Objetivo
Animal health status in organic dairy farming does not in all respect meet consumers’ expectations. Improvements are crucial to support consumers’ confidence and their willingness to pay premium prices. These are urgently needed to cover the higher production costs. Previous herd health planning concepts have prepared the ground for further advancements. However, recommended measures are often implemented only to an unsatisfactory degree, differing widely between farms, and resulting in an improper animal health status.
The IMPRO project aims to substantially overcome weak points in current health management strategies on organic dairy farms and to increase the implementation of evidence based measures and to improve practice of health management. This will be achieved by a multidisciplinary and participatory approach to develop farm specific solutions regarding preventive measures and early treatment strategies. Researchers with a thorough experience in conducting applied research will aim for the following:
• to develop a participatory and farm-centric diagnostic tool for a sound diagnostic procedure at the farm level, identifying the most effective measures to improve animal health,
• to evaluate farm-specific costs and benefits of recommended measures, to optimise farm-specific allocation of available resources, and to emerge incentives,
• to examine the motivation and attitudes of farmer, advisor, and veterinarian directly involved in health management practice,
• to elaborate reference values for achievable standards with respect to animal health status,
• to develop a pro-active monitoring protocol aiming for improved effectiveness of preventive and treatment strategies and for a reduction in the use of allopathic remedies,
• to assess the manageability of alternative treatments according to the state-of-the-art,
• to develop a software-based tool including health monitoring, farm diagnostics’ procedures, cost-benefit calculation, and break-even analysis.
Ámbito científico
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP7-KBBE-2012-6-singlestage
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria
Régimen de financiación
CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research projectCoordinador
34125 Kassel
Alemania