The purpose of this study was to evaluate policy options for securing low levels of
production diseases on organic dairy farms. Ensuring good animal health is a stated aim of
organic livestock farming and an important reason why consumers purchase organic
products, although achieved health states are comparable to conventional farming.
Stakeholder consultations were conducted in four European countries, involving 39 supplychain
stakeholders (farmers, advisors, veterinarians, certifiers, processors, and retailers).
The prevalence of production diseases observed in a prior study of organic dairy farms was
discussed and participants were asked to rate their level of agreement with a number of
statements describing different ways, including policy change, of addressing the large
observed variation in animal health.
Stakeholders saw the need to reduce production diseases on organic dairy farms and
generally favoured establishing outcome-oriented animal health requirements. However,
there was no agreement on the question of who should be responsible for measuring
production diseases and defining minimum requirements for organic farms, i.e. regulators
or market actors. Different supply chain actors saw different opportunities and needs for
the use of policy instruments, likely due to differing priorities for animal health
improvement, reflecting their different interests, e.g. animal health effectiveness, or costeffectiveness.
The study highlights the importance of measuring health outcomes and defining outcomeoriented
requirements. Moreover, opportunities and risks of different policy instruments
are described from a stakeholders as well as a scientific perspective.