Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Animal health and nutrition in organic farming
Mette Vaarst*, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Denmark, Martin Riis Weisbjerg, Danish
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Denmark, Troels Kristensen, Danish Institute of Agricultural
Sciences, Denmark, Stig Milan Thamsborg, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University,
Denmark, Andrew White, CSIRO/University of Queensland, Australia, Stephen Roderick, Duchy
College, UK and Willie Lockeretz, Tufts University, USA
*Dr Mette Vaarst, Department of Animal Health, Welfare and Nutrition, Research Center Foulum, Danish Institute of
Agricultural Sciences, Postboks 50, Tjele 8830, Denmark. Tel: +45 89 991 344, Fax: +45 89 991 525,
Email: mette.vaarst@agrsci.dk
Introduction
Animals are important in organic farming systems, both as a part of the concept and in
practice, where there is great weight on forming an integrated system with harmony between
the land, the animals and the people, involving local recirculation of feed and manure. Good
animal health and welfare is an important goal for organic husbandry. In contrast to crops,
animals are not just parts of the farming system, they are also sentient creatures and as such
they deserve special moral consideration. They are individuals that need to be cared for, they
can suffer, and they can interact with each other and with the humans and environment
around them. Animal management is, therefore, very different from crop management.
Humans have a moral obligation to treat animals well and to intervene before they suffer or
die, as this is unacceptable. Organic farming principles go much further than promoting
animal welfare in terms of avoiding suffering. One of the basic principles of organic farming
refers to access to 'natural' behaviour for organically managed animals, which substantially
broadens the concept of 'welfare'. These perspectives are presented and discussed in Chapter 8 ,
where Lund emphasises the importance of integrating naturalness into the concepts and prac-
tical application of animal welfare in organic animal husbandry.
The animal welfare goal of avoiding suffering allows the use of synthetic medicines for
treating sick animals. This is the only circumstance in organic agriculture where use of 'chem-
icals' is allowed and even recommended in Europe. In the United States of America (USA),
antimicrobial treatments are completely prohibited. Some farmers, therefore, change their
disease treatment patterns and turn to so-called alternative or complementary methods, some-
times in combination with anti-inf lammatory drugs ('pain-killers'). No matter how diseases
are managed, the most sustainable way to avoid suffering and the need for disease treatment is
to make more fundamental changes in husbandry methods, such as breeding for increased
disease resistance and introducing more species-appropriate housing, and a well-balanced
diet. Hörning (see Chapter 6 ) discusses aspects of breeding and housing, and we will discuss
the aspects of feeding and disease management.
Organic farming in a global context is emphasised in this topic, and therefore we touch on
perspectives of non-certified organic farming, in the way it exists in many regions of the world.
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