24 November 2010

2 minute read

Europe

What is animal welfare to a pig, and what does science know about methods to measure animal welfare? Now, Danish research in animal welfare is gathered at a Danish Centre for Animal Welfare.

On 18 November, Denmark's Minister of Justice and the Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries opened a new centre for animal welfare.

The aim of the new centre is to gather and spread knowledge about livestock production in Denmark and abroad.

Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Henrik Høegh, said: "With the Danish Centre for Animal Welfare, we will for the first time get a complete overview of the animal welfare situation in Denmark as well as in the European countries we are frequently compared with.

"The centre's strength lies in the close collaboration between the universities and the Danish authorities. Collecting relevant data from authorities, agriculture and research will give us a far better basis for assessing whether there are problems with animal welfare."

The Danish Centre for Animal Welfare is part of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, and its first task is to update the current status of animal welfare by collecting all data available from research and from public authorities' inspections of animal welfare.

The work of the centre will facilitate a comprehensive survey of the state of animal welfare and recognise any patterns across sectors within agricultural production.

In this way, pig producers, for instance, will be able to see the state of animal welfare in their sector – as reported by an objective source.

Finally, the centre will collate and compare data from researchers and public authorities to ensure that Denmark is at the leading edge of developments.

In the longer term, it will be possible for consumers to find knowledge about animal welfare at a single site. Furthermore, researchers will be better able to discuss animal welfare with each other and benefit from existing animal welfare research.

TheCattleSite News Desk