The five-year project, led by the University of Bristol's Department of Clinical Veterinary Science together with the RSPCA and the Soil Association, hopes to overcome fundamental problems of welfare assessment that have hampered the ability of assurance schemes to improve farm animal welfare in recent years.
The project aims to ensure the current welfare inspection and certification schemes, which look at the quality of life of individual and groups of animals, are developed as an assurance tool to further improve welfare in all farming systems in the UK and beyond.
The project has two goals:
- to deliver the best welfare assurance within RSPCA Freedom Food and Soil Association certification schemes, and;
- to promote the uptake of outcome-based assurance within UK and European farm assurance schemes.
The objectives within the first goal aim to improve the welfare of animals on RSPCA Freedom Food and Soil Association farms. The knowledge gained through the use of welfare outcome assessments on RSPCA Freedom Food and Soil Association farms will ensure the project achieves the wider objectives relating to the second goal. Welfare outcome assessments take into account both the physical and mental well-being of animals to give a more accurate picture of the quality of life from the animals' point of view.
Dr David Main, Head of Division of Farm Animal Science at Bristol University, said: "The shared vision is that all assurance schemes, with RSPCA Freedom Food and the Soil Association Certification leading the way, use welfare outcome assessments to ensure animals have the best quality of life.
"This project is the most important contribution to farm animal welfare for some time and we hope it will influence the future delivery of farm assurance for years to come."
Dr Marc Cooper, Senior Scientific Officer at the RSPCA's Farm Animals Department, added: "This project will revolutionise the way in which the RSPCA's farm assurance scheme, Freedom Food, delivers and ensures improved farm animal welfare. Welfare Outcomes Assessment, which offers a structured way to measure welfare, will provide valuable information to ensure the RSPCA welfare standards continue to deliver good welfare on farms."
Chris Atkinson, Head of Standards at the Soil Association, said: "Feedback, advice and support will be an integral part of the project. We want producers to fully understand the inspection process, to benefit from the feedback that they will receive and to quickly manage any issues affecting welfare that may arise."
René Olivieri, Chair of The Tubney Charitable Trust, said: "This collaborative project is extremely significant and has the potential to radically transform the well-being of millions of farmed animals in the UK and elsewhere. We are proud to have supported this important project which represents a step change in the systems of assessment. We are tremendously impressed by the project team which covers all bases: credibility, influence, practical knowledge and commitment -- all of these can help transform farm animal welfare now and for the future."