Different perspectives on animal health and implications for communication between stakeholders

Summary

Despite numerous efforts of various professional groups, the level of production diseases in livestock production remains on an unsatisfying high level. Barriers in the process of knowledge transfer in connection with the improvement of the animal health status have been the topic of a study taking different stakeholder perspectives into account. Using instruments of communication science, the perspectives of farmers, agricultural and veterinarian advisors as well as animal scientists were brought together and discussed in workshops. The process revealed the following barriers in the transfer of knowledge: diverging comprehension of animal health, complexity behind multifactorial production diseases, reluctance to assume responsibility, and role conflicts. We conclude that the current communication structure between stakeholders is highly self-referential and not appropriate to enable a target-oriented transfer of knowledge aiming to reduce prevalence rates of multifactorial production diseases on the farm level. Hence, an impulse from “outside” is required to irritate the deadlocked situation and provide new orientation.