One Week, Two Conferences

Conference season is in full swing and this week we travelled to Edinburgh to attend not one but two!

Advancing Animal Welfare Science

We first attended the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare’s (UFAW) conference with the theme of Advancing Animal Welfare Science. The talks covered many species and many animal welfare sectors, including farm animals, companion animals and animals used in science. One thing in common was the collaborative interest in improving the health and welfare of all animal across these groups.

We were particularly interested to hear one of the keynote speakers, Cathy Dwyer (University of Edinburgh, UK & Chair, Scottish Animal Welfare Commission) discuss ‘How evidence is used to develop policy: Examples from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission’ and take part in the debate forum of ‘Animal welfare labelling of products’.

Livestock Welfare during Transport, Marketing & Slaughter

Next up, we attended the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) conference ‘Livestock Welfare during Transport, Marketing & Slaughter’. We were pleased to see Aquaculture talks taking up 30% of the full agenda – it is great to see aquatic animals, including decapod crustaceans, getting a such prominent attention with sessions dedicated to improve their welfare throughout the food industry.

We particularly enjoyed the talks by Keynote Speaker: Professor Bob Elwood (Queen's University Belfast, UK) on ‘Pain and suffering in decapods’ as well as ‘The assessment of dry electric stunning as a commercial method for the humane dispatch of farmed White Leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)’ from Ben Weis (Tesco) and ‘Humane slaughtering of Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio)’ from Ragnhild Aven Svalheim (Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, Norway).