Emanuelson Ulf, Sjöström Karin, Fall Nils
Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7054, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden.
Acta Vet Scand. 2018 Apr 12;60(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s13028-018-0376-6.
Good animal health is a notion that is germane to organic dairy production, and it is expected that such herds would pay significant attention on the health of their animals. However, it is not known if the applied animal disease management is actually more adequate in organic dairy cattle herds than in conventional dairy herds. A questionnaire study on biosecurity and animal disease management activities was therefore conducted among Swedish farmers with organic and conventional dairy cattle herds.
A total of 192 useable questionnaires were returned; response rates of 30.3 and 20.2% for organic and conventional farmers, respectively. Herd characteristics of the two herd types were very similar, except that pipeline/tie-stall systems were less common in organic farms and that organic farmers had a higher education level than their conventional counterparts. Also, very few systematic differences in general or specific disease management activities were observed between the two types of farms. The main exceptions being how milk from cows during antibiotic treatment was used, views on policy actions in relation to antibiotic use, and attitudes towards calling for veterinary support. Using milk from cows during antibiotic treatment was more common in conventional herds, although it was mainly given to bull calves. Farmers of organic herds were more positive to policy actions to reduce the use and need for antibiotics, and they reported waiting longer before contacting a veterinarian for calves with diarrhoea and cows with subclinical mastitis.
The stated biosecurity and animal disease management was relatively equal in Swedish organic and conventional dairy herds. Our results thus indicate that animal health is as important in conventionally managed dairy herds in Sweden as in organically managed herds.
良好的动物健康状况与有机奶牛养殖密切相关，预计此类牛群会高度重视其动物的健康。然而，尚不清楚有机奶牛群中所应用的动物疾病管理是否实际上比传统奶牛群更为完善。因此，针对拥有有机和传统奶牛群的瑞典农民开展了一项关于生物安全和动物疾病管理活动的问卷调查研究。
共收回192份可用问卷；有机和传统养殖农民的回复率分别为30.3%和20.2%。两种牛群类型的畜群特征非常相似，只是管道式/拴系式系统在有机农场中不太常见，且有机养殖农民的教育水平高于传统养殖农民。此外，在两种类型的农场之间，未观察到在一般或特定疾病管理活动方面存在非常明显的系统性差异。主要例外在于抗生素治疗期间奶牛的牛奶如何使用、对抗生素使用相关政策行动的看法以及寻求兽医支持的态度。在传统牛群中，使用抗生素治疗期间奶牛的牛奶更为常见，不过主要是喂给公牛犊。有机牛群的农民对减少抗生素使用和需求的政策行动更为积极，并且他们报告称，对于腹泻的犊牛和患有亚临床乳腺炎的奶牛，在联系兽医之前等待的时间更长。
瑞典有机和传统奶牛群中所述的生物安全和动物疾病管理相对相当。因此，我们的结果表明，在瑞典，传统管理的奶牛群中的动物健康与有机管理的牛群中的动物健康同样重要。
