Spanish and Greek researchers at Torre di Cerrano

Animal welfare during transport is a very topical issue within the European Union. To insure it, the E.U. issued the EC Regulation 1/2005. In this context, in 2011, the EC DG Sanco put a project, aiming to promote the improvement of animal transport conditions over long distances, out to tender. The call was won by a group of European research centres, including the G. Corporale Institute, who participates by providing experts in various fields, such as animal welfare, training programmes and computer tools development.

In collaboration with colleagues of the Institut de l'Elevage (France) and the National Agricultural Research Foundation (Greece), the Institute's experts contributed to the "Development of EU animal transport wide certification system and renovation of control posts in the European Union" project, by developing a protocol for the evaluation of sheep welfare during their transport over long distances. The protocol will be applied both in Italy and in Spain and will set the grounds for the development of a certification system for transporters, able to ensure the welfare of animals during long journeys.

To adopt this methodology in a standardised, independent and repeatable manner, at Community level, it is essential to train those who will have to apply it (the evaluators). To this end, on October the 1^st and the 2^nd, 2012, the G. Corporale Institute organised the "Welfare assessment protocol for transported sheep" training programme, held at the CIFIV headquarters located in the Tower of Cerrano (Pineto, TE).

The programme was attended by experts from the Institute as well as those from Spanish and Greek research centres. The researchers, who were trained in the use of the protocol both on field and through the observation of audiovisual material, were able to test their newly acquired skills thus ensuring the homogenous application of the assessment methodology in different countries.