturalness and harmony in the herd are met by giving the animals possibilities to perform natural behavior and achieve harmony within the group. Freedom for the animals to make as many choices as possible should be respected (Vaarst et al., 2004; Verhoog et al., 2002 & 2004). The production system is not sustainable if animals show evidence of pain, disease, or distress as a result of an inadequate system or disharmony between the animals and the system. Therefore it is of crucial importance to be able to assess and evaluate the animals’ response to the system. This need is not only relevant for organic systems. Public concern about farm animal welfare has steadily grown during recent years. In this context, welfare assessment has many roles such as identifying current welfare problems, checking farm assurance and legislative requirements have been met, indicating risk factors leading to a welfare problem, testing the efficacy of interventions, formulating a product information/labelling system, or research tool for evaluating and comparing production systems, environments, management systems, animal genotype etc. (Whay, 2007). Improvements in animal welfare may be achieved through (1) assessment of animal welfare, (2) identification of risk factors potentially leading to welfare problems and (3), interventions in response to the risk factors. In order to see whether the improvements have worked, it is furthermore important to be able to measure or assess the improvements and see if it has worked. In this process the animal based parameters help us to identify the animal’s response to the system, and therefore also the potential problems in this system. It is the aim of this presentation to give an overview over concepts of welfare assessments, and animal based parameters, and present the ideas in the project Welfare Quality in order to create a background for understanding and discussing the use of animal based parameters in the current ANIPLAN project

Wegweiser für Bio-Schweinehalter

Gesundheitsplan - In England längst Pflicht, sollen nun auch in Österreich eigene „Tiergesundheitspläne“ für Bio-Schweinebetriebe erprobt werden. Die von den Briten gemachten Erfahrungen werden bei der Erstellung solcher Pläne berücksichtigt

Development and Evaluation of an Online Training-tool for the Assessment of Animal-based Welfare Parameters in Cattle

Self-evaluation of animal welfare by farmers has recently been encouraged, e.g. by the Austrian organic farming association BIO AUSTRIA. However, rather little is known how a resource-efficient training of a large number of farmers could take place and which level of agreement might be achieved. For this purpose, in the present study, an online training-tool for the assessment of 10 animal-based parameters of dairy cattle welfare was established. Th is tool included online quizzes containing pictures or video clips of selected animal-based parameters which had to be assessed by the test persons. IOR as compared to a gold standard (calculated as Cohen’s Kappa κ) was investigated. Furthermore, it was of interest whether practice in terms of repeated trials leads to improvement. In total, 938 κ values from 111 users were obtained from the 10 different quizzes. The average agreement per quiz in round 1 reached values of κ ≥ 0.40 (n = 58–100 users). For the parameters cleanliness and diarrhoea, κ exceeded 0.40 for all test persons in round 1. Agreement was lowest for the parameters body condition, hairless patches and lameness. Retaking the quizzes (round 2, n = 14–24) led to significant improvement of agreement for all parameters, except for hairless patches and lameness. In conclusion, the results of this study are promising as regards the intended use of the training-tool. However, its potential to improve reliability of live on-farm assessments needs to be further investigated, e.g. with regard to transferability to live observations

Einführung von Tiergesundheitsplänen in der ökologischen Milchviehhaltung - Ergebnisse einer deutschen Pilotstudie

It was the aim to (1) identify major indicators of animal health in organic dairy farming (i.e. mastitis, lameness, metabolic/reproductive disorders, calf diseases) and to define respective goals, (2) to provide guidelines for the development of herd health plans based on these indicators and, (3) to carry out an implementation study on representative dairy farms taking farmers, veterinary surgeons as well as other advisors into account. 44 organic dairy farms were visited four times during 2006 and 2007. Following a thorough assessment, herd health plans were developed in 28 farms; herd health was then monitored for one year. After one year, treatment incidence for clinical mastitis was significantly lower in intervention farms. Also lameness prevalence was more reduced in intervention than in control farms (intervention study integrated in this project). Other health indicators were not significantly affected; however, this should be viewed in the light of the rather short period after implementation of the herd health plans. In conclusion, this farm-individual herd health planning tool has been demonstrated to effectively improve important dairy health aspects

Situation und Ursachen von gegenseitigem Besaugen bei Kälbern in Gruppenhaltung

Non-nutritive sucking such as cross-sucking, inter-sucking and sucking and licking parts of the pen is an oral abnormal behaviour shown by calves. This study examines factors affecting non-nutritive sucking behaviour in organic group-housed Austrian Fleckvieh calves (n=37 farms), focusing on non-weaned calves under 8 weeks of age. Factors associated with sucking on housing equipment and inter/cross-sucking were at least partly different thus pointing at different underlying motivations

Qualitative und quantitative Beurteilung des Verhaltens von Jungsauen während eines freiwilligen Annäherungstests

Free farrowing systems are required by organic standards (Commission regulation (EC) 889/2008). However, not only adequate housing design and good management but also sows which are able to rear piglets successfully in those systems are important. Several studies show a relation between approach time during behavioural tests and reproductive traits. So far behavioural traits are not considered when selecting gilts in Austria. The aim of this study was to perform a qualitative and quantitative behavioural assessment during a voluntary approach test at two organic gilt producers which could provide practical tools for behavioural assessment when selecting gilts. A total of 44 gilts was tested in a 3x3m arena and observed when approaching a test person. Qualitatively three components were found: “emotional state”, “proactiveness” and “self-confidence”. The second and third components were significantly related to quantitative parameters. The component “emotional state” may provide additional information. However, it remains to be investigated if this information is related to reproductive performanc

Hopp, hopp, hopp im Schweinsgalopp? Klauen- und Gliedmaßengesundheit beim Schwein

Immer wieder kommen aus der Praxis Anfragen, über Lahmheitbeim Schwein zu berichten, auch ein Klauenpflegekurs wurde bereits durchgeführt, um akute Probleme lösen zu können. Doch was sind die Ursachen für Lahmheiten beim Schwein? Dieser Beitrag soll nicht nur die klinischen Symptome aufzählen und rasche Lösungen vermitteln (die es selten gibt), sondern Fragen stellen und zum selbst Beobachten und Nachdenken anregen. Dazu wird vom Wildschwein ausgehend das Normalverhalten betrachtet und die Frage gestellt, ob Schweine überhaupt laufen wollen. Danach wird überlegt, warum sie dies oft nicht können und warum Lahmheit sowohl für das Tier als auch den LandwirtIn ein Problem darstellt. Außerdem werden die aktuellen Werte aus 60 österreichischen Bioschweinebetrieben vorgestellt. Der erste Schritt zur Verbesserung ist das Erkennen der Situation, wozu ein Schema zur Gangbeurteilung beitragen soll

Poster: MIX-ENABLE Nachhaltige gemischte Bio-Tierhaltung

Posterpräsentation des Projekts und der geplanten Teilprojekte für eine Dissertation

Mit Strategie zu gesünderen Milchkühen

Mastitis, Lahmheiten - Gesundheitsprobleme gibt es auch in ökologischen Stellen. Wie eine aktuelle Studie zeigt, lässt sich mit systematisch erstellten Herdengesundheitsplänen die Situation jedoch verbessern. Ein Weg zu gesünderen Tieren, der auch die Praktiker überzeugt hat

Dairy health in German organic farming - an intervention study on lameness and the implementation of herd health plans

A pilot study carried out in 2002/2003 (50 farms) revealed that production diseases such as mastitis, lameness and metabolic disorders play a considerable role in german organic dairy farming. In a follow-up project, an intervention study on lameness is currrently being carried out in 43 cubicle housed Holstein Friesian herds. Farms are monitored at 3-months intervals for two years. The average baseline lameness prevalence was 26%. Preliminary findings suggest a beneficial effect of access to pasture during summer and improvements due to intervention measures (housing, management) taken in approximately half of the farms. In a third step, herd health plans with regard to mastitis, lameness, metabolic disorders, reproductive disorders and calf diseases will be implemented on the project farms integrating farmers, veterinary practitioners and advisors