7684: Focussing on health promotion on organic farming in practice – the example of the Swiss pro-q project

Walkenhorst, Michael; Heil, Fritz; Ivemeyer, Silvia; Klocke, Peter; Mäschli, Ariane and Notz, Christoph (2006) Focussing on health promotion on organic farming in practice – the example of the Swiss pro-q project . Paper presented at Joint Organic Congress, Odense, Denmark, May 30-31, 2006.

Summary

In organic livestock production a high status of animal health should be reached and maintained mainly with preventive measures. The Swiss pro-q project provides and example of how to change the focus from treating diseases to keeping animals healthy on organic farms. Data of the mastitis status and the use of antibiotics of about 100 Swiss organic dairy herds have been collected since 2003. Quarter milk samples and milk recording data are used as criteria to determine the mastitis status. During a period of at least 2 years the project farms will be intensively advised by the project team in relation to observed mastitis causing factors in housing, feeding, human-animal-interaction, milking technology and milking hygiene. Therapies are primarily based on homeopathic remedies. The development of the mas-titis status of the farms is followed up at regular in-tervals to show possible correlations between exten-sion inputs and mastitis status. In addition, a data-base has been set up to provide information for farm-ers and veterinarians in preventive herd health man-agement. The aims of the project are reduction of the use of antibiotics in udder treatment, improvement of the udder health status of the herds and, as a conse-quence, improvement of milk quality.

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