Organic livestock production and organic foods from animal origin

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Organic livestock production and organic foods
from animal origin

• Health and Animal Welfare issues
• Food Safety Issues
• Lina Koufokotsiou / Veterinarian

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Organic systems and rural development

• What is organic farming and food
• Organic farming is a holistic approach to food
  production making use of crop rotation
  environmental management and a good animal
  husbandry to control pests and diseases.
• Processed organic foods are foods that are
  produced organically and organic ingredients must
  make up at least 95 of the food.
• Does organic farming benefit rural development
• organic farming on-farm processing direct
  marketing short food supply chains rural
  development

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Anavra Magnisias

• Remote mountain village (1.000 m height)
• Development pillars
• 3 livestock production parks
• Modern organic slaughter plant
• 1 wind-energy plant which generates a value of
  100.000 euro/yr
• Environmental Cultural Park
• Folk culture museum
• All day nursery and elementary school
• Rural medicine practice office
• Hostel for the teachers and doctors

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Organic livestock productionHealth and Welfare

• Overview of the important health and animal
  welfare issues
• The general aim of an organic livestock system
  is to
• Nurture positive health and vitality
• Ensure proper control of disease
• Encourage positive animal welfare

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Health and Welfare

• Organic beef and dairy cattle
• Choice of breed
• Dairy breeds (indigenous Holstein Friesian
  etc)
• Beef breeds (traditional early maturing breeds)
• Housing
• The housing system must provide a comfortable
  clean well-drained and dry lying area.
• It must also allow the animal to move freely
  around without the risk of injury

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Organic beef and dairy cattle (1)

• Feeding
• Livestock must be fed on organically produced
  feeding stuffs.
• The feeding of young animals must be based on
  natural milk preferably maternal milk (3 months
  for cattle).
• Feeding stuffs must not have been produced with
  the use of genetically modified organisms or
  products derived therefrome.

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Organic beef and dairy cattle (2)

• Animal Health Plans
• Closed Herd Policy
• Organic herds are allowed to bring in breeding
  animals(10 of herd size annually)
• Herd Health Security
• All likely risk factors concerning the
  introduction of contagious diseases from outside
  the herd should be considered.
• Disease reduction and control plan
• The plan should consider each identified disease
  or syndrome and establish ways in which the
  potential of identified risk factors can be
  reduced or eliminated.

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Organic sheep production

• Use of Indigenous and Local Breeds
• More likely to utilize lower quality feed
• Being more resilient to climatic stress
• Being more resistant to local parasites and
  diseases.
• Selection for disease resistance
• there is a trade-off between resistance to
  parasites and productivity.

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Organic Pig Production (1)

• Constraints in conversion of conventional
  monogastric livestock systems into the organic
  closed model
• Are not land-based
• Are dependent on a high level of inputs from
  outside the farm unit
• Are characterized by high stocking densities per
  unit both of land and of housing area
• Are not designed to allow free-range conditions
• Are often dependent on high levels of routine
  veterinary inputs

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Organic Pig Production (2)

• Organic standards
• Requiring late weaning of piglets
• Requiring free range conditions or housing with
  access to outdoors and pasture
• Requiring that outdoor areas must provide
  conditions that meet the livestocks biological
  and ethological needs
• Limiting the type of mutilations allowed
• Requiring that appropriate breeds suitable for
  rearing conditions are used
• Requiring minimum stocking densities in outdoor
  areas to prevent poaching and overgrazing and
  effectively reduce disease risk.

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Drazilovo FarmMetamorfosi Rodohori Naoussa

• Founded in 1996 at the north-easternof
  mountain Vermio.
• From 2001 it has been advanced in the production
  of organic pork meat.

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Drazilovo Farm

• Absolute freedom of movement and nutrition of
  animals with fruits of forest chestnuts
  mushrooms and various roots.
• Prevention of illness is achieved by the use of
  aromatic plants.
• Creation of protective areas for the sows and the
  piglets
• Protection of animals from their natural enemies
  and mostly from the man.

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Organic Poultry Production

• Health status of organic flocks
• The organic approach
• Restriction in the use of prophylactic medicines
  
• Consequences of being free-range
• organic systems are at greater risks

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Organic poultry production

• Feeding organic poultry
• Organic feed accounts for over 95 of the
  variable costs of organic egg production.
• Organic birds consume more feed at a lower feed
  conversion ratio (FCR)
• Food consumption to reach slaughter weight of
  275 kg is approximately twice than needed to
  fatten a conventional bird at 56 days.

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Food safety and nutrition issues

• Is organic food safer that other food
• Both organic and conventional food have to meet
  the same legal food safety requirements.
• The safety and quality of food depends on the
  care and controls throughout the food chain.
• There can be good and bad practice in
  conventional and organic production alike.
• E.g. pesticides
• Authenticity is important for both producers and
  consumers
• At the moment the only way to tell you a food is
  organic is the claim on the label. There no
  specific tests to detect fraud.

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Organic food products in Greece

• South of the city of Chios we find Kampos where
  organic katsikisio mastelo is produced.
• It is produced from pasteurized organic full-fat
  goat milk.
• The animals are kept in the mountain areas of
  Chios and the production of organic milk is
  certified by Bio-Hellas

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Bio network of Western Greece (1)

• Western Greece also called the Natural Park of
  Greece constitutes the region with the bigger
  growth of Organic Agriculture.
• In the rich natural environment of the region
  organic producers combine organic culture of land
  with the organic livestock production

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Bio network of Western Greece (2)Production of
Organic Feta

• The product is made from the milk of sheep and
  goats which are organically reared free in
  mountain areas of Western Greece.
• They produce different types of Feta either
  exclusively from sheep milk or a combination of
  sheep (70) and goat (30) milk.
• The product is salted with thick granules of pure
  sea salt from Mesolongi lagoon.
• The cheese is put in layers in wooden barrels in
  order to mature.

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Creta FarmEn Elladi Organic Line

• Creta Farm is situated in the island of Crete and
  is one of the leading companies in the deli meats
  market
• En Elladi Organic Line combines olive oil from
  the island of Crete with meat of organically fed
  animals.
• The products are certified by DIO

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Alternative farming systemsAlternative marketing
and business practices

• Other farming systems or marketing and business
  practices should be also considered.
• THANK YOU.