Tackling the future challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry - vTI

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! Agriculture and Forestry Research, Special Issue No 362 (Braunschweig, 2012) ISSN 0376-0723 Download: www.vti.bund.de/en/startseite/vti-publications/landbauforschung-special-issues.html In Switzerland a prototype checklist for cattle was developed in a diploma work at Inforama (HF) in Zollikofen (Knutti, 2012), which was tested on several organic farms in Switzerland. The main aim was to have a simplified system of observational indicators, which both the farmer as well as the inspector could use on a selected minimum number of animals. The following criteria were used: Nutritional condition; degree of dirtiness; injuries and lesions (differentiated in subcategories) and management indicators like state of claws, and kind of behaviour. A simple score of 1-3 is used, which indicates if on a farm the AW situation is good, can be still improved or is not satisfactory and must be changed. Table 1. Prototype cattle checklist/protocol for organic farmers and inspectors in Switzerland Animal related indicators Support tools Score 1 Score 2 Score 3 Nutritional condition with body condition score system of FiBL): good lean/fatless too fat Degree of dirtiness supported with pictures none medium strong Injuries and lesions (further differentiated) supported with pictures none little strong Lameness none little strong State of claws supported with pictures well-managed ok Not well managed Stable-related indicators Support tools Score 1 Score 2 Score 3 Hygienic conditions: fodder, water, place clean ok not hygienic Floor not slippery slightly slippery very slippery Air quality good sticky very sticky Use of cleaning brushes well-used not well-used not used at all/none Overall result For all selected animals / For whole stable/unit Source: Knutti, 2012 The first feedback from farmers, where during inspection visits this checklist was used, as well as from certifiers was positive. The time needed (20 minutes) was seen as acceptable. Different overall assessment systems can be applied; this is up to the certification body: e.g. Knutti (2012) proposes that no score 3 is found. The possibility to compare the self-assessment with the assessment of the inspector was perceived positively. Another positive point was that the main goal of this approach is an improvement of the husbandry practises with the use of observational check-points as opposed to sanctions of non-fulfilment of standards requirements. Discussion The authors recommend standard setting organisations to introduce in addition to the more general animal welfare conditions for all animals, some more specific ethological AW criteria for the different main animal groups, e.g. for cattle: social grooming and grazing; for pigs: rooting, separate lying, activity/dunging and feeding areas, free farrowing, group housing and for poultry: nesting, wing stretching/flapping, foraging, dust-bathing, perching and preening. Furthermore it is desirable to assess and monitor the impact of housing systems and space requirements on animal welfare by using more outcomes/or animal-related parameters. Indicators such as body condition scores (relevant for different animal categories), lameness, skin lesions and injury and prevalence of abnormal behaviour/stereotypies (e.g. feather pecking, tail biting, oral stereotypies in sows, etc.) have to be taken into account. 448
RAHMANN G & GODINHO D (Ed.) (2012): Tackling the Future Challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry. Proceedings of the 2 nd OAHC, Hamburg/Trenthorst, Germany, Sep 12-14, 2012 Paradigm change needed in organic standard setting A paradigm shift is needed in organic standard setting towards assessing progress rather than defining and “punishing” failure. Assessment systems and codes of best practice should be developed by researchers, advisers and practitioners as complementary tools for re-oriented progress certification. It is important to invest more time in both training inspectors and farmers in order to make such an approach more feasible and acceptable. More experiences are needed, what would be the best approach. It might be a mix of some classical core standards requirements for animal welfare in combination with some key animal related indicators Hopefully this would allow to reduce some overprescriptive rules and to stimulate the self-responsibility and comprehensiveness of farmers with regard to animal welfare. Currently, certification checks in fine detail whether boundaries have been overstepped; in future it could rather determine where a given farm is making progress in the right direction and what can be further optimised. References Bioland (2007 & 2011): Bioland Animal Health Management Handbook (in German). www.bioland.de Ferrari P. et al. (2010): Report on (dis-) advantages of current animal welfare standards for animals, based on the main findings of EU and national research projects. EconWelfare project report D2.3. www.econwelfare.eu Knutti, St. (2012). Wie kann die Biokontrolle und im Speziellen im Bereich Tierwohl weiterentwickelt werden. Diploma work. Inforama (Höhere Fachschule). Zollikofen. April 2012. Schmid, O., Kilchsperger, O. (2010): Overview of animal welfare standards and initiatives in selected EU and third countries. EconWelfare project report D1.2. www.econwelfare.eu 449
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