Food Safety in Animal Production

Air pollution has been one of Europe’s main political concerns since the late 1970’s. The aim of EU-policy is to develop and implement appropriate instruments to improve air quality. The Sixth Environment Action Programme, “Environment 2010: Our future, Our Choice” regards the period from 2001 until 2010. One of the important issues of the EAP is the reduction of greenhouse gasses. This also supports the aims of the Kyoto-Protocol, because EU-countries have promised to decline their emissions with 8% in total in 2010 in comparison with 1990. In the EAP each country of the EU has an Emission Ceiling for gasses as SO2, NOx and NH3. According to an EU-directive these emission ceilings have to be reached in 2010. In addition to the EU-rules, each country have to implement its own national programme for a progressive reduction of the national emissions. For poultry, the reduction of NH3-emission is the most important issue in the EAP. Already there was EU-directive in 1996 concerning the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC). According to this directive no new poultry farm larger than 40,000 bird places may be operated without a permit. From 2007 all farms need a permission and have to use a so called BAT. These are techniques that aim to reduce emission of ammonia at acceptable costs. Large farms have to make a Environmental Impact Assessment when they apply for a new permit. For already many years in Holland poultry farms require a permit in which also the amount of ammonia and odour emission is registered. Lists of ammonia and odour emission factors for all the housing systems in the different poultry categories has been established. To fulfil the EU-directive 2001/81/EC, the Dutch government has set maximum values for the ammonia emission from farms. Together with the environment regulations, poultry farmers also have to deal with EU-directives on animal welfare. Most of the housing systems that give good welfare, have higher emissions of ammonia. These systems also consume more energy, which doesn’t harmonise with the need to reduce the emission of CO2.