EVENT REPORT. Technical meeting on the use of animal-based measures for the welfare of dairy cows, pigs and broilers 1, 2. Parma, July 2012

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Supporting Publications 2012:EN-341 EVENT REPORT Technical meeting on the use of animal-based measures for the welfare of dairy cows, pigs and broilers 1, 2 Parma, 04-05 July 2012 European Food

1 Supporting Publications 2012:EN-341 EVENT REPORT Technical meeting on the use of animal-based measures for the welfare of dairy cows, pigs and broilers 1, 2 Parma, July 2012 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy 3 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Following a request by the European Commission, the EFSA Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) Panel published several Scientific opinions related to the use of animal-based measures (ABMs) to assess the welfare of various farm animals (dairy cows 4, pigs 5 and broilers 6 ). The interaction between risk factors, consequences and animal-based measures were also assessed. The AHAW Panel also issued a statement on the use of ABMs to assess the welfare of animals 7, providing a general framework for future Scientific opinions and for a wider range of animal species. In particular, the statement highlighted that carefully selected combinations of ABMs would allow assessment of the welfare of target populations of farmed animals, and that systematic and harmonised collection of validated ABMs should be promoted to move towards quantitative risk assessment of animal welfare Objectives EFSA organized a technical meeting with stakeholders and interested parties, with the objectives to: i) present the EFSA scientific outputs on the use of ABMs to assess the welfare of dairy cows, pigs and broilers, ii) exchange views on the use of the ABMs listed for those species in the EFSA Scientific opinions, and iii) exchange experience and information on measures/indicators already recorded and collected in the field, their fitness for purpose and relevance for possible future data collection. 1 On request from EFSA, Question No EFSA-Q Disclaimer: The views or positions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent in legal terms the official position of the European Food Safety Authority. The European Food Safety Authority assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear. 3 Acknowledgement: EFSA wishes to thank the speakers, chairmen and participants at the technical meeting and EFSA staff: Franck Berthe, Chiara Fabris, Maria Ferrara, Rachel Hopka, Ewa Krzeminska and Karen Mackay for the support provided to the organisation of the technical meeting and to this scientific output Any enquiries related to this output should be addressed to ahaw@efsa.europa.eu Suggested citation: European Food Safety Authority; Technical meeting on the use of animal-based measures for the welfare of dairy cows, pigs and broilers. Supporting Publications 2012:EN-341. [8 pp.]. Available online: European Food Safety Authority, 2012

2 1.3. Participants Technical Meeting on welfare animal-based measures The meeting was opened to participants representing EFSA, its AHAW Panel and working groups, the European Commission, research groups and interested parties, including technical representatives of the industry, farmers and retailers, NGOs, and international organizations. The list of participants (Annex 1) is included in this report. 2. The meeting Dr. Franck Berthe, Head of the Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) Unit of EFSA, opened the technical meeting, welcomed the participants and presented the background and objectives of the meeting. The meeting was organised with plenary sessions and parallel working groups focused on the use of ABMs in the three species: dairy cows, pigs (specifically, in the categories of piglets and fattening pigs) and broilers. Thorough discussions followed the plenary sessions of the meeting. The agenda of the meeting is detailed in Annex 2 of this report Plenary sessions Prof. Linda Keeling described the framework and the methodological approach developed by the AHAW Panel in the recent EFSA Scientific opinions on ABMs. Prof. Keeling highlighted the steps essential to carry out quantitative welfare risk assessment and the existing gaps in information, which stakeholders could help to fill. Prof. Temple Grandin presented a practical application of ABMs for assessing animal welfare at slaughter, stressing the need for indicators that are easy to be used and to be recorded by operators. Dr. Andrea Gavinelli, Head of the Animal Welfare Unit of Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) presented the new EU Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of animals and explained the perspectives by the European Commission on the use of ABMs, which are provided with sound scientific basis. The first plenary session was closed with a presentation by Dr. Daniela Battaglia, who described the global perspectives of using such measures in support of FAO programmes, highlighting the importance of ensuring a broad access to ABM data collections Working groups The participants were divided into the three working groups on the basis of their background and field of interest, to ensure contributions from all the different stakeholders and interested parties groups. Each working group was coordinated by a chairman. For these exercises, the full lists of ABMs, provided in the related EFSA Scientific opinions and shared in advance with participants, were discussed to identify: i) which ABMs are already collected in the field or are feasible to be collected in the future, ii) which combinations of ABMs could be better used for quantitative risk assessment, iii) the methodological and practical issues related to measuring and collecting ABMs for assessing animal welfare. Within each working group, participants contributed to the exercises with their technical experience and views through a tour de table. The main points of discussions were summarised, and presented by each chairman at the end of the working group exercises. Among the lists provided by the EFSA Scientific opinions, the working groups identified some ABMs that are already collected on the farm or at the slaughterhouse either on regular basis or for the implementation of quality schemes, as well as the ABMs that are considered feasible to be collected. Taking into account the species-specific differences, these ABMs mainly relate to the following categories: injuries/lesions, mortality and nutritional status/intake. The ABMs related to the category Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 2

3 of mobility (such as: locomotion score, lameness and gait score) were also considered important and feasible to be collected, mainly at farm level. Although behavioural ABMs were considered valuable for assessing the welfare of the animals, it was stressed that they are not always easy to standardize and record. Some participants expressed their concerns on the possibility of defining and applying these ABMs and suggested that behavioural ABMs could be difficult to implement. Among the ABMs that are already collected and were considered the most valuable ( top-ones ) by the working groups, some are species-specific, e.g. mastitis and metabolic diseases for dairy cows, tail-lesions and intact tail for fattening pigs, culling on-farm and foot-pad dermatitis for broilers. After the meeting, some participants commented that in addition the Average Daily Gain (ADG), a measure of the nutritional intake, is already collected by farmers and it is considered a good indicator regarding the sanitary and welfare status of the pigs. 3. Discussion All participants welcomed the EFSA initiative in consulting stakeholders and interested parties about its ongoing work on the use of ABMs to assess animal welfare. The two plenary sessions, and the working group exercises were followed by open discussions, where participants highlighted the need for some clarifications, in particular in relation to the objectives of EFSA s work on ABMs and future development, and to the definition of feasible ABMs. In this regard, the importance of focusing on measures that are easy to use on the farm and that can be recorded directly by farmers was highlighted by many. Some participants emphasised this point as a cornerstone regarding the understanding and the acceptance of ABMs by a large number of farmers. EFSA stressed that the main goal of the technical meeting was to exchange scientific and technical aspects related to ABMs identified by the EFSA Scientific opinions, recognising the importance of establishing a constructive dialogue with stakeholders. EFSA aims at moving towards quantitative risk assessment of the welfare of target animal populations. This can only be performed on the basis of the collection of standardised indicators by possibly using data sources on ABMs already existing and available in the field, and channelling the information in a single database. ABMs are indeed considered a real potential to steer EFSA work into that direction. Stakeholders and interested parties may therefore play an important supporting role in identifying the possible combinations of robust and recordable ABMs to be validated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility and repeatability for the purpose of quantitative risk assessment. The importance of making accessible a future database containing the information channelled by EFSA was also highlighted by some participants. 4. Overall Conclusions The meeting was highly appreciated by the participants since it provided an opportunity for different stakeholders, scientists and EFSA to exchange information, discuss latest scientific developments and express different views on the topic, in particular on the use of the ABMs provided in the EFSA Scientific opinions for dairy cows, pigs and broilers. The main EFSA goal is to move towards quantitative risk assessment of the welfare of food-producing animals and provide risk assessors with validated tools to flag main animal welfare issues and quantify them. In order to achieve this goal, and while focusing on ABMs for which data sources are already available in the field, it is necessary to work on the definition, fitness for purpose and validation of the measures, and consequently on the identification of the most robust and recordable combinations of ABMs. Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 3

4 EFSA work will be continued through a specific call for proposals for data collection on ABMs, launched under art 36 of the EFSA s funding Regulation No 178/ Finally EFSA stressed the importance of continuing the technical dialogue with stakeholders and interested parties and of coordinating the scientific activities in order to avoid duplications of work. 5. Annexes A) Annex 1 List of participants B) Annex 2 Agenda of the meeting 8 More information is available at Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 4

5 A. APPENDIX 1- LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Name Afonso, Ana Alpigiani, Irene Altemeier, Jörg Barbieri, Sara Battaglia, Daniela Berckmans, Daniel Berg, Lotta Berthe, Franck Bertocchi, Luigi Bonardi, Silvia Bonde, Marianne Broom, Donald Buonacucina, Alessandra Corradi, Attilio Correia, Sandra Daga, Sara Dalmau, Antoni Damm, Brigitte De Briyne, Nancy Edwards, Sandra Fabris, Chiara Ferrara, Maria Ferrari, Paolo Fraser, Anna Garcia, Rebeca Gavinelli, Andrea Gervelmeyer, Andrea Grandin, Temple Grasselli, Francesca Grudnik, Tomasz Guemene, Daniel Hamilton-West, Christopher Hartung, Joerg Have, Per Keeling, Linda Le Grand, Claire Leeb, Christine Legrand, Amélie Löhren, Ulrich Mackay, Karen Manteca, Xavier Messori, Stefano Mihailescu, Manuel Mirabito, Luc Nygaard, Christina O Nuallain, Niall Ortali, Giovanni Saint Lager, François Salman, Mo Sandri, G.Pietro Scalvenzi, Alessandra Organisation Parma University, Italy Tönnies Group, Germany Milan University, Italy Animal Production and Health Department, FAO Leuven University, Belgium Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Sweden EFSA, Head of AHAW Unit Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell Emilia Romagna, Italy Parma University, Italy Udviklingscenter for Husdyr på Friland/ Eurogroup for Animals Cambridge University, UK Bologna University, Italy Parma University, Italy Coop Italia, Italy Research and Technology Food and Agriculture (IRTA), Spain Dyrenes Beskyttelse/ Eurogroup for Animals Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), Belgium Newcastle University, UK Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali (CRPA), Italy Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), UK Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA), UK EU Commission, DG SANCO, Head of Animal Welfare Unit Colorado State University, US Parma University, Italy Poland Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), France Santiago University, Chile Hannover University, Germany Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Sweden COPA-COGECA/ FNPL FR BOKU- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), UK Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU countries (AVEC) Barcelona University, Spain Istituto G. Caporale Teramo (ICT), Teramo, Italy Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), Romania International Dairy Federation (IDF), France COPA-COGECA/ DAFC - DK Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Agriculture House, Ireland Gruppo Veronesi, Italy Breiz Europe, Belgium Colorado State University, US Gruppo Veronesi, Italy Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell Emilia Romagna, Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 5

6 Schuetz, Verena Stilwell, George Tristante, Francisco Varas, Mariela Verdonck, Frank Vinco, Leonardo James Vracar, Jelena Zarenghi, Luca Italy COPA-COGECA/ Deutscher Raiffeisenverband e.v. DE Lisbon Univesity, Portugal EU Commission, DG RTD World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell Emilia Romagna, Italy EFSA, AFSCO Unit Health Local Unit - Parma Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 6

7 B. ANNEX 2- AGENDA OF THE MEETING Venue: Camera di Commercio di Parma, via Giuseppe Verdi, n. 2, Parma, Italy Wednesday, 04 July 2012 Morning Session Chairman: Franck Berthe, Animal Health and Welfare Unit, EFSA Time Speaker Items Dr. Franck Berthe Prof. Linda Keeling Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences Prof. Temple Grandin Colorado State University Welcome of participants Introduction of the stakeholder meeting on animal-based measures: the goal of EFSA EFSA Scientific opinions on animal-based measures Animal-based measures: a pragmatic approach in the US Coffee break Dr. Andrea Gavinelli DG SANCO, Animal Welfare Unit Dr. Daniela Battaglia Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Animal-based measures: perspectives and expectations from the Commission, the EU Strategy on the Protection and Welfare of animals Measuring animal welfare in a global context Discussion Lunch break Afternoon Session Parallel working groups on the use of animal-based measures for: Dairy cows Pigs Broilers Chairman: Prof. Linda Chairman: Prof. Donald M. Chairman: Prof. Jörg Keeling Broom Hartung Swedish University of Cambridge University Hannover University Agriculture Sciences Coffee break Parallel working groups on the use of animal-based measures for dairy cows, pigs and broilers Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 7

8 Thursday, 05 July 2012 Morning Session Parallel working groups on the use of animal-based measures for: Dairy cows Pigs Broilers Chairman: Prof. Linda Chairman: Prof. Donald M. Chairman: Prof. Jörg Hartung Keeling Swedish University of Broom Cambridge University Hannover University Agriculture Sciences Coffee break Presentation of the working groups outcomes Chairman: Franck Berthe, Animal Health and Welfare Unit, EFSA Discussions and Conclusions of the meeting Franck Berthe Supporting publications 2012:EN-341 8

15-16 September 2011, Parma

ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE UNIT MINUTES OF THE 59 th PLENARY MEETING OF THE PANEL ON ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE 15-16 September 2011, Parma 1. PARTICIPANTS AHAW PANEL MEMBERS Anette Bøtner, Don Broom, Marcus