Isabel Blanco-Penedo Animal Welfare, IRTA www.impro-dairy.eu Farm centric participatory approach to reduce production diseases Seminar “Animal health in organic dairy farming in Poland“ 15th of March 2016, Radom
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
to reduce production diseases
Seminar
“Animal health in organic dairy farming in Poland“
15th of March 2016,
Radom
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
IMPRO topics
• Assessment of animal health / production diseases
• Farm centric participatory approach
• Improvement of monitoring and prevention
• Homeopathy and Phytotherapy
• Tool for cost-benefit calculations
• Motivations and attitudes: farmers, advisors and veterinarians
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
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200 herds in total
France: 55
Germany: 60
Spain: 28
Sweden: 57
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
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2013 2014 2015
First visit
•Researcher
•Get to know each other
•Collect information
Second visit
•Participatory approach
•Farmer, veterinarian, advisor
•Researcher as moderator
Questionnaire
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
Second visit:
•Farm walk
•Joint evaluation of the situation
•System analysis by an impact matrix
•Cost-assessment of production diseases
•Identify areas in need of improvement
•Discuss appropriate measures
•Agreement on an action plan
•Feedback session
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
Second visit:
•Farm walk
•Joint evaluation of the situation
•System analysis by an impact matrix
•Cost-assessment of production diseases
•Identify areas in need of improvement
•Discuss appropriate measures
•Agreement on an action plan
•Feedback session
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Characteristics of IMPRO farms
• Time since conversion: under 1 to 29 years (median 7)
• Herds largest in Sweden (68.1 cows) and smallest in Spain (29.7)
Range: 7 – 377
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Characteristics of IMPRO farms
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Characteristics of IMPRO farms
• 70% of farms had loose housing with cubicles
• Automatic milking systems:
– 10% of farms in Germany
– 49% of farms in Sweden
– None in Spain and France
• Breeds:
– Holstein: 48% of cows
– Red Dairy Cattle: 16%
– Simmental: 10%
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Characteristics of IMPRO farms
• Milk yield (energy-corrected):
– 6.588 kg in Germany
– 5.742 kg in Spain
– 6.378 kg in France
– 8.979 kg Sweden
• Range: 2.324 – 10.880 kg
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keeleyhire.co.uk
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Animal Health / Production Diseases
• Diseases caused by several factors
• Associated with husbandry, feeding, performance, breeding, and management
• IMPRO focus: Production disease complexes
– Udder
– Metabolism
– Reproduction
– Lameness
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Mastitis
high somatic cell count
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Lameness
3 scores Welfare Quality®
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Reproduction
prolonged calving interval
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Metabolism
risk of subacute ruminal
acidosis
(Milk fat < 3%
later than 30 DIM)
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Metabolism
risk of subclinical ketosis
(Fat - protein ratio > 1.5
until 100 DIM)
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Production diseaseson IMPRO farms
Replacement rate
proportion of first calvings
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
Second visit:
•farm walk
•joint evaluation of the situation
•system analysis by an impact matrix
•cost-assessment of production diseases
•identify areas in need of improvement
•discuss appropriate measures
•agreement on an action plan
•feedback session
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
System analysis by an impact matrix
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Animal health = a system property
• Intensive interactions betweenindividual factors
• New, unforseeable propertiesemerge from these interactions
Animal health is an emergent property of the farm organismor farm system resulting from the interactions between
individual factors.
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
System analysis by an impact matrix
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make system interaction visible
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
System analysis by an impact matrix
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Number Variable
1 Milk performance
2 Production diseases
3 Financial resources
4 Labour capacity
5 Feeding
6 Housing conditions
7 Reproduction management
8 Dry cow management
9 Calf and heifer management
10 Herd health monitoring
11 Hygiene
12 Treatments
13 Knowledge and skills
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
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200 “photos” of farm centric diagnosis
DE
SE
FR
ES
Feeding Production diseases
Labour capacity
Milk performance
Financial resources
Reproduction management
Dry cow management
Calf and heifer management
Hygien
eTreatments
Knowledge and
skills
Housing conditions
Herd health monitoring
FR: Treatments
ES - FRDE - SE
FR - SE
DE - ES
DE - FR
ES - SE
SE
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Farm centric participatory approach
Second visit:
•farm walk
•joint evaluation of the situation
•system analysis by an impact matrix
•cost-assessment of production diseases
•identify areas in need of improvement
•discuss appropriate measures
•agreement on an action plan
•feedback session
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tim
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cra
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Action plans
• In 8% of farms no actions wereidentified
• Others: 1 – 22 measures per farm (median 8)
• Least actions in France (2.5), most in Sweden (12)
• Some actions very general (‘improve feeding’), others very specific (‘use dry-cow therapy in case of positive California Mastitis Test’)
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Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Implementation
• Implemented measures:0 – 17
• 93.6% of farms implemented at least one measure
• Least in France (median 1), most in Sweden (median 7)
• Implementation rate:
– France: 82%
– Germany: 67%
– Sweden: 65%
– Spain: 18%
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oshaguard.com
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu J.E.Duval, EAAP2015 - Warsaw, Poland
ATTITUDE and MOTIVATION
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
Constraints
• Most not implemented actions related to construction
• Other limitations:
– time constraints
– doubts about the effect
– excessive costs
– absence of the initial problem
– implementation of alternative action(s)
– lack of expertise
– doubts about the appropriate-ness of the action
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pixgel.com
suhaila
lgosaib
i.com
clipartpanda.com
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
IMPLEMENTACION OF MEASURES
Country Model effects
Caracteristics/ indicator
DE ES FR SE
year ⨯
countryb Yearc
Average number of cows 5.4* 3.5 3.7 17.8*
Isabel Blanco-Penedo
Animal Welfare, IRTAwww.impro-dairy.eu
• Animal health is not as good as we want it to be→ there is need for improvement!
• Production diseases are related to the management→ a change in management can prevent them!
• Reasons for production diseases are different in each farm→ look at the whole farm system!
• A participatory approach helps to identify suitable measures for yourindividual farm→ talk to your vet/advisor!
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