"The entire value chain is under tremendous pressure"

About 150 1 experts at. presented Tonnies research symposium on animal welfare and livestock / intermediate results of four funded scientific projects

How can animal welfare and livestock husbandry be meaningfully reconciled? How can the conditions for animals living in conventional stables be improved, how can the keeping of pigs in large farms become more animal friendly? The Tönnies Research Symposium, which was held for the first time today in Berlin, was able to provide answers to a number of central and current questions in the field of animal welfare and livestock farming.

Experts from science, industry and politics invited by 150, representatives of animal welfare organizations, veterinarians and industry experts discussed concrete fields of research and results as well as general political and social issues in two thematic sections.

Josef Tillmann [Pictures: Tönnies]

In the introduction, Josef Tillmann, Managing Director of the Tönnies Group, introduced the subject of the symposium. He noted that the issue of animal welfare in livestock farming is becoming ever more widespread in the minds of consumers, and that almost all industry participants as well as the regulatory policy have put this field of tension on the public agenda. From the farmers, the slaughterhouses, the veterinarians, to the trade, everyone is now required to find answers and continuously improve animal welfare, said Tillmann. Especially for this purpose, the integration of science and professional exchange, as at the symposium, was enormously important.

In brief presentations, scientists then presented the first interim results of the four projects, which are currently funded by Tönnies Research. All projects aim to make livestock farming, and in particular the keeping of pigs in large farms, more animal friendly.

So lectured Dr. Dr. Kai Frölich, Tierpark Arche Werder eV, on the question of whether fattening pigs are healthier when robust pig breeds are crossed. In a trial, Professor Dr. Dr. Heinrich HD Meyer and dr. Heike Kliem from the Technical University of Munich with this task.

Professor Steffen Hoy and Stephan Welp from the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen develop solutions to reduce piglet loss in highly fertile sows. Professor Hoy showed first positive results, for example, by separating the heaviest piglets in the litter or better temperature settings.

How to reduce tail biting in fattening pigs? Lars Schrader and dr. Sabine Dippel from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in her study. Dr. Schrader explained how this issue is being studied to reduce tail biting and associated pain, stress and economic losses.

In a joint research project by Professor dr. Klaus Troeger of the Max Rubner Institute and Dr. med. Michael Marahrens of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut examines the gentle stunning of pigs with "non-aversive anesthesia", such as helium. The goal is to test anesthesia procedures beyond the currently most used CO2.

In the second part of the symposium, the symposium participants addressed the question of how modern livestock husbandry is compatible with animal justice. At his introduction to the topic, Professor Dr. Peter Kunzmann from the Ethics Center Jena the central dilemma of consumer expectations: expect good, healthy, high-quality products that are also inexpensive. In addition, the concept of ideal animal husbandry and rearing, animal welfare and animal welfare would gradually be added. There is therefore a permanent struggle for the interpretation sovereignty to the question "What is good animal husbandry?" The scale is a kind of cuddly animal perspective: people today lived with animals, but no longer of animals. One must face this change in the perception of animals by humans in livestock farming. His summary from an ethical point of view: The claim of the population to animal welfare in livestock husbandry is legitimate, but not the desire for "pet idyl". The industry has the right to demand professional technical standards, and also to evidence of economic livestock. But she must constantly search for better alternatives in livestock farming.

Prof. Dr. Peter Kunzmann, dr. Christoph Maisack, Friedrich Ostendorff, Franz-Josef Möllers, Prof. dr. Dr. hc mult. Hartwig Bostedt, Prof. dr. Dr. hc Jörg Hartung

Franz Josef Möllers, Vice President of the German Farmers' Association, Professor Dr. Dr. hc mult. Hartwig Borstedt, retired professor of veterinary medicine, dr. Christoph Maisack, judge and member of the ethics advisory board of the Albert-Schweizer-Stiftung, professor dr. Dr. hc Jörg Hartung, Director of the Institute of Animal Hygiene and Livestock Ethology of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, as well as Friedrich Ostendorff, MP and agricultural policy spokesman of the parliamentary group ALLIANCE 90 / THE GREENS.

Central statements of the participants on the podium:

Franz-Josef Möllers: "The entire value chain is under tremendous pressure. We need to improve and then communicate these achievements. But we always have to keep an eye on the economic fundamentals. "

Professor Hartwig Borstedt: "Animal welfare is first of all a basic health of animals. This is in the foreground. The performance breeding has certainly created difficulties here. But you can only do that if you have enough government personnel to control, advise and change. "

Dr. Christoph Maisack: "If an animal's need is suppressed, it will suffer. This is the animal welfare oriented. This is still counteracted by practices such as fixation and the caste state in sows or tooth grinding. The state goal animal welfare is implemented in my view too little. "

Professor Jörg Hartung: "The mental and physical integrity of the animals is the basis of every improvement in livestock farming. Agriculture has not taken the population into the changes in livestock farming, especially in intensification. "

Friedrich Ostendorff: "We have a dysregulation in politics and business. The attitude in which the animal was the cheapest is always the right one. Livestock farming is also becoming increasingly critical in agriculture itself. "

In his daily summary, Professor Dr. Thomas C. Mettenleiter, President of the Peace Loeffler Institute and Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, pointed out that it is now an important task to lead the guided discussion outside the industry. The critical discussions as well as the good approaches for improvements would now have to be made accessible to a broad public and also be implemented.

Source: Berlin [Tönnies]