The use of antibiotics is not permitted in Switzerland; moreover, no other medication exists to combat European foul brood. Hives with symptoms must therefore be destroyed in order to limit the outbreak, and the contaminated material must be sanitised. Since prevention is the best cure, early detection is desirable. Numerous studies have been undertaken and documents have been created at the Swiss Bee Research Centre and elsewhere to draw the attention of beekeepers to these problems and inform them about the causes and the control measures to be implemented.
Nitrogen (N) is a crucial nutrient for agriculture. Its unlimited provision by the Haber-Bosch process has led to high N surplus in agriculture, causing severe negative environmental externalities. The reduction of N losses in livestock systems and consequent enhancement of their nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) represents a key lever to substantially reduce the N surplus to meet European environmental policy targets. This review evaluates the potentials to improve the NUE of European cattle and pig livestock systems from feed to plant N use along the whole livestock system cascade. It discusses options to improve feed NUE and the current measures to reduce N losses at housing, manure storage and application as well as crop N recovery. The findings are synthesized at the overall livestock system level using exemplary case-study farms from selected European regions, to highlight potentials for livestock system NUE improvements in the context of the current and future European legislations. All case- study farms have already implemented measures for N loss mitigation, and their livestock system NUE reaches values between 55 % and 75 %. With the implementation of additional measures such as liquid manure acidification, low emission technologies and best field management, livestock system NUE can reach values between 75 % and 85 %. In order to achieve such high livestock system NUE and meet environmental goals, a scaled implementation of best available technologies is essential, and has to go hand in hand with a legislative harmonization and a targeted development of additional reduction measures and auxiliary tools for farmers.
