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 will be available here. 

Description: 

Current European Union legislation on welfare of animals at the time of killing requires stunning before slaughter to render the animals unconscious, and thus insensible to pain, until death occurs. One of the main challenges in monitoring the state of consciousness is selecting the animal-based indicators that ensure consistent assessments. 

This webinar aims to pinpoint the most relevant indicators, method and recommendations to assess the state of consciousness after electrical stunning of rabbits. It draws on findings from a comprehensive scientific study conducted at 16 commercial slaughterhouses across the European Union. The session will also cover the effectiveness of stunning, highlighting the primary factors that contribute to its success. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussions and address any questions or concerns. 

Schedule:  

10:00: General presentation of the EURCAW-Poultry SFA - Virginie Michel  

10:15: Introduction to electrical stunning in rabbits and indicators – Antonio Velarde  

10:20: Scientific study: refinement of indicators and efficiency of stunning - Alexandra Contreras-Jodar  

10:30: Methods and recommendations - Alexandra Contreras-Jodar and Virginie Michel  

The webinar was attended by 118 people (164 registered), from 14 EU Member States and 2 EFTA countries:  

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden 

This webinar has been organized within the sub-activity 4.2: Development of course material for specific topics, of the working program 2023-2024.  

The Centre is celebrating the publication of its seventh scientific article as a result of the work carried out in Activity 3 in 2023-2024. 

This study evaluated the validity, inter-assessor reliability and intra-assessor repeatability of three visual scoring systems for litter quality, one known as the Welfare Quality Assessment Protocol© and two complementary systems for friability and humidity developed by the ClassyFarm initiative.

This article named "The assessment of litter quality in broiler chickens: validity, inter-assessor reliability, and intra-assessor repeatability of three visual scoring systems" has been published in British Poultry Science and is available here.

The fifth EU-network meeting between representatives of EU MS Competent Authorities (CAs) and the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, took place virtually on October 01-02, 2024 on 2 *0,5 days. In total 49 participants, from 22 EU MSs participated, including 29 delegates from CAs, 13 from EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, and 7 observers: one DG SANTE unit G5 representatives, three EFSA representatives, and three EFTA representatives. 

This meeting was the occasion to present the Centre’s work performed since the last meeting in 2023. Furthermore, it permitted participants to discuss potential future priority areas of work, identify possible collaboration at the national level, and identify the main needs and expectations of CAs. 

The presentations are available here.

The report is available here.  

On 17 September the four EURCAWs hosted an online meeting with National Reference Centres (NRCs) for Animal Welfare and the Supporting Bodies (SBs) of Competent Authorities. Over 50 people attended the meeting, with representation from across EU Member States.

The meeting started with presentations from the EURCAWs, including an introduction to EURCAW Aqua (designated in January 2024), two NRCs and one SB. As the aim of the meeting is to explore ways to collaborate, workshops and interactive sessions were also used.

The first workshop session considered a theme relevant to all EURCAWs: “Approval and assessment of stunning equipment” and was presented by Dr Virginie Michel. ​The aim of the workshop was to have a better understanding about the needs of MSs and the type of work that the EURCAWs can provide on this topic.​

Council Regulation No. 1099/2009 states that “Products marketed or advertised as restraining or stunning equipment shall only be sold when accompanied by appropriate instructions concerning their use in a manner which ensures optimal conditions for the welfare of animals. Those instructions shall also be made publicly available by the manufacturers via the Internet”.​

However, some Member States have raised issues about new equipment being installed, for which proof of efficiency has not been made available. Polling tools were used to request feedback from NRCs and SBs and inform the workshop discussion.

After a short break, attendees were divided into EURCAW- specific workshops. The themes were:

• Managing larger litter sizes (EURCAW Pigs)​
• Good practices (farm/transport/slaughter) (EURCAW Poultry-SFA)​
• Emergency killing (EURCAW Ruminants & Equines)

The meeting finished with a wrap-up session including a summary of key points from the EURCAW-specific workshops.

The meeting short report is availalble here. 

The Centre is celebrating the publication of its sixth scientific article as a result of the work carried out in Activity 2 in 2023. 

A review of the technical and scientific literature on existing methods for assessing walking ability in broilers was conducted, and the reliability, validity and feasibility of the different methods were assessed when relevant information was available.

This review named " Overview of the various methods used to assess walking ability in broiler chickens" has been published in Veterinary Record and is available here.