122 ment to producing without antibiotics. Success factors that man can influence include protocol-based working, disease symptom monitoring, hygienic working practices, good climate control and putting the animal’s needs first. From the animal’s perspective, key success factors are starting with a high health status (SPF), quality of diet and improving immunity. Technical success factors include pig stall construction measures: compartmentalization and the use of easy-toclean materials can make a major contribution towards reducing the use of antibiotics. Stalls must be designed with the animal’s health in mind. How do you achieve healthy farming practices, without antibiotics, without animal suffering? First of all, the farm must be assessed to identify potential problems and hazards. The animal farmer must determine his level of ambition based on his vision. All advisers and employees of the farm must share the same vision. Financially feasible solutions must be worked out and implemented. One method for carrying out this process in a structured manner over time is the measures matrix. Such a matrix brings together the set objectives (ambition), the animal health problems and hazards, and the possible measures (actions) to be taken. The animal’s interests must be central when devising the matrix. An active euthanasia policy will also help to avoid animal suffering. Can antibiotics always be avoided (if not, what are the alternatives)? No, antibiotics cannot be avoided in all cases. For animal welfare reasons, it may be necessary as a last resort to treat individual animals with antibiotics. However, it is possible to eliminate all forms of antibiotics-based herd medication and preventative treatments. The 3rd and 4th generation of antibiotics (newer types) must be exclusively reserved for human use and be banned from animal farming. This, however, calls for measures to safeguard the herd’s overall health. There are several alternative treatment methods which are currently being studied or are worth studying. What are the risks of antibiotics-free experimentation and how must these be mitigated? The risk of antibiotics-free experimentation is that the selected alternative strategy is not sufficiently effective, so that outbreaks of disease may occur after all. In addition, it will not be possible to implement the entire set of actions all at once and it may take time for the measures to have a visible effect. Experimenting with antibioticsfree production may lead to the (slightly) late treatment of sick animals with antibiotics, which may actually increase the animal’s suffering. It is advisable not to stop the use of antibiotics suddenly, but to do this according to a carefully planned timepath based on the set ambitions. This keeps the risks within manageable bounds. It is important to ensure that everyone involved (animal farmer, employees, vet and feed adviser) all share the same ambition and take responsibility for the experiments. Pagina 132
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