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The contribution deals with history and effects of the Swiss animal welfare legislation of 1978. Special descriptions concern the development and increasing dissemination of animal friendly housing systems for cattle, swine, rabbits and poultry, the realization of the prohibition of the usual cages for laying hens until the end of 1991 and the development of aviary systems, the examination and improvement of many housing systems and equipment for farm animals, adaptations of many enclosures for wild animals in zoos and circuses, improvements in animal experimentation and also in housing of companion animals. The new animal welfare law of 2005 and the animal welfare ordinance of 2008 filled loopholes in the legislation. Animal friendly housing forms may also have economic advantages.

The contribution deals with legal structure, organization and problems of application of the Swiss animal welfare legislation of 1978. Besides positive effects considerable problems with the application of the legislation occurred, in particular in housing of bovines, swine and laying hens. Punishable acts of animal protection in companion and pet animals were markedly increasing in the last years, particularly in dogs. There were also loopholes in the legislation, which could be filled by the new animal welfare law of 2005 and the animal welfare ordinance of 2008 with only a few exceptions.

The review deals with fundamental aspects of the problems and the assessment of animal welfare aspects in extreme breeds of companion and pet animals, with legislation and with other measures to avoid breeding animals with extreme characteristics. Efforts are important in particular by breeding organisations to adapt breeding standards and to improve the education of judges and breeders. Furthermore adequate activities to correctly inform animal keepers are important.

The new Swiss ordinance on veterinary drugs poses a new challenge to the veterinarians, specially those working with farm animals. A complete overview about the registered veterinary drugs and immunobiologicals is absolutely necessary to cope with these new tasks: the internet version of the Swiss Veterinary Drug Compendium is a versatile tool to satisfy this needs (http://www.tierarzneimittel.ch). Due to the frequent updates and powerful search possibilities, this database is a reliable and comprehensive information system regarding Swiss veterinary drugs. We will demonstrate how this system can be used as a valuable help in the case of reconversions of drugs (e.g. use of small animal drugs in farm animals).

In fall 2004, a survey of a representative sample of 1185 Swiss suckler beef farmers was carried out by questionnaire (return rate 51.9%). 32.7% of the respondents castrated their calves without the help of a veterinarian, 37.8% mandated a veterinarian to carry out the castrations and 29.4% did not castrate their bull calves at all. On average, 8 calves were castrated per farm and year at an average age of 7 days when the castration was carried out by a farmer or 34 days when the castration was carried out by a veterinarian. Almost all farmers castrated their calves with the rubber ring, and a majority considered no other method as feasible. 73.9% of the veterinarians used the Burdizzo technique, 14.9% applied rubber rings, and 11.2% performed a surgical procedure. 22.6% of the farmers and 85.4% of the veterinarians used sedation; local anaesthesia was performed in 32.1% of the castrations carried out by farmers and in 84.5% of the castrations carried out by veterinarians. 65.7% of the farmers were concerned by the change of the Swiss Animal Protection Ordinance (2001), when pain relief became mandatory. 47.6% of these farmers changed their castration routine: 53.1% now mandated a veterinarian, 33.0% used sedation or local anaesthesia and 8.9% abandoned castration of their calves. 59.8% of the farmers intended to participate in a future course for laymen, to study and train the technique of local anaesthesia for castration. Castration of their calves is for many suckler beef farmers an inevitable husbandry procedure. The political goal, that all calves shall be castrated with local anaesthesia can only be reached when livestock owners are informed about the distress caused by the castration and convinced of the benefit of the local anaesthesia. Veterinarians are important information carriers in this process. The implementation also produces work, be it the more complex castration procedure or the education of the farmers who want to carry out the local anaesthesia themselves.

In Switzerland between 35,000 and 50,000 farm calves per year are fed rations containing concentrated whey. If the ration is balanced, whey has no adverse effects on health and growth rates of calves. Feeding whey to farm animals makes ecological and economical sense and constitutes a sound management for the disposal of milk by-products. The described case consisted of 53 calves of which 7 (13.2%) died within the feedlot-period. Based on clinical and management findings, salt-intoxication was diagnosed because of deprivation of free access to water. When large amounts of hypertonic feed containing low quality whey are fed to calves, their health is adversely affected. Therefore, article 16 of the Swiss Animal Protection Regulation should be changed.

According to the Swiss Federal law on animal protection and welfare, painful manipulations in animals have to be performed by a veterinarian under local or general anaesthesia, except for some specifically listed surgical interventions (article 65 of the by-law on animal protection). On September 1, 2001, castration of calves and lambs has been deleted from this list of exceptions. Since then, several pressure groups have requested these interventions to be delegated to the producers for economical reasons. The current article describes the results of a web-based survey on this subject, conducted among the members of the Swiss Association of ruminant practitioners (SARP). Two separate questionnaires--one focused on calves and one on lambs--were made available to the members of the SARP for a duration of 3 months as pdf-files on the homepage of the SARP (www.svwasmr.ch). On December 31, 2002, the deadline for submission of the completed questionnaires, the membership of the SARP was constituted of 360 practicing veterinarians. The response rate was 25%. Close to a hundred percents of the responding veterinarians expressed the expectation that the SARP publish guidelines on the castration of calves and lambs. An overwhelming majority refused the delegation of castrations to the producers, and further stated that they were not ready to accept any responsibility for interventions performed by the producers. However, a third of the responding veterinarians judged the expected workload for the castration of lambs to presumably exceed their current capacity. It is concluded from the results of this survey that the board of the SARP should urgently elaborate, discuss, and propose novel and innovative concepts to solve the issue of castration of calves and lambs.

Free trade with animals and animal products requires transparency concerning health information of animal populations. On the basis of the bilateral agreement with the European Union (EU), Switzerland is obliged to document freedom from Aujeszky's disease (AD) in its pig population by conducting surveys on a regular basis. Such a survey was planned for the first time for the year 2001. In this context, it was evaluated whether additional pig diseases should be included in the survey. This article describes the evaluation procedure for the selection of pig diseases integrated in the survey 2001. Additionally, it reports and interprets the results of this survey. All of the 2537 farms and 41,719 blood samples were tested negative. Therefore, it could be documented with a confidence of 99.98% that the AD-prevalence in Switzerland is below 1%.

Since September 1, 2001, castration of male calves and small ruminants in Switzerland is not allowed without anesthesia. The use of rubber rings for that purpose is forbidden. This change of the legislation has been claimed by the Swiss consumers and is aimed to increase the animal welfare. The current paper provides a review of the different techniques of anesthesia and castration that may be advocated in male ruminants. Sedation with xylazine and injection of lidocaine in the area of the base of the scrotum, followed by closed castration with the Burdizzo represents a safe technique for painfree castration of calves and lambs.

Since January 1st 1999 the use of antimicrobial growth promoters is forbidden in Switzerland. In a short review, the history of the utilisation of these substances, their effects in animal nutrition and the mode of action are described. The consequences of the prohibition are in part higher use of important antibiotics in prophylaxis and therapy.

Issues of breed defects such as morphology, physiology or behaviour in pure-breed dogs, are briefly discussed. Suggestions for various kinds of improvements are made, particularly concerning legislation, analysis of pedigree to avoid undesirable breed characteristics and what breeding clubs, individual breeders, judges, future dog owners and veterinarians could and should do about these problems; these are followed by summary conclusions.