The second EU-network meeting between representatives of Competent Authorities (CAs) and the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, took place online on October 2021, 26-27, on 2 * 0.5 days. This meeting was the occasion to present the objectives of the Centre, the past and present work programme, and the Centre’s work since its nomination. Furthermore, it permitted to discuss potential future priority areas of work, identify possible collaboration at the national level, and identify the main needs and expectations of CAs.   In total 76 participants, from 23 EU Member States participated, including 51 delegates from CAs, five from Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, and 16 from the three EURCAWs. Two EFSA members and two EFTA representatives attended as observers.   During the first morning, Virginie Michel, Coordinator of the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, presented the aim and activities of the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA. The EURCAW-Poultry-SFA team presented the past and present Work Programmes with a focus on what was achieved by the Centre, and what is planned for 2022. The following morning, two EU Member States CAs representatives presented respectively a success story and a good practice. Several Topics proposed by EURCAW-Poultry-SFA and the Member States were then discussed altogether.   The topics discussed can be found in the meeting report. Moreover, the presentation is available here.

The coordinator and deputy coordinator of EURCAW-Poultry-SFA took the opportunity to meet with Finnish and Swedish Reference Centres for animal welfare. The Finnish Centre was represented by Satu Raussi & Tiina Kauppinen, and the Swedish Centre by Lotta berg & Birgitta Staaf-Larsson. During these meetings, respective roles of the national and EU Reference Centres were explained and possible collaborations were identified, among which welfare assessment indicators and training of official services.   The meeting in Sweden was also the opportunity to visit a broiler and a layer farm as an “example of good practice” of rearing fast-growing broiler chickens and layers in aviaries in good welfare conditions.  

In the context of the postponement of the World Poultry Conference in 2022 this webinar was the opportunity to present some works related to poultry welfare which were initially foreseen to be presented in 2020. Six oral presentations were given on topics such as adaptability of poultry genotypes to organic rearing, disturbance in broiler chicken, comparison between slow-growing broiler genotypes, blunting of the beak as an alternative to beak trimming in layers, exploration, and neophobia in domestic fowl or the impact of low protein diet on the development of footpad dermatitis in broiler chicken. The coordinator of EURCAW-Poultry-SFA, Virginie Michel, was co-chair of this session.

At the occasion of the annual meeting of the working group IX “Poultry welfare and management” of WPSA (World Poultry Science Association) that was held in Thessaloniki (Greece), some members of the Centre took the opportunity to meet with local welfare researchers. This visit was the opportunity to organize a meeting with the Greek Reference Centre for animal welfare, represented by Dr. Evengelina Sossidou. During this meeting, respective roles of the national and EU references Centres were explained and possible collaborations were identified, among which welfare assessment indicators and training of official services. The meeting was also the opportunity to visit a broiler farm as an “example of good practice” of rearing fast-growing broiler chickens in good welfare conditions.                                      

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 is available here.    Description: Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 of 24 September 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing requires assessing the state of consciousness of the animals in order to identify if the stunning and killing have been effectively done, but it is not an easy assessment. During this webinar, EURCAW-Poultry-SFA reviewed the most valid, reliable, and feasible indicators to assess the state of consciousness after waterbath stunning (WBS) of broiler chicken, before and after bleeding, giving the opportunity for discussion and doubts resolution.   The aim of the webinar was to: Review the most valid and feasible indicators of consciousness after WBS. Discuss the main results of the EURCAW-Poultry-SFA study on test inter-observer repeatability of the indicators of consciousness evaluated in commercial slaughterhouses. Discuss the impact of electrical key parameters on stunning efficiency. Recommend animal-based indicators (ABIs) and their methods of assessment (where and how to do the assessment, during how much time, how to do the sampling), providing video examples.   The webinar was attended by 172 people (251 registered), from 23 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Deutschland, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.   Schedule: 10:00-10:10: General presentation of the Centre - V. Michel 10:10-10:20: Indicators of consciousness - A. Velarde 10:20-10:30: Technical study - A. Contreras 10:30-10:45: Methods and recommendations - A. Varvaró and V. Michel 10:45-12:00: Discussion   This webinar has been organized within sub-activity 4.3: Develop course material for specific topics, of the working program 2021-2022.

In 2021, the EURL for Bee health initiated a new format to exchanges within the NRL network. The first EURL webinar was organized on 30th November. The objective was to discuss the activities on viruses for 2022 and later. After a presentation of the advances in the activities on virus disease diagnosis at the EURL, Eric Dubois (virologist at the EURL) opened the discussion with the NRLs on the next proficiency test and the development of a database on the dynamic of bee viruses across Europe. This first webinar lasted for one hour and gave rise to fruitful discussions. The presentation can be found here for the NRL network.

vidéo séminaire

From the third to the fifth of November 2021, took place the 12th World Rabbit Congress in Nantes (France). This congress consisted of three days of conferences, poster sessions, oral sessions, and round tables on a lot of topics including Ethology and Welfare:   de Greef K.H., Rommers J.M. - The Dutch route to improve commercial rabbit welfare – rather collectively than by law enforcement. Dutra D., Villegas-Cayllahua E., Ferrari F., Costa M., Rein A., Silva A., Moraes P., Borba H. - Cage floor enrichment contributes to physical and thermal comfort of fattening rabbits. Fetiveau M., Savietto D., Warin L., Pujol S., Gidenne T., Huang Y., Fortun-Lamothe L.  - Outdoor access for growing rabbits: effect of stocking rate on behaviour and performance. Fortun-Lamothe L., Breda J., Savietto D., Aymard P., Combes S., Gidenne T., Warin L., Huang Y.  -   Space use and exploratory behaviour in growing rabbit housed in large partitioned pens. Gerencsér Zs., Farkas T.P., Nagy I., Odermatt M., Radnai I., Kasza R , Matics Zs., Szendrő Zs. -  Location preference of rabbit does in a pen system combining group and individual housing. Guené-Grand E., Davoust C., Launay C. - A new alternative outdoor housing method (Wellap®) for fattening rabbits: first results. Guené-Grand E., Davoust C., Launay C. - A new alternative outdoor housing method (Wellap®) for fattening rabbits: behavior and space use. Huang Y., Breda J., Savietto D., Debrusse A., Combes S., Gidenne T., Warin L., Fortun-Lamothe L. -   Part-time grouping of rabbit does in enriched housing: effects on spatial position, performance and lesions. Huang Y., Breda J., Savietto D., Labatut D., Pujol S., Combes S., Gidenne T., Warin L., Fortun-Lamothe L.  -   Effect of housing and enrichment on behaviour and performance of growing and reproducing rabbits. Laclef E., Savietto D., Warin L., Huang Y., Bonnemère J.M., Combes S., Gidenne T., Fortun-Lamothe L.  -   Part-time group housing of familiar rabbit does in large partitionned space: effects on performance and behaviour. Pasqualin D., Zomeño C. Santagiuliana M., Dalla Costa A., Trocino A., Lavazza A., Dorigo F., Bonfanti L., Birolo M., Xiccato G., Menegon F., Di Martino G.  -  A protocol for measuring health and welfare of reproducing does and litters in rabbit farms. Ramón-Moragues A.. Martinez-Paredes E.. Villagrá A.  - Differences in milk production and lactation-related behaviours in breeding does housed in individual enriched cages and part-time systems. Rödel H.G. - Aspects of social behavior and repoduction in the wild rabbit – implications for rabbit breeding? Rommers J., de Greef K.  -   Are plastic mats effective for diminishing footpad lesions of rabbit does? – survey after 10 years in The Netherlands. Trocino A., Zomeño C., Birolo M., Pirrone F., Xiccato G.  - Effect of grouping time and group stability on behavior and aggression among rabbit does in a part-time housing system. Van Damme L., Delezie E., Tuyttens F. A. M., Maertens L. - Advances in part-time group housing systems for does: an overview of reproductive performances. Villegas-Cayllahua E., Dutra D., Cavalcanti E., Fidelis H., Montanhim G., Silva A., Moraes P., Borba H. - Assessment of stress during handling of commercial rabbits. Warin L., Mika A., Souchet C., Bouvarel I. - Feasibility and repeatability of the EBENE® welfare assessment measures for rabbits. All the proceedings are available online: http://world-rabbit-science.com/WRSA-Proceedings/Congress-2021-Nantes/Nantes-2021-01.htm

♦ November 17th 2021 ♦  “Real-life” 13th Workshop for Rabies  The EURL Team is pleased to announce the 13th session of Rabies Workshop.  Unlike the previous session which took place online, this session is planned to be organised back in a classical way (face-to-face meeting). The 2022 meeting will held In Warsaw, Poland on 15  and 16 June. Presentations and discussions will be dedicated to the current situation of rabies control and surveillance in EU,as well as progress on laboratory techniques and feedback on previous ILT sessions. 

♦ November 16th 2021 ♦  An inter-laboratory test (ILT) dedicated to rabies molecular biology technique is soon to begin (first quarter of 2022). The registration is now closed. This ILT session will focus on the evaluation of the real-time RT-PCR techniques used in the National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) for the detection of Lyssavirus RNA. Participation to this assay will be open to European Union NRLs members only. The panel to be tested will include coded RNA Lyssavirus samples (with different level of Lyssavirus RNA and different Lyssavirus species, all belonging to the phylogroup 1), negative and positive RNA controls.