Biosafety in Livestock Production to Ensure

Food Safety

Thomas Blaha, Ph.D.Professor of Epidemiology, Dipl. EVVPH,

ECPHM President of the ISAH

University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany

Population and Food Production

Population Food Production

The Changing Conditions Increasing living standard - lack of hunger creates concerns beyond „getting enough

food“ - urbanisation „remotes“ agriculture to nostalgy

Reduced risk of war - importance of self-sufficiency decreasing

Global trade with food - retailers buy cheap AND quality everywhere, but also

ask for guarantees that the products are safe

The Implications are… Consumers - ask except of low prices: for safe and high quality food from healthy and „happy“ animals,

Society - demands compliance with animal welfare,

environmental protection and the principles of sustainability

Legislative - concentrates on feed and food safety, transparency

and tracing back (but also increasingly on animal welfare)

The Market

To be competitive, it is not any more enough to offer cheap products; except of low prices, the market asks also for:

- high quality food - nutritious and healthy - safe and no risk products - animal well being - sustainable production

The Legislative O.I.E. (World Animal health Organisation)

provides the rules for the free trade with animals

WTO (World Trade Organisation) includes food (and feed) into the „free trade of

goods“

SPS (Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measurements) protects against food safety threats and against „false“ non-tariff trade barriers

Codex Alimentarius provides the rules for the free trade with food (and feed)

The EU Regulations for feed and food

Codex Alimentarius

In 2000, the Codex Alimentarius redefined the major principles of producing safe and wholesome food:

- producers have the responsibility - HACCP principles mandatory - the „third eyes“ principle - private-public partnerships - primary production (feed and animals)

The EU Reg. (EC) 178/2002

Responsibiliy of food producers Process optimisation instead of end

product inspection Self control – neutral controls (audits

and certification) – state control of the control

Inclusion of primary production (feed, animal husbandry, transport)

Animal health, residue avoidance, animal well being, sustainability

= Pre-harvest food safety

Biosafety in Livestock Production (the aim)

Protecting animals against disease and any other risk to their health and well being

- contagious pathogens (epidemic) O.I.E. - multifactorial diseases (endemic) - inadequate husbandry and transports (suffering and pain) Preventing zoonotic pathogens and toxic

contaminants from entering the production chain for producing safe and wholesome food

Biosafety in Livestock Production (the tools)

Along the chain: - Growing feed: GAP - Processing feed: GMP and HACCP (e.g. GMP+)

- Livestock production: GAP and GVP (= biosecurity, animal

hygiene, pre-harvest food safety, antibiotics) - Harvesting (meat, milk and eggs): HACCP and GHP - Processing up to retail: HACCP and GHP - Consumption: personal and kitchen hygiene

TRACEABILITY

Biosecurity

On a national level: - controlled animal (and people) movement - disease monitoring and reporting - eraly warning and regular

surveillance On a herd level: - quarantine and isolation - visitor and material control - targeted diagnostics of suspects

Animal Hygiene

- Measures for preventing disease and preventing fod safety risks (stockmanship, pre-harvest food safety, disinfection…)

- Measures for improving animal welfare

(husbandry systems, handling animals, transport, stunning…)

- Measures for environmetal protection (waste management, emissons from animal housing…)

ISAH (International Society for Animal Hygiene)

The Food Safety ContinuumPre-harvest Food Safety

Feed Farm Packer/Processor Retail Consumption

Harvest and Post-harvest Food SafetyPre-harvest Food Safetyis the complex of continuous measures at farm level preventing contagious diseases and minimizing food-borne health risks to humans carried into the food chain via animals or animal products (= zoonotic pathogens, residues, bacterial antibiotic resistance…)

The Introduction of Salmo- nellae into the Food Chain

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Prudent use of antibiotics

The overall goal: preserving antibiotics for bacterial disease and minimising bacterial resistance:

- no prophylactic use

- no antibiotic growth promotion - targeted use (sensitivity testing) - as much as necessary, as little as

possible

Animal Health is...

...not a simple „No“ or „Yes“, but a complex „Low“ or „High“

Worms andEpidemics

PneumoniaandDiarrhoea

Little diseasewith lotsof drugs

No diseasewith no drugs

No animal and no humanpathogens

Low Animal Health High

Vaccination

Drugs (antimicrobials)

Animal health managementThe tools

Biosecurity, Trade restr., eradication

In Summary

Reaching the highest possible animal health status has become a core element for the production of food from animal origin

However, the expectation is not effective treatment of disease, but animals that have lived a „disease-free“ life and produce pathogen and residue-free food (no routine use of antibiotics)

The Changing Role of Animal Health Care

High

Low

1900 1950 1990 2000

Treating Diseases

Focus on SingleAnimals

Focus on Herdor Flock

Focus on FoodProductionChain

Increasing Herd Health for Productivity

Standardization andCertification of HerdHealth for Food Safety & Food Quality

Tracing and Tracking

..... ......

ConsumerConcerns with Food Safety & Food Quality

Tracing and Tracking

Transparency becomes a maket tool: - marekt partners want to know… - product identity (supplier evaluation) - tracing back to origin of production to

correct… - possibilities to recall products

First complete tracing-back and -forth systems

„ScoringAg“ (from acre to barn up to the shelf !!!)

by ScoringSystems, Inc., www.scoringag.com

The Current Commodity ProductionNon-Integrated Integrated

The Meat Market

Corporate packer/processorCorporate

packer/processor

Packer/processorunit(s)

Animal productionunits

Corporate SupplierCorporateSupplier

CorporateSupplier

Corporate Supplier

P = indepen- dent Producer

=Product Flow = Competition(mutually destructive)

= Command & Control

PP

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

PP

P P

P

P

The Evolving Demand-Driven Production

MS 1

P PPP

P P

Supplier

MS 2

PackerProcessor

P PP P P

P P P P PP P

Supplier

MS 3

Packer Processor

PP P PP P P P

P PP P P P

Supplier

MS 4

PackerProcessor

P P PP P PP P P

P P P P P P

Supplier

MS 5

PackerProcessor

P P PP P P P

P P P P P PP P P P

Supplier

MS = Market Segment = Vertical Coordination = Product Flow= Competition

PackerProcessor

P = Networking Producers

Conclusions Food production will change to more

sustainable vertical chain approaches Farmers will play a more active role - farmers decide whether they participate at all (e.g. notifiable diseases), or as market leaders (e.g. offering superior supply) - goventments will not do all controls, farmers have to take the responsibility as well

The principle for biosafety will be: self controls and neutral controls

assuring compliance - governments only control these controls (public-private partnerships)