Risk-based animal welfare assessment (RAWA)

The project takes established risk assessment methodology as a starting point and tries to develop and broaden the perspective, thus creating a basis for further development of operative tools. The approach is multidisciplinary and the project relies on expertise both in Sweden and other European countries.

Examples of questions to deal with are: how different views on animal welfare affect our assessment, how high risks for few animals compare to low risks for large numbers, how short-term exposure to high risks compare to long-term exposure to low risks, which levels of estimation error are acceptable when assessing risks, how occasional or short-lasting risks can be defined and if such risks under certain conditions can be disregarded, how mathematical risk models should be adapted to different situations, how inspection routines should be adapted to the estimated risk, and how animal welfare risks can be dealt with at different animal operations.

Participants

• Jan Hultgren, DVM, assoc. professor, Dept. of Animal Environment and Health, SLU
• Stefan Gunnarsson, DVM, assoc. professor, Dept. of Animal Environment and Health, SLU
• Bo Algers, DVM, professor, Dept. of Animal Environment and Health, SLU
• Linda Keeling, PhD, professor, Dept of Animal Environment and Health, SLU
• Harry Blokhuis, AgrD, professor, Dept of Animal Environment and Health, SLU
• Alexandre Barchiesi, animal scientist, animal welfare inspector, Swedish Board of Agriculture

Cooperation

• Swedish Board of Agriculture
• County administrative boards
• National Centre for Animal Welfare, SLU
• EU project "Welfare Quality"
• Animal Sciences Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Lelystad, The Netherlands
• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)