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Information System for Agriculture and Food Research

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ANIPLAN - Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning

Collaborative Project


Contract period: 01.06.2007 - 31.10.2010
Coordinating institution: Aarhus University

Livestock is important in many organic farming systems, and it is an explicit goal to ensure high levels of animal health and welfare (AHW) through good management. This will lead to reduced medicine use and better quality of animal products. In two EU network projects NAHWOA & SAFO it was concluded that this is not guaranteed merely by following organic standards. Both networks recommended implementation of individual animal health plans to stimulate organic farmers to improve AHW. These plans should include a systematic evaluation of AHW and be implemented through dialogue with each farmer in order to identify goals and plan improvements. 15 research institutions in 8 European countries are involved in the proposed project with the main objective to minimise medicine use in organic dairy herds through active and well planned AHW promotion and disease prevention. The project consists of 5 work packages, 4 of which comprise research activities building on current research projects, new applications across borders, exchange of knowledge, results and conclusions between participating countries, and adopting them to widely different contexts. International and national workshops facilitate this exchange. Focus areas are animal health planning, AHW assessment using animal based parameters and development of advisory systems and farmer groups. Epidemiological analyses of the effect on AHW from reduced medicine use and herd improvements are planned in all participating countries. Objectives To minimise medicine use in organic dairy herds through active and well planned animal health and welfare promotion and disease prevention. This objective is met through the following intermediate objectives: 1) Develop animal health and welfare planning principles for organic dairy farms under diverse conditions based on an evaluation of current experiences. 2) Application of animal health and welfare assessment based on the WelfareQuality parameters in different types of organic dairy herds across Europe. This will result in an overview of the herds and allow for potential adaptations for the organic situation (e.g. pasture systems, longer cow/calf contact). For calves, a special system will be developed by the Norwegian partners, and combined and tested together with the WelfareQuality assessment system. 3) Develop guidelines for communication about animal health and welfare promotion in different settings. This can be part of existing animal health advisory services or farmer groups such as the Danish Stable School system and the Dutch network program. Expected outputs - Principles for animal health and welfare planning, which enables the organic farmers to enter a process where animal health and welfare is improved and through this, medicine use is minimised. - Suggestions to relevant animal health and welfare assessment tools, which can be used on-farm in practice and can form basis for planning improvements. - Guidelines for communication about animal health and welfare in ways which stimulate the farmer to take ownership and responsibility in relation to own herd, - Manuals and farmer journal articles in the participating countries’ local languages. - A number of peer-reviewed international journal articles focusing on animal health and welfare planning.

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Collaborative Projects

Coordination and knowledge transfer

Leading institution: Aarhus University

Development of principles for animal health and welfare planning in organic dairy farms

Leading institution: Aberystwyth University

Development and testing of animalbased parameters for evaluation of animal health and welfare

Leading institution: Division of Livestock Sciences

Research projects

Communication about animal health and welfare and disease prevention in advisory systems and farmer groups

Leading institution: Aarhus University

Analysing the effect of minimising the use of medicine through animal health promotion

Leading institution: Aarhus University

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