RSPCA International has a comprehensive programme of work planned across its priority regions in the agriculture sector, from supporting chicken vaccination programmes in Africa to extensive Train-the-Trainer programmes for red and white meat production in Europe and Asia.

Promoting poultry welfare and quality in Malaysia and Indonesia
 

Between 2012 and 2013, RSPCA International, in partnership with Humane Society International (HSI), will be funding Animal Welfare Training Ltd (AWT) to deliver a two-year, eight-module training course for poultry officers in Malaysia.

In March 2011, we hosted a conference on poultry welfare and quality in Surabaya, Indonesia in collaboration with AWT. Over 100 participants attended from industry, government and the veterinary profession.

This was the first time that a conference had been held in Indonesia on poultry welfare and it resulted in a number of important recommendations being drawn up by the participants within which all the different stakeholders were assigned key roles.

It was agreed that national animal welfare guidelines were needed that meet halal requirements and World Health Organization (OIE) standards. It was acknowledged that MAKRESNA (Indonesian Animal Welfare Society) which was formally set up by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2010 needs to be supported and officially launched.

The roles of the national, provincial, and local governments in the development of animal welfare were accepted as needing extension to include counselling, training and education supported by adequate infrastructural financing. Public awareness-raising was agreed to be a priority. At the same time, poultry production companies were assigned a role to proactively develop pilot projects implementing animal welfare standards in Indonesia. The agriculture ministry was tasked with issuing regulations to complement production guidelines.

Interested in finding out more about farm animal welfare in Indonesia?

Visit local organisation Srikandi Animal Care's (SAC) website (supported by RSPCA International).

Pig welfare assessment in Serbia

Training on pig welfare assessment using Welfare Quality was provided in Serbia in September 2011 as the part of the Farm Animal Welfare Standards in Serbia project, run by local NGO - the Organisation for Respect and Care of Animals (ORCA) and RSPCA International. Dr Siobhan Mullan, an expert on pig welfare from the University of Bristol trained 10 veterinarians and agricultural engineers who will be responsible for assessing the state of pig welfare on farms in the country.

Alex Hammond-Seaman, senior programme manager for Europe, talked about European legislation and practices relating to farm animal welfare, as well as other RSPCA International initiatives to improve farm animal welfare, through the Western Balkans Veterinary Network for Animal Welfare (WBVN).

The aim of the Farm Animal Welfare Standards in Serbia project is to create the conditions to increase animal production performance though the introduction of farm animal welfare standards. The project works with municipal farming services and cattle breeders, and cooperates with farmer's associations, the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders.

Interested in finding out more about work on farm animal welfare in the Western Balkans? Visit the WBVN website.

Support our work. Donate to RSPCA International here.