Commission on Management and Health

Abstract

´´ 1. Background and history The commission started in 1969 with Prof. De Vuyst as president followed by Prof. Ludvigsen, The last decades in Europe have seen a consider- Gromers, Unshelm and Rafai. In the following lines able change in livestock production and in agricul- of the paragraph I have taken the liberty to use, with ture in general. Regarding health, the management his permission, part of a lecture given by Prof. Pal standards have been such that the profile of the Rafai, former president when he left the board of the diseases affecting livestock have been modified and commission. As part of animal science, the vetbecause of their biological nature, changes are still erinary studies were due to join the other disciplines underway. In general the health of European lives- of animal science. That is why Prof. Rafai wrote: ‘It tock is much better now than it was before the was obvious that we have to follow the basic Second World War (OIE, 1997). In parallel, prod- objectives of the association with the additional goal uctivity has been considerably improved both in to lay a bridge over the sometimes troubled water terms of crude quantities per animal and in terms of between animal breeders and veterinarians ’. In 1991 ratios (feed conversion . . . ). Finally, the risks of the business meeting of the Commission decided to disease transmission from animals or from animal reconsider the further actions of the Commission and products to human beings are dramatically reduced. re-tailor its directions. At that meeting we decided Bovine tuberculosis which was formerly a major that in future, when selecting themes, the following threat for human health is now kept under control. areas would be given priority: Brucellosis, another zoonosis, has been a severe problem in many countries for many years. However, ∞ infectious and non infectious diseases of farm after a period during which it was controlled proper- animals including herd health programmes. ly it might be a growing problem once again. ∞ survey of animal welfare in member countries. Regarding disease, little can be guaranteed. The ∞ housing and management including environmenterrible problem of BSE (Bovine Spongiform En- tal aspects. cephalopathy) in the UK, the recent epidemics of ∞ interactions between environmental factors and classical swine fever (CSF) in the Netherlands and in physiology, immunology and performance of other western countries are cruel demonstrations. farm animals. The present paper reports on the future challenges ∞ physiology and pathophysiology of health disrelated to health that livestock production will have orders that affect quality of the products. to tackle. It will also provide the reader with ∞ applied ethology. information on how Management and Health Commission could intervene in this perspective.