Sustaining Animal Health and Food Safety in Organic Farming (SAFO) is an European Commission funded project, with the objective to contribute to improved animal health and food safety in organic livestock production systems in existing and candidate member countries of the European Union. Workshops form a central part of the SAFO activities. This volume, with the contributions to the 2nd SAFO Workshop in Witzenhausen, Germany in March 2004, is one in a series of five proceedings published during the lifetime of the project (2003-2006). Electronic version of the proceedings will also be available at the SAFO web-site at http://www.safonetwork.org/.
The 2nd SAFO workshop focussed on the impact of farm level practices on animal health and quality aspects of organic livestock production. While most farm assurance schemes, including the organic farming certification, are primarily concerned with regulating the production system, the outcomes of the system, in terms of animal health and welfare, are particularly important in livestock production. The status quo assessments presented in the Workshop suggested that animal health and welfare outcomes of the organic production systems do not necessarily fulfil high consumer – or indeed animal – expectations. It was also suggested, that there may be particular problems in relation to the quality and safety of animal products, particularly in situations where regulations to achieve wider objectives – e.g. animal welfare - could have negative impact in relation to zoonotic diseases. Some of the speakers highlighted the inadequacies of the current inspection and certification systems, in terms of securing high levels of health and welfare in organic livestock systems. – Improved health planning, combined with a structured assessment of health and welfare outcomes, as part of certification, was suggested as a potential solution to these problems.
Perhaps the most valuable offering of the 2nd SAFO Workshop was the wealth of information on husbandry, feeding and breeding techniques that are being developed for organic livestock production systems all over the Community. In spite of some formidable problems, marked strides forward are being taken by the farmers and their advisers in areas like improving the poultry husbandry, identifying suitable feeding and breeding strategies for dairy cows and controlling parasites with minimal medicine inputs. – One of the important tasks of the SAFO Network is to ensure that the messages from these projects are taken into consideration in the development of the EU Regulation on organic livestock production.