Animal health and welfare planning - identifying key principles and approaches

During the presentations and discussions at the 1st ANIPLAN workshop it became apparent that there are many different approaches to disease prevention and treatment planning. These exist in a variety of structured forms, and also involve different approaches to the dialogue between farmer and advisor. The distinction between ‘an animal health plan’ and ‘animal health planning’ has also become evident (see Atkinson & Neale, 2008 in these proceedings). Whereas a plan refers to documentation, planning is understood as a process which actively involves the farmer, is based on an assessment and evaluation of a real situation and includes an explicit formulation of the farmer’s goals regarding animal health and welfare. In order to develop a single yet adaptable approach to health planning that can be tested under diverse conditions, there is a necessity to identify key principles. This report describes workshop discussions and the consensus reached with regard to the identification of such principles.