Animal welfare and environmental protection must not be mutually exclusive

Scientific conference at the University of Hohenheim presents research work for animal husbandry that increasingly satisfies animal welfare, animal health AND environmental protection. It is an ethical conflict: Animal welfare, animal health and environmental protection can definitely conflict with one another when it comes to livestock farming. New research projects therefore also aim to reconcile the high demands of both goals. Scientists presented encouraging examples and further need for action at the press conference of the 13th International Conference "Construction, Technology and Environment in Agricultural Animal Husbandry" (BTU) at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, which is ending today.

"The trend is towards freely ventilated stables," explained Prof. Dr. Thomas Jungbluth, agricultural engineer from the Department of Process Engineering for Animal Husbandry Systems at the University of Hohenheim, describes the area of ​​conflict in which research is currently taking place. "This is more comfortable for the animals than conventional fan ventilation."

“On the other hand, local residents who no longer accept the smell of the barn fight back, and the emissions are relevant to environmental protection. To solve these conflicting goals, we therefore need husbandry systems and structural solutions that reconcile animal welfare, environmental protection and consumer acceptance.”

But there are already encouraging results that bring animal welfare, environmental protection and consumer acceptance together: the “Label fit” project, for example. "The Animal Welfare Association set new standards for consumers with its animal welfare label," says Prof. Dr. youngblood "In the pilot project, we develop and evaluate animal and environmentally friendly housing systems for pigs and advise farmers who want to modernize their systems."

“Farm animals live in human-designed environments”
Prof. Dr. Nicole Kemper from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover discussed animal-friendly husbandry: “Many animals, and especially farm animals, spend their entire lives in an environment designed by humans. This environment must be animal-friendly for the animals. Husbandry systems are animal-friendly when the following three points are made possible: animal health, well-being and natural behavior.”

This can be done regardless of the size of the company. "Animal health is not the same as well-being," says Dr. Kemper further. "Even healthy animals can be impaired in their well-being." There could be conflicting goals between health and well-being.

"Organic enrichment material is very beneficial to the well-being of pigs, but adhering microorganisms or fungal toxins can impair animal health." In order to explore and resolve these conflicting goals, a research project is investigating the contamination of enrichment materials and how long they are available.

"Livestock farming needs a more precise assessment of the husbandry systems"
With regard to husbandry systems and their evaluation, Prof. Dr. Eberhard Hartung from the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and President of the Board of Trustees for Technology and Construction in Agriculture eV (KTBL): "The future challenge will be to develop practical, innovative husbandry systems that better meet the requirements of animal and environmental protection and are suitable for both conversion work and new builds.”

In addition, indicators and criteria should be developed or improved so that the husbandry conditions - also on the farm - can be better assessed and continuously adjusted according to needs. In this way, the effects of differently designed husbandry systems and the changes in individual components of these systems on animals and the environment can be presented in a clear and comparable manner.

"For this purpose, the national assessment framework organized and coordinated by KTBL - in which a transparent and technically generally accepted assessment of husbandry methods for a large number of farm animals with regard to animal welfare and environmental protection was carried out for the first time - will be adapted, optimized and expanded in such a way that it is more user-friendly and interactive can be used over the network.”

"We need reliable data on stall emissions for more environmental protection"
The greatest challenge when evaluating the environmental compatibility of housing systems is that there are no reliable emission factors for many new innovative housing systems, according to Prof. Dr. harden further. “Here it is particularly important to determine nationally and internationally accepted emission factors.

Such data is currently being collected in two projects: in the project "Determination of emission data for the assessment of the environmental impact of livestock husbandry (EmiDaT)" and in the "Combined project Emission reduction livestock husbandry - individual measures (EmiMin)".

"Increased use of electronics in animal husbandry makes sense"
The use of electronics could also be useful for recording animal health and well-being (so-called precision livestock farming). "New developments in the course of digitization offer additional opportunities to improve animal welfare and environmental protection as well as for management in profitable animal husbandry," explained Prof. Dr. youngblood "Examples include: the development of new UHF transponders, sensors for recording body conditions, tracking animals in stables and systems for health monitoring."

"In this way, it is possible to assess lameness in cows very sensitively using the sound of footsteps," added Prof. Dr. Kemper. “Such tools support the animal owner, but they do not replace good animal observation and care. Assessing well-being requires appropriate knowledge of both the needs of the animal and possible indicators for assessment.”

Background: International Conference "Construction, Technology and Environment in Agricultural Animal Husbandry" (BTU)
The BTU meeting takes place every two years and is a joint event of the Board of Trustees for Technology and Construction in Agriculture (www.ktbl.de), the Max-Eyth-Gesellschaft Agrartechnik in the Association of German Engineers (VDI-MEG) (www.vdi.de), the European Society of Agricultural Engineers (www.eurageng.eu) and the University of Hohenheim.

There, current research results and questions of livestock husbandry in the areas of animal welfare, environmental protection and consumer acceptance are discussed and new marketable products are evaluated.
The conference results will be published after the end of the event in the form of a conference volume.

Source: https://www.uni-hohenheim.de

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