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Males chicks culling banishement in France and Germany from 2022
Every year, hundreds of millions of male day-old layer chicks are killed after hatching in European Union. Male layer chicks are commercially useless for the eggs industry because they are not suitable for meat production and only females can lay. This unethical practice will be forbidden in France and Germany from 2022, both being the first countries in the world to ban it.
To avoid male day-old chicks culling, hatcheries need to be equipped with machines to determine the gender of birds in the eggs (by detecting feathers' colour for example), males eggs being destroyed before further development and hatching.
France and Germany have also brought this issue to the European Commission. Some Member States (Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal and Ireland) have already shown their support.
More information:
First EURCAWs meeting with NRCs and SBs
1st Jully 2021
Last first of July, took place the first meeting between the three EUropean Reference Centers on Animal Welfare and National Reference Centers and Supporting Bodies. This online meeting was a success. 21 European countries were represented. There were presentations of the EURCAWs and existing NRCs and workshops on scientific and technical issues on each species, training and communication.
- Report EURCAWs meeting for National Reference Centres & Supporting Bodies, online meeting 1 July 2021.
- All presentations EURCAWs meeting for National Reference Centres & Supporting Bodies, online meeting 1 July 2021.
Success for the European Citizens’ Initiative on “End the Cage Age”
30 June 2021
The European Commission has responded positively to the European Citizen's Initiative (ECI) that collected 1.4 million signatures within one year from supporters in 28 Member States, being the first successful ECI on farm animals. The European Commission committed to propose to phase out and prohibit the use of cages for laying hens, sows, calves, rabbits, pullets, broiler breeders, layer breeders, quail, geese, and ducks. The proposal is expected by the end of 2023 and will be part of the revision of EU animal welfare legislation.
More information: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_21_3298
Rabbits on-farm welfare
This sub-page is dedicated to the welfare priority area 4. Rabbits on farm, with a focus on alternative housing systems.
The sub-page includes welfare indicators, factsheets and methods, reviews, reports on experimental studies (soon), good welfare practices, training, webinars.
Topics overview
For each five prioritized welfare areas, a dedicated sub-page is available.
Each sub-page will provide reviews, documents, indicators, and thematic factsheets developed by EURCAW-Poultry-SFA.
Each sub-page is a central source of technical information with links to documents, video's, etc., structured around:
- legal aspects of the welfare issue
- practical knowledge on welfare indicators
- background information on welfare issues
- demonstrators and inspiring examples
- relevant training material
| Broiler welfare | Laying hen welfare | Stunning and killing | Rabbit on-farm welfare | Turkey welfare |
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