Last September 14th, the final report of an audit of Germany in order to evaluate the protection of the welfare of laying hens at all stages of production was uploaded online. This audit was carried out from 21st, September to 1st​​​​​​, October 2021. The objective was to assess the effectiveness of official controls to ensure the protection of the welfare of laying hens at all stages of production. The conclusions indicate, for example, that the welfare of laying hens is a priority to...

The Centre is celebrating the publication of its second scientific paper as a result of the work carried out in Activity 3 in 2020 and 2021. This study aimed at investigating the pertinence of different animal-based indicators (ABIs) for the assessment of broiler’s state of consciousness after waterbath stunning (WBS) before and during bleeding. This article named "Inter-Observer Repeatability of Indicators of Consciousness after Waterbath Stunning in Broiler Chickens...

The first physical management meeting of the year was held in IZSLER facility in Brescia from 28 to 29 March 2022. Thirteen members of the Centre met in order to prepare the future period’s work-programme, the third CAs meeting, and work together on the 2022 various tasks. The health director of IZSLER Giuseppe Merialdi was pleased to welcome all consortium members.  After the meeting, four members of the Centre took the opportunity to visit a hatchery on March 30. The...

On 31 March 2022, the coordinator and deputy coordinator met with the Italian Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (CReNBA). Both EURCAW-Poultry-SFA and CReNBA presented their teams, past, present, and future activities. The Classyfarm System was detailed and possible training and best practices collaboration were discussed.

ISAH, the International Society for Animal Hygiene, will organize the 20th ISAH Congress in a Hybrid format in Berlin, Germany from 5 to 7 October 2022. Registration is available here. ISAH members as online participants (all countries), and online participants from Ukraine and from developing countries have the possibility of a free of Charge Online participation. The Call of Papers is open until 31 March 2022 (Link). Abstracts and/or full-length papers of orals...

The MiteControl project will be running a Livestream from 14:00 to 16:45 on 16 March 2022. This event is to host a series of demonstrations on practical red mite monitoring methods, best practices for cleaning during poultry houses during the empty period, and non-chemical methods trialed as part of the project for controlling red mite. The demonstrations will be livestreamed from the Experimental Poultry Centre in Belgium which will allow for these to be demonstrated in-situ within a...

At the beginning of this year, the Centre is celebrating the publication of its first scientific paper as a result of the work carried out in Activity 3 in 2020. This study assessed the impacts of elevated platforms and straw bales on the welfare of fast-growing broilers reared at two different stocking densities.  This article named "Positive Effects of Elevated Platforms and Straw Bales on the Welfare of Fast-Growing Broiler Chickens Reared at Two Different Stocking...

The first Reflection Board (RB) meeting between representatives of RB organizations (from the EU Platform on Animal Welfare) and the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, was held remotely via Teams on the morning 26th of November 2021. This meeting was the occasion to present the objectives of the Centre, its organization, and the previous and actual work programmes, to exchange, discuss and identify possible future collaboration and interests.   In total 14 participants, six of them from the seven...

The second EU-network meeting between representatives of Competent Authorities (CAs) and the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, took place online on October 2021, 26-27, on 2 * 0.5 days. This meeting was the occasion to present the objectives of the Centre, the past and present work programme, and the Centre’s work since its nomination. Furthermore, it permitted to discuss potential future priority areas of work, identify possible collaboration at the national level, and identify the main needs and...

The coordinator and deputy coordinator of EURCAW-Poultry-SFA took the opportunity to meet with Finnish and Swedish Reference Centres for animal welfare. The Finnish Centre was represented by Satu Raussi & Tiina Kauppinen, and the Swedish Centre by Lotta berg & Birgitta Staaf-Larsson. During these meetings, respective roles of the national and EU Reference Centres were explained and possible collaborations were identified, among which welfare assessment indicators...