New farming methods aim to improve animal welfare

One of the motivations for improving environmental and animal welfare practices in European farming has been to prevent and eradicate diseases among farm animals.

The European Commission’s animal health strategy of 2004, which aims to develop a policy of disease prevention, will lead next year to a statement of Commission thinking.

The image of modern agriculture in Europe has been damaged by major outbreaks of disease in recent years: classical swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease and, above all, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. These have cast doubt on the sustainability of methods of intensive farming.

The spread of foot-and-mouth disease demonstrated how quickly, in conditions of intensive farming, diseases can spread because of close contact between animals, exacerbated by the networks of trade and transport which can spread disease between farms. Aujeszky’s disease (which affects mostly pigs, but also cattle and sheep), can be spread easily because of close contact between animals. Dil Peeling of Eurogroup for Animals argues that limited space and good quality air also puts stress on animals, lowering their immune systems. The transporting of animals in ships and lorries over long distances also affects their immune systems and makes them more susceptible to diseases, he adds. "It was through animal transport that foot-and-mouth [disease] was able to spread from the UK to three countries."

Even the way chickens are bred, with production benefits in mind, can affect an animal’s immune system.

Peeling says that intensive farming can often involve greater use of antibiotics, which creates a situation where "technology is controlling diseases against technology creating diseases".

But tackling areas like transporting animals is a politically sensitive issue for some EU states. "It’s about making the commitment and the question is: now that we have these issues on paper [the animal health strategy], can there be an effort to turning these ideas into a reality?" he adds.

Preventing diseases is not uniformly one-sided against intensive farming.

Animals kept outdoors can be more susceptible to certain diseases. Free-range poultry kept outside are more likely to come into contact with wild birds infected with bird flu during an outbreak. Blue tongue, a disease carried by mosquitoes, is more easily transmitted when animals are outside.

Paul Van Aarle of Intervet, the animal health arm of Dutch chemicals multinational, Akzo Nobel, says that disease prevention must be about having various safeguards in place and sticking to them. Controlling who goes onto farms when there is an outbreak of a disease, regular inspection of the animal stock or flock, getting fast diagnosis and vaccinating if the disease cannot be contained, are all important.

"There is no living creature in the world which is not susceptible to disease. The only question is what action to take based on the risk analysis," Van Aarle says.

One of the motivations for improving environmental and animal welfare practices in European farming has been to prevent and eradicate diseases among farm animals.