Animal health and welfare in organic sheep and goat farming--experiences and reflections from a Swedish outlook.

Introduction There are different ways to assemble data in order to get a picture of animal health: registrations made by the farmer, veterinary treatments, lamb growth, milk production, meat inspections, carcass weights and conformations. Most data though don't distinguish between organic and conventional production. Up to this time, the best way to get a picture of animal health in organic production, and to compare it with conventional production or even better with the ideal animal health, has been through projects and epidemiological research. The exchange of experience between veterinarians, advisors, KRAV inspectors etc has been and is worth-while. Swedish Animal Health Service has run four projects on animal health in organic production. Three of them concern internal parasites in organic sheep flocks. The aim of the fourth is to identify health problems and suggest a model for health control in organic production of beef cattle, swine and sheep. This paper presents the author's own experiences and reflections from her work with organic sheep farming in Sweden.