Category FAQs Search : Organic Livestock Farming
Question: Animal health challenges and veterinary aspects of organic livestock farming identified through a 3 year EU network project
Answer: From 2003-2006, an EU network project ‘Sustaining Animal Health and Food Safety in Organic Farming’
(SAFO), was carried out with 26 partners from 20 EU-countries and 4 related partners from 4 candidate or new member
states. The focus was the integration of animal health and welfare issues in organic farming with food safety aspects. Four
very consistent conclusions became apparent: 1) The climatic, physical and socio-economic conditions vary considerably
throughout Europe, leading to different livestock farming systems. This limits the possibility for technology transfer between regions, and creates several challenges for a harmonised regulation, 2) Implementing organic standards at farm
level does not always ensure that animal health and welfare reach the high ideals of the organic principles, 3) To overcome these deficiencies, organic farmers and farmer organisations need to take ownership of organic values and, 4) In all
participating countries, a strong need for training of farmers and in particular veterinarians in animal health promotion and
organic principles was identified. The article presents a summary of papers presented at the five SAFO workshops.
(Source: , 17 Aug 2021)
Source Link: http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/17925/1/111TOVSJ.pdf