Working Group Animal Husbandry & Health

Animal Husbandry and Health

Modern livestock farming is faced with the task of restructuring itself in order to respond to the challenges posed by climate change, limited resources, labour shortages and the social demand for greater animal welfare. The current standardised husbandry and management methods often do not meet the individual needs and requirements of the animals kept and the challenges of the future. The needs and requirements of the animals in terms of husbandry and management must be recognised and met much more precisely than is currently the case. The task of the working group is to identify practical problems and develop solutions in order to identify new approaches for sustainable, animal-friendly and socially acceptable livestock farming and to transfer these into modern animal husbandry.

Animal husbandry conditions also have a direct influence on animal health. These influences are usually multifactorial events that lead to the impairment or improvement of animal health and thus welfare.

The work of the Animal Husbandry and Health working group therefore focuses on the development and adaptation of indicators and procedures to improve animal husbandry. Methods from the field of smart livestock farming are also used for this purpose.