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Questions to EURCAW (Q2E)
Scientific and technical assistance
The centre has been created in the context of the regulation 2017/625 about official controls (art. 95) to support the European Commission and member states in the applications of legislation regarding poultry and other small farm animals’ welfare.
The Centre offers scientific and technical assistance to Competent Authorities (CA), National Reference Centre (NRC), other Supporting Bodies (SB), from the EU Member States and the European Commission, regarding all aspects of welfare legislation implementation. The Centre is covering hatchery, farming, transportation and killing outside of risk assessment and risk management areas.
Indicator factsheet about Litter quality visual assessment in broiler sheds
Maintaining high-quality litter (meaning dry and friable) is a primary objective in the management of poultry houses, as poor-quality litter could have significant consequences on the health and welfare of birds.
The assessment of litter quality can be done through various instrumental methods requiring time for analyses and/or specific costly equipment. In contrast, visual assessment can be conducted without any instruments, is instantaneous, and easily feasible.
However, visual scoring may be considered subjective, this is why EURCAW-Poultry-SFA studied the validity, inter assessor reliability and intra-assessor repeatability of three visual scores.
In this factsheet, the most reliable score is described with a method of assessment.
For moe information, see the broiler chicken welfare page
A new Master’s programme in Animal Welfare Assessment
Picture credential: ©Tine Rousing
Aarhus University in Denmark has launched a new Master’s programme in Animal Welfare Assessment. The target audience is primarily for animal welfare inspectors employed by competent authorities.
“The Master in Animal Welfare Assessment has been established to provide further education for professionals who, directly or indirectly, work with animal welfare in their daily activities. The programme originates from the EU Animal Welfare Strategy (2012-2015), which assesses animal welfare based on animal-based indicators rather than regulatory control of animal housing systems.”
The programme is offered in English. The deadline for applications is 15 November 2025.
For more: https://www.au.dk/evu/nat-tech/master/animalwelfare
Dutch
To facilitate the diffusion of information from the EU level to the Member States level, the Centre with the help of the Flemish Scientific Reference Centre for Farm Animal Welfare is translating, some of the factsheets produced by the Centre into Dutch.