Organic Pig Husbandry Systems

Summary

Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in foods produced according to ethical aspects of animal health and welfare principles. In general, animal health status does not appear to be consistently better on organic than on conventional farms. This raises questions on the impacts of management and systems changes. Obviously, organic guidelines play a minor role with respect to the status of animal health, whereas differences in management practices and control tools within the farm system are expected be the main cause for substantial variation in the prevalence rates of diseases between farms. Any improvements in relation to animal health should be based on the implementation of monitoring systems including clinical assessments, abattoir data and review of treatment data, as well as health planning strategies taking into account feedback mechanisms. The latter, however, require clear guidelines concerning the level of production diseases expected as the output of the farm system. Currently, there is no common agreement about a threshold acceptable for organic livestock farming or about categories that allow to group different animal health levels in a range between very good and worse. Consequently, there is a need for a change in the paradigm from standard and resource oriented to a result and outcome oriented approach. Producers failing to meet certain health standards in the longer term should face consequences, such as imposition of improvements schemes and loss of product certification.