Animal welfare workshops for veterinarian inspectors held in four cities

Within the project “Reinforcement of animal health and welfare” several workshops for inspectors were held in April in Subotica, Novi Sad, Nis and Vrnjacka Banja. The goal of the workshops was to transfer knowledge on the most recent findings on animal welfare and sharing the best experiences of European Union member states.

The workshops were attended by veterinarian inspectors, representatives of Veterinary Directorate, international and national experts. The focus of these workshops was on training of inspectors – alternatives to pig castration, alternatives to one-day old male chicks culling, tail dockings in pigs, free range hens for eggs production, the ban of the cage in laying hen industry.

“We are working on how to approach the animal welfare scheme on farms, hot to label a product that is acceptable for animal welfare. Harmonization with EU regulations is practically completed, the problem is implementation of regulations, the level of implementation depends on the people, the inspection of farmers, as well as investments”, said Antonio Di Nardo, Key Expert for Animal Welfare within the project “Reinforcement of animal health and welfare”.

Some of the topics that were presented during workshops were dedicated to animal welfare in production systems of broilers, laying hens, pigs and dairy cows. International expert Leonardo James Vinco talked about Italian and European Union Reference Centre for animal welfare and about most relevant animal welfare issues in the protection of chicken for meat production and on minimum standards for the protection of laying hens.

His colleague Antoni Dalmau Bueno had a presentation on farm animal sector – ethnology of pigs and possible alternatives for pig castration. The expert for farm animal sector Sara Rota Nodari talked on general principles for classy farm and new system to asses animal welfare on farms. Classy farms on laying hens and broilers were the topics of the second part of workshops.

The project „Reinforcement Animal health and welfare“ supports  the Veterinary Directorate of the Ministry of the Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in harmonizing national legislation with the European Union and international standards in the field of animal health and welfare and biosecurity.