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Recent developments in animal welfare assessment
On Thursday 27 October the Welfare Quality Network held its annual seminar on animal welfare indicators. This year the meeting was jointly organized by the three EURCAWs and held in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
The target audience consisted of scientific institutes who act as support bodies to their governments on animal welfare issues. In addition, the meeting was attended by representatives from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Dutch Competent Authority (NVWA), and industry aiming to improve welfare assessment through quality schemes. Around 40 people were physically present and 30 attended on-line.
Twelve speakers addressed the most recent developments in practical application of animal-based measures. The day started with presentations about animal welfare in the Netherlands and trademarks developed to assess animal welfare in Europe. The second half of the morning presentations were given about manual Welfare Quality assessments. The afternoon focused on research into the use of sensors for Welfare Quality assessments. For example, the use of camera’s, RFID, and other non-invasive sensor technologies.
Alexandra Contreras-Jodar had the opportunity to present the Centre's work on Relevant indicators of consciousness in broiler chicken after waterbath stunning.
Abstracts are available here.
Photo: local organizers Dionne Ruijter and Jamie Kater (EURCAW-Pigs) receive thanks for their work from Dr. Toni Dalmau (IRTA), who is the new Chair of WQN
Webinar: Assessment of consciousness after waterbath stunning of turkeys
Thursday 14 November 2022, from 10.00h to 12.00h (UTC +2, CEST)
Organized by EURCAW-Poultry-SFA.
The webinar was held via Teams.
Target audience: Official inspectors from the Competent Authorities of the EU MSs
Attendance through invitation only.
The PDF of the presentation is available here.
The webinar recording is available here.
Description:
Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24 September 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing requires assessing the state of consciousness of the animals in order to identify if the stunning and killing have been effectively done, but it is not an easy assessment.
During this webinar, EURCAW-Poultry-SFA reviewed the most valid, reliable, and feasible indicators to assess the state of consciousness after waterbath stunning (WBS) of turkeys, before and after bleeding, giving the opportunity for discussion and doubts resolution.
The aim of the webinar was to:
- Review the most valid indicators of consciousness after WBS.
- Discuss the main results of the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA study on test inter-observer repeatability and feasibility of the indicators of consciousness evaluated in commercial slaughterhouses.
- Discuss the impact of electrical key parameters on stunning efficiency.
- Recommend ABIs and their methods of assessment (where and how to do the assessment, during how much time, how to do the sampling), and best practices, providing video examples.
The webinar was attended by 70 people (86 registered), from 13 EU Member States:
Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.
Schedule:
10:00-10:10: General presentation of the Centre - V. Michel
10:10-10:20: Indicators of consciousness - A. Velarde
10:20-10:30: Technical study - A. Contreras
10:30-10:45: Methods and recommendations - A. Varvaró and V. Michel
10:45-12:00: Discussion
This webinar has been organized within the sub-activity 4.3: Develop course material for specific topics, of the working program 2021-2022.
EURCAWs met with National Reference Centres and National Supporting Bodies
September, 13th, 2022
The three EURCAWs (EURCAW Ruminants & Equines, EURCAW Pigs, and EURCAW Poultry-SFA) hosted the second workshop with National Reference Centres for Animal Welfare and the Competent Authorities’ Supporting Bodies on 13 September 2022. In total 89 participants from 22 Member States participated, including 24 members from the three EURCAWs, and three delegates from DG SANTE of the European Commission.
The aims of the meeting were to increase collaboration, facilitate knowledge exchange, and to get input to the next work programmes for the three EURCAWs.
The report is available here.
The slides from this meeting are available here.