(b)

with regard to husbandry practices and housing conditions: personnel keeping animals shall possess the necessary basic knowledge and skills as regards the health and the welfare needs of the animals; husbandry practices, including stocking densities, and housing conditions shall ensure that the developmental, physiological and ethological needs of animals are met; the livestock shall have permanent access to open air areas, preferably pasture, whenever weather conditions and the state of the ground allow this unless restrictions and obligations related to the protection of human and animal health are imposed on the basis of Community legislation; the number of livestock shall be limited with a view to minimising overgrazing, poaching of soil, erosion, or pollution caused by animals or by the spreading of their manure; organic livestock shall be kept separate from other livestock. However, grazing of common land by organic animals and of organic land by non-organic animals is permitted under certain restrictive conditions; tethering or isolation of livestock shall be prohibited, unless for individual animals for a limited period of time, and in so far as this is justified for safety, welfare or veterinary reasons; duration of transport of livestock shall be minimised; any suffering, including mutilation, shall be kept to a minimum during the entire life of the animal, including at the time of slaughter; apiaries shall be placed in areas which ensure nectar and pollen sources consisting essentially of organically produced crops or, as appropriate, of spontaneous vegetation or non-organically managed forests or crops that are only treated with low environmental impact methods. Apiaries shall be kept at sufficient distance from sources that may lead to the contamination of beekeeping products or to the poor health of the bees; hives and materials used in beekeeping shall be mainly made of natural materials; the destruction of bees in the combs as a method associated with the harvesting of beekeeping products is prohibited;

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-05 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.