Livestock welfare issues in Europe or what is needed to maintain livestock production in the future?

Transcription

1 Livestock welfare issues in Europe or what is needed to maintain livestock production in the future? Matthias Gauly and Christian Lambertz Faculty of Science and Technology Free University of Bolzano ASPA June 2017

2 Ways to livestock production systems accepted by the European society ASPA June 2017

3 International Green Week Berlin, 2017

4 General criticism is directed to 1. Farm size ( Industrial livestock production ) 2. Regional concentration and environmental effects 3. Husbandry (production) systems 4. Animal welfare and health 5. Drug use / Resistance

5 Specific criticism is directed to 1. Killing of one-day old male layer chicks 2. Amputations (pigs, poultry,.) 3. Fixation of animals (cattle, sows, ) 4...

6 Special Eurobarometer 442 Attitudes of Europeans towards Animal Welfare, March 2016

7 In your opinion, how important is it to protect the welfare of farmed animals? (%) Not at all important 1% Don`t know 2% Somewhat important 37% Very important 57% Animal welfare is important : - 99% of the respondents in Sweden, Finland and Portugal - 86% in Croatia, Hungary and Poland (= countries with the lowest proportions of respondents)

8 Do you believe that in general the welfare of farmed animals should be better protected (in your country) than it is now? (%) No, certainly not 2% Don t know 6% Yes, certainly 44% Yes, probably 38% Yes say more than 9 out of 10 respondents in Portugal (94%), Cyprus (93%) and Greece (91%). Even in countries with the lowest proportions of respondents, the absolute majority has this view: Luxembourg (58%), the Netherlands (66%), Hungary and Estonia (70%).

9 The question is. do we really have problems from a scientific point of view or is it all about communication!

10 Content How is the animal welfare situation in Europe? What are the challenges? What are the consequences for the industry?

11 Some examples 1. Layers 2. Dairy cows

12 The laying hen and bone fractures in relation to the husbandry system (Sandilands at al., 2007) Conventional Furnished Freerange Barn cage cage Farms, n = ( animals/farm) Birds with new bone fracture (%) Birds with old bone fracture (%) Total % of the animals had at least one fracture!!!! Genotype? Performance?

13 Some examples 1. Layers 2. Dairy cows

14 Frequency of disease and performance level of dairy cows from test herds in Brandenburg (Roffeis and Waurich, 2013) Performance 100-days Milk-kg < 3,000 3,000 3,500 3,500 4,000 > 4,000 No. of diseases per cow and year Total Udder Locomotor system Healthy animals % The average age of Holstein-Friesian cows is about 5.4 years (slightly more than two lactations)(römer, 2011).

15 Development of the service life (length of productive life in months from first calving to culling) on the phenotypic level in Germany (Annual report of ViT, Verden) Service life in months + 2.2

16 Conclusion: We are facing serious problems, which have to solved as soon as possible!

17 Content How is the animal welfare situation in Europe? What are the challenges? What are the consequences for the industry?

18 Content How is the animal welfare situation in Europe? What are the challenges? What.. or does what isdoes the consequence animal welfare for and the industry? acceptance depend on?

19 What has to be done? Reduce farm size? Improve health / reduce performance? Change husbandry systems? Improve farmers knowledge? Improve farm controls (including self-control)?..

20 What does Industrial production mean? 90 % of consumers are saying: Cattle Pigs Poultry > 500 animals > 1,000 animals > 5,000 animals (Kayser and Spiller, 2011)

21 Real farm size Species Farm size in Germany When does industrial farming start? Dairy cows Fattening pigs 464 1,000 Broiler 14,900 5,000 (Federal Statistical Office, 2010; Kayser and Spiller, 2011)

22 From a scientific point of view, there is little or no relation between animal welfare and farm size! (e.g. Gieseke et al., 2015; Meyer-Hamme et al., 2015)

23 Dairy cattle Repeated farm visits. Trait Dairy cows, n = < > 500 Farms, n = Mean no. of cows Min Max (Gieseke et al., 2015)

24 Welfare Quality Assessment Protocol

25 Results Dairy cows WQP-Points (0-100) a a a a Kategorie 1 Kategorie 2 Kategorie 3 Kategorie 4 < > 500 Scores increased in tendency with farm size. LC1 (Gieseke et al., 2015)

26 Slide 25 LC1 Auf der X-Achse "Category". Kann nur nicht auf die Grafik zugreifen. Lambertz Christian, 21/05/2017

27 What has to be done? Reduce farm size? Improve health / reduce performance? Change husbandry systems? Improve farmers knowledge? Improve farm controls (including self-control)?..

28 Is performance a major problem?

29 Increase of performance between 1970 and 2014 Broiler (Hybrid/ROSS 308) 30 g % + 4 g / year 92 g (35 days) Dairy cows (DSB/HF) 4,900 kg + 88 % + 98 kg / year 9,206 kg Layers (Hybrid/LSL) % eggs / year 320 (12 months) Fattening pigs (Pietrain/db Viktoria) 634 g + 39 % g / year 878 g

30 Increase of performance in sows between 1970 and piglets / year Sows (DE) % ) 1) Weaned piglets per sow and year

31 Increase of performance in sows between 1970 and piglets / year Sows (DE) % ) 2010 and piglets / year Sows (DE/db Viktoria) % 32 1) 1) Weaned piglets per sow and year

32 Two hypotheses: 1. The high performances are difficult to manage for many farmers. 2. For some of the breeding-based changes, the barn systems were not designed (e.g. cow: tiestalls, sow: piglet number - space offer).

33 1990: Hip height 136 cm 2014: Hip height 144 cm

34 Farmers assoziation LTO Union of Dutch Pig Producers NVV Dutch Meat Organisation (COV)

35 Socially acceptable conditions for animal husbandry can only be carried through... a fundamental change of the systems.

36 - Acceptability of livestock production systems - (Rank order) 1. Dairy cows 2. Sheep 3. Pig 4. Fattening cattle 5. Layer 6. Fattening calves 7. Broiler (von Alvensleben, 2003)

37 What makes the difference in perception? Visibility (pasture). In pigs and poultry the consumer relies on media (no transparency). Only a small population works in primary production.

38 Important factors for milk purchase (Spiller et al., 2014) Nennung von Rang 1 und 2 GMO free Pasture Region Price Hay feeding Biomilk 52.1% 51.5% 37.3% 31.6% 19.1% 10.4%

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40 Expected development of pasturing (2012 to 2025) in various EU countries Part-time (> 12 hours / day) % Dairy cows Part-time (< 12 hours / day) No pasture Northern Irland England Netherlands Germany Denmark (Reijs, 2013)

41 Pasture and animal welfare There are only very few scientifically-based studies on the impact of pasturing on health and animal welfare (e.g. Armbrecht et al., 2015).

42 But, do you believe in animal emotions?

43 What has to be done? Reduce farm size? Improve health / reduce performance? Change husbandry systems? Improve farmers knowledge? Improve farm controls (including self-control)?..

44 We need a better understanding of how we can transfer scientific knowledge faster!

45 What has to be done? Reduce farm size? Improve health / reduce performance? Change husbandry systems? Improve farmers knowledge? Improve farm controls (including self-control)?..

46 Development and survey of indicators for operational self-control Mentioned in the German Animal Protection Law since Suitable for analyzing weak points and deriving optimization options. In case of recording: comparison / benchmarking and possible improvements (Schultheiß and Zapf, 2015).

47 Results of the survey of selected indicators on 115 farms (Brinkmann et al., 2015) Indicator Proportion of animals with > cells/ml Biological farms (n = 46) 14.5 ( ) Proportion of dirty animals 27.9 ( ) Proportion of skinny animals 5.9 ( ) Proportion of clinically lame animals 11.7 ( ) Proportion of animals with sceletal problems 2.9 ( ) Proportion of animals with skin lesions 13.2 ( ) Mortality rate 2.0 ( ) Conventional farms (n = 69) 15.2 ( ) 13.7 ( ) 3.9 ( ) 16.7 ( ) 11.3 ( ) 9.2 ( ) 3.3 ( )

48 Content How is the animal welfare situation in Europe? What are the challenges? What are the consequences for the industry?

49 N/Ministry/ScientificAdvisoryBoard-Pathways- Summary.pdf? blob=publicationfile

50 Important points as guidelines for the development of viable livestock husbandry accepted by large parts of the population 1) Access of all livestock to various climate zones, preferably including outdoor climate; 2) provision of different functional areas with various floor coverings; 3) provision of facilities, substances and incentives for speciesspecific activities, feed intake and grooming activities; 4) provision of sufficient space; 5) a halt to amputations; 6) routine farm self-inspections based on animal-related welfare indicators; 7) a significant reduction in the use of medicinal products; 8) improved level of education, knowledge and motivation of people working in the livestock sector; 9) and greater consideration of functional traits in breeding.

51 Thank you very much for your attention!