A Vision for Animal Husbandry towards 2020

1
A Vision forAnimal Husbandry towards 2020

• Where to go to arrive in the future
• Prof. Thomas Blaha, Dipl. ECPHM ECVPH
• University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover,
  Germany, Field Station for Epidemiology

2
Where had we been in 1999

• There was still the long shadow of BSE
• There was still the old food safety approach
• There was still the self-sufficiency paradigme
  despite the WTO Marrakesh process and the SPS
  Agreement
• There was still only the Scandinavian Salmonella
  control paradigme
• (The UN Millennium Goals issued in 1999)

3
What did we discuss in 1999

• The Importance of Pre-harvest Food
• Safety for Modern Food Production
• Systems
• Thomas Blaha, DVM, Ph.D.
• Allen D. Leman Chair in Swine Health and
  Epidemiology,
• College of Veterinary Medicine, University
  of Minnesota,
• St. Paul, MN 55108,
  USA

4
The major points I made

• International trade with food
• Quality instead of quantity at low cost
• The need of vertical coordination
• The urban misconceptions
• and of course
• The need for new approaches to food safety
  pre-harvest.

5
The Food Safety ContinuumPre-harvest Food Safety
Feed Farm Packer/Processor
Retail Consumption
Harvest and
Post-harvest Food Safety Pre-harvest Food
Safety is the complex of continuous measures at
farm level that prevent or minimize the amount of
food-borne health risks to humans that are
carried into the food chain via animals or animal
products ( zoonotic pathogens, residues,
minimized antibiotic usage)
6
Introduction of Salmonella into the Food
Chain
slaughter animals
retailers
transport
kitchens
slaughter
processing
7
The Changing Role of Animal Health Care
Focus on Food Production Chain
High
Standardization and Certification of Herd Health
for Food Safety Food Quality

Consumer Concerns with Food Safety Food Quality
Focus on Herd or Flock
Increasing Herd Health for Productivity
Focus on Single Animals
Treating Diseases
Low
.....
1900
1950
1990
2000
......
8
Was there something wrong

• Humbly said
• N o

9
Did everything come true?

• Humbly said
• Yes

10
The new EU food safety approach

• In 2000 White Paper on Food Safety
• Reg. EC 178/2002 basis for new approaches to
  food safety
• Zoonosis Regulations (2003)
• Hygiene Package (2004)
• The new EU Animal Health Strategy 2007 -2013

11
Does this mean that

• There is nothing to be changed to arrive in the
  future?
• Well NO
• Since there are new

12
New demands and challenges

• Animal Welfare re-defined
• Animal Health re-defined
• Diversification understood
• Feeding the World understood
• Sustainability re-defined

13
Animal Welfare

• Transports dominated until 2000
• Move to animal health and the living conditions
  during the animals life as major factors of
  Animal WELL BEING
• The German Veterinary Assoc. for Animal Wefare
  focuses now on measuring the output instead of
  only the input
• J. Webster will

14
Reactive vs. proactiveAnimal Welfare
Cruelty to animals
judicial
courts
Vet auth
reactive penalty
Prohibition to farm
offences
fares
instructions
Vets farmers
unlawful

consultation
deficiencies
T V T
proactive prevention
Good . Practice
Best.Practice
15
Animal Health

• Until 1985 productivity
• Until 2000 productivity und food safety
• New animal welfare (disease, injuries)
• public health (75 of all)
• The One-health Concept (L. Kuster M. Aho
  will)
• e.g. no routine antibiotic use!!!!!
• new vaccines and new diagnostics
• breeding for disease-resistance

16
Animal Health is...

• ...not a simple No or Yes, but a complex
  Low or High

Animal health management
The tools
Drugs
Vaccination
Biosecurity, Trade restr., eradication
Worms and Epidemics
Pneumonia and Diarrhoea
Little disease with lots of drugs
No animal and no human pathogens
No disease with no drugs
Low Animal Health
High
17
Diversification

• Until 1999 know-all arguments about
  regionalisition vs. globalisation
• Today we need both, but professional
• Regional (fresh) for saving recourses
• (short transports, low-input cycle-production,
  
• Global (shippable) for feeding the world

18
Feeding the World

• UNO Millennium Goal 50 hunger by 2015
• 1999 820 Mio. hungry people
• 2008 923 Mio. hungry people
• (gt50 of them are small farmers!!!)
• 2050 9 Bill. People on the earth
• If today evenly distributed 1400 kcal.!!!
• I.e. Intensification has no alternative, but

19
Sustainability

• End of 18th and beginning of 19th century
• Concept developed in forestry harvest and
  re-growth have to be in balance
• (economic aspect)
• 1987 Our common future (BRUNDTLAND
  commission)
• Development is sustainable when it meets the
  need of the present without compromising the
  ability of the future generations to meet theirs
  (environmental aspect)

20
Sustainability

• 1992 UN Conference in Environment and
  Development (Rio de Janeiro)
• Human beings are the centre of concerns of
  sustainable development. They are entitled to a
  healthy and productive life in harmony with
  nature. (ecological and social aspects)
• Today (not yet a consensus of all)
• Sustainable environmental (protect
  recources),
• societal (ethical not
  only next generations)
• economic (profitability to
  feed people - future)

21
All this means

• Professional animal husbandry
• - high but animal welfare conform performance
• - animal health and welfare without routine
  drugs
• - precision farming (IT, ID-systems,
  sensors)
• Alternative feed supply
• - improved mesurements for dietary energy
• - mais and soya for humans, cellulose and
  algi for animals
• Intensified research (global networks)
• - e.g. green genetical engeneering technol.
  

22
Our first ISAH Text Book

• Published by Wageningen Academic Publishers
  (ink still wet)
• Based on the scientific presentations at XIII
  ISAH Congress in Tartu (2007)
• Contents 33 chapters by renowned authors, all
  are peer-reviewd prior to printing
• There is a box for business cards at the
  reception if interested, leave your card, the
  publisher house will send you a copy