24/05/2014

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Improvement of Animal Welfare During Long Distance Transport

SANCO/2011/G3/CRPA/SI2.610274

CP2 FINAL CONFERENCEKurhaus, Scheveningen The Hague

7° May 2014

Animal based measures for a ‘Welfare-plus’ certification scheme for long distance transport

-Linkedin discussions

Should we use ABMs only?

It is obviously tempting to use animal based indicators to evaluate the condition of transport, but you cannot ignore the factors linked to the truck, to the organisation of the travel, to the road condition or to the documentation accompanying the documents.

Is it acceptable to transport, for instance, animals in overcrowded vehicles, knowing that most of them will show, if the travel is short enough, acceptable ABMs, whereas their conditions of transport have been unacceptable, even inhumane?

Michel CouratPolicy officer Farm Animals at Eurogroup for Animals

Should we use ABMs only?

The most heavily weighted criteria though should be the animal based indicators.

The assessment tool itself should never put the animal’s welfare in jeopardy by extending the journey and time on the truck in order to assess.

Even if that particular load did not show any discrepancies in ABMs, it still is valuable to see how that risk was managed by management and the driver.

Jennifer WoodsLivestock Handling Specialist

Welfare Risks vs Current Status

With RBMs you can evaluate risks. ABMs reflect the animals' experience.

But the temporal aspects need to be considered in interpretation; e.g. age of a wound (pre-transportation damage or happened at transport?), lean/emaciated body condition but the animal has been fed properly for 3 days, or visa versa?The legal aspects of transports may complicate an improvement; who is actually responsible for the animal? Where should improvements be done?

Stefan GunnarssonSenior lecturer at Swedish University of Agricultural Science

ABMs and RBMs

The most important things are:- fitness of animals (ABMs);- stocking density (visual);- the way of driving (tachograph);

The information on geographical coordinates, temperatures, opening and closing of the doors in general, in my opinion, are not useful to evaluate the level of health and welfare of the animals

Savino Marco Di TraniDirigente veterinario presso Ministero della Salute

24/05/2014

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ABMs and RBMs

I agree with the comments of Savino Marco from Italy: fitness of animals, stocking density and the way of driving are good measures to understand if the transport has well done. It's probably a general opinion in Catalonia and Spain.

Ricard ParésDirector de PORCAT - Associació Catalana de Productors de Porcí

Go beyond rigid rules

I want to express my total agreement with the need to find a balance between animal-based and resource-based criteria.

But we should also go beyond the rules looking for uniform application criteria. It should be based on the rules but be a living and upgradeable instrument incorporating new criteria continuously to respond to the doubts and difficulties of inspectors.

Jose Luis Puerta VillegasHead of Veterinary Inspection Area. Xunta de Galicia

ABMs and Fitness to Travel

All the comments are good and we do need a balance. But constantly animals are found traveling that were never fit to transport.

Staff must receive proper training on which animals should load - which leans more toward emphasis on the animal based measures.

Kelly WheelerExport Manager at Aviagen

Fit to Travel

Talking about "risks", I agree that RBMs are appropriate to evaluate risks to animal welfare, and that ABMs reflect the experience of the animals.

In Denmark, we have ongoing research projects focusing on fitness for transport, aiming to develop scales for the fitness for transport for sows, dairy cows and broilers.

Mette HerskinSenior scientist at Aarhus University

Develop new criteria

I believe that animal based measures should be the dominant factor in assessing welfare.

Traditionally a lot of the criteria which are used for such are clinically subjective. However, if quantitative data such as "pain enzymes" (Acute Phase Proteins) in a blood sample was used post transport, this could characterise the degree of comfort/pain experienced by the animal over the duration of transport.

Why not validate this method and have it standardised in protocols along with the resources measures also?

Tim Kirby

Develop new criteria

In the AWIN (animal welfare indicators) project, we validated and tested ABM for horses and donkeys, including a new method – the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) - to assist in pain detection in horses. Changes in facial expressions in the horses were reliably detectable by observers with differing expertise, so this method could possibly assist in welfare assessment of horses after a long journey.

Michela MineroResearcher at Univ of Milan

24/05/2014

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Animal Based Measures?

• Is a combination of ABMs and RBMs required for a welfare certification scheme?

• Use RBMs and MBMs to assess risks, and ABMs to determine the actual welfare status?

• Does a focus on ABMs allow transporters sufficient freedom to decide on best practices?

• Are ABMs sufficiently objective? Would you trust them to judge a good quality transport?