In agreement with DG SANTE the European Animal Welfare Reference Centres will visit veterinary inspectors in the different Member States in their own countries to be able to better support their work as inspectors in the field of husbandry, transport and slaughter. Amongst the consortium members it was agreed to deliver the second EURCAW-Poultry-SFA Roadshow in Spain.     The Spanish competent Authority expressed their interest in the topic: turkey welfare from farm to fork. On May 27 2026, 20  participants (veterinarians and competent authority representatives) from the main turkey producing regions plus seven observers from the central competent authority attended the event. Turkey outputs from the Centre were presented and case studies from the participants were discussed. 

We are pleased to share a new Indicator Factsheet focused on the use of enrichment in broiler.    Take a look: https://zenodo.org/records/20717156   See our Broiler chicken web-page here. 

An outbreak of Aethina tumida (the Small Hive Beetle - SHB) was suspected on 3 June 2026 in the Lazio region in Italy. This is the first outbreak detected in mainland Italy outside Calabria. This case is epidemiologically linked to the circulation of SHB in the province of Vibo Valentia (Calabria) since 2014, following the illegal movement of beehives from that area. Lazio is a region situated in central-western Italy, approximately 300 km from the northern border of Calabria. On 30 May a beekeeper moved 19 empty hives and a swarm belonging to an elderly relative from Vazzano municipality (Vibo Valentia province, Calabria region) to Gaeta (Latina province, Lazio region). All the material had been placed on a plot of land in the municipality of Gaeta (Pontone locality), in an area where no other apiaries or hives were present. While managing the swarm to place it in a hive on 31 May, the beekeeper found three adult specimens of A. tumida. One specimen was destroyed and the remaining two were collected and delivered to the competent authority. The infested hive was immediately destroyed by incineration and the bee colony was euthanised and disposed of. As a precautionary measure, all other hives belonging to the same batch, although they contained no bees, were also destroyed. Following confirmation of the outbreak by morphological examination carried out at the IZS del Lazio e della Toscana (4 June) and at the NRL for honey bee health (5 June) the control and eradication measures required under current legislation were implemented. These measures include, in particular, the establishment of restricted zones and the deployment of epidemiological surveillance in the affected area to prevent any further spread of the pest. Genetic analysis carried out at the NRL for honey bee health showed that the 987 bp sequence of the cox1 gene, when compared with those available in the GenBank database, exhibited 100% query coverage and 100% sequence identity with the sequence of the first specimen found in Calabria, at Gioia Tauro (Reggio Calabria Province), in 2014 (isolate 1_Cal_It – KT380624.1). In addition, comparison with the three subsequent sequences, corresponding to isolates from Taurianova (Reggio Calabria Province) (28_It – KT380630.1), San Calogero (Vibo Valentia Province) (42_It – KT380635.1), and Rosarno (Reggio Calabria Province) (54_It – KT380633.1), showed 100% query coverage and 99.90% sequence identity. Earlier in 2026, an infested apiary was detected on 14 April in Sicily within the existing protection zone. In 2025, 19 outbreaks of SHB infestation were reported in Italy, including three in Calabria (one sentinel nucleus included) and 16 in Sicily. Written with the participation of the Italian NRL for Honey Bee Health (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie) Sources: European Commission (ADIS), WAHIS-OMSA event 7618 of 15 June 2026, and Italian NRL website.  

  June 10 and 11, 2026, the ANSES-Fougeres Laboratory organized its workshop to the attention of the network of NRLs from the 27 Member States of the Union, celebrating the 30th edition of this annual event held since 1994.   The workshop welcomed 33 participants representing most of the NRLs of the EU Member States as well as the official laboratories of certain candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia this year), one country from the EFTA zone (Switzerland), and one country associated with the EU (Northern Ireland). These sessions provided the network with another opportunity for useful and interactive dialogue with the Commission and with the EFSA IDATA team and presenting regulatory developments at the European level: the one for validating the analytical performance of the official control methods (CIR 2021/808) and those implemented now for the 3rd year regarding the 3 levels of control and surveillance plans in accordance with CDR (EU) 2022/1644 and CIR (EU) 2022/1646, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2017/625. These 2 days of presentations and discussions also provided an opportunity to further explore 2 current topics within the European VMP residue framework, i.e. the analytical performance of nitrofuran controls in honey, on the one hand, and new approaches to monitoring exposure to medicinal chemicals using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS/MS) detection/confirmation technologies, on the other hand. A special thank you to our EU-NRL attendees and to both our scientific and logistic teams, who organized this key event in our European activities with adequateness and enthusiasm.

The 17th edition of the Workshop for Rabies took place in Padova, Italy, on 19 and 20 May 2026. It was with pleasure that everyone gathered to meet and discuss the latest news about rabies in Europe and future projects. The presentations given during the workshop have been uploaded into the EURL website (accessible only to network members).   This workshop for rabies was followed by a OneBat training session on May 20 and 21, organized by EURL for Rabies and IZSVe, and numerous scientific partners. This edition was dedicated to bat health monitoring.   Finally, the EURL team would like to sincerely thank all the participants and all the people who contributed in one way or another to the organization of those wonderful events.                                                                                               

In response to the emergence of SAT1/III in the Middle East and European Union between 2025 and 2026, the following real-time RT-PCR assay (SAT1/III “BOT/1/77 like”) has been tested on few samples from this topotype. Data from EURL from FMD indicate that this assay is able to detect viruses from the SAT/III clade that is actually present in EU and Middle East. At this stage, this is a candidate assay that has not been extensively validated and further work is underway at the EURL and WRL for FMD.

EURL GUIDANCE : EURL “MMPR” GUIDANCE FOR SPECIFIC PHARMACOLOGICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES IN SPECIFIC ANIMAL MATRICES Version 3.1 of  June 2026 repealing Version 3.0 of April 2026;    Published on 02/06/2026

 A new 'Question to EURCAW' (Q2E) has been published on “ Second stunning in broilers”.   To see more, take a look at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19346203 and at our Question to EURCAW's subpage! 

An outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease has been reported in Greece (Island of Lesbos) in domestic cattle since 16 March 2026. Identification of serotype is pending. This is the fifth case within the EU since 2025. For more information: WAHIS

An outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease has been reported in Cyprus in domestic cattle since 19 February 2026. 33 outbreaks have been detected up to now, related to serotype SAT1. This is the fourth case within the EU since 2025. For more information: WAHIS