2019/01/01 by Litt, Joanna, Laborde, Marie, Arroyo, Julien +13
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact #Alimentation animale #Analyse du cycle de vie #Animal feeding #Canard #Conduite d'élevage #Coût de production #Duck #Environmental impact #Impact environnemental #Livestock management #Métabolisme #Rabbits: Nutrition, Reproduction, Health #Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis #Thermoregulation #Ventilation
paper · pdf · doi:10.15454/kjfmtn
openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
On a worldwide scale, France is the leading producer of foie gras. To maintain this leadership, the sector must remain competitive and control its production costs while meeting specific societal and environmental expectations such as preservation of product quality, respect for animal welfare or limited use of natural resources. The aim of the project was to develop innovative production systems that would limit the impacts of feed and its surrounding practices on the competitiveness of the sector and the environment. An experimental approach was associated with a multi-criteria sustainability assessment (farm level), complemented by an analysis of production cost (farm level) and environmental impacts (product level). Two domains were studied: one related to feed, and the other related to ambient conditions during breeding and force-feeding. Several issues have been identified to progress. Reducing the amount of food distributed (-10%) appears as a possible solution to reduce feeding costs during rearing. The use of sorghum is also of interest but its use should be limited to the rearing phase. Lastly, semi-open air system, compared to open-air system, helps to improve IC (Consumption Index) and reduces animal heterogeneity and mortality. This project also provided original results related to the understanding of mechanisms involved in body temperature regulation of ducks on the one hand and on the other hand to LCA results of different innovations. Lastly, it contributed to the creation of two tools: one to drill ventilation ducts and another to calculate production costs. The results were disseminated to the professionals throughout the project in order to make all data available.