CCSAW Animal Behaviour and Welfare Seminar: Welfare Concerns for Veal Calves: Housing, Nutrition, Antimicrobials and Disease Detection by Bart Pardon, Ghent University.

In Europe, the veal industry was currently criticized for its very intensive antimicrobial use and high level of antimicrobial resistance. Rationally reducing antimicrobial use in the contemporary veal industry, which inherently holds transport and co-mingling of animals at young age, is a huge challenge. However, in Belgium, reductions of 50 per cent (total use) and 75 per cent (critically important antimicrobials) are requested by 2020. Simultaneously, the industry must remain attentive to a growing concern for animal welfare in food animals.

This talk will provide an overview of how this pressure on antimicrobial consumption can be used as a momentum to improve veal calf welfare.

OVC Pathobiology AHL, Room 1800