Quality assurance and customer protection with organic porc
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Sundrum, Albert; Ebke, Marlene and Richter, Uwe (2004) Quality assurance and consumer protection with organic pork. [Quality assurance and customer protection with organic pork.] Universität Kassel, Fachbereich Ökologische Agrarwissenschaften, Fachgebiet Tierernährung und Tiergesundheit.
Abstract
In a survey carried out on 21 organic pig farms which delivered their pigs to a single abattoir, animal health status, and carcass quality (n = 3989 carcasses) were assessed.
Only 10.5 % of the lungs showed middle to high-grade pathological findings. 11.5 % of the control group of conventional pigs (n = 46535) provided similar findings. 65.2 % of the organic pigs showed milk spots in the liver. In contrast, conventionally produced fatteners had significantly lower pathological findings (41.1 %) in the liver.
Carcass quality was rated according to the EUROP-System: 46 % showed the classification “E”, 30 % “U”, 19 % “R”, 4 % “O” and 1 % “P”. The intramuscular fat content in the M. longissimus dorsi averaged to 1.53 %. Nearly all carcasses (95.4 %) reached a pH1-value in the muscle of 6.0 or more.
Deficits were detected in relation to the feeding management. Farmers, who implemented the recommended measures to decrease the parasite load, achieved a significant reduction of milk spots. The spot sampling of blood analysed for mycoplasma and salmonella antibodies revealed that animals on most of the farms had contact to the pathogens.
The results of the investigations showed that the examined organic pig farms did not meet the high demands of organic farming in relation to the management and the quality assurance in all aspects. Insufficient feedback and a lack of honouring the efforts by premium prices as well as missing health and quality controls measures may be responsible for existing deficits and, on the other hand offer options to improve the current situation.