Animal Welfare

An animal is considered to be in a good state of welfare if it is healthy, well-nourished, properly cared for (including access to adequate shelter) and able to express its natural behavioural repertoire. The mission of the Institute in this field is to provide high-impact, operationally valuable solutions on a global scale, offering practical and innovative responses, grounded in science, to improve animal health and quality of life.

In February 2004, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) organised the first international conference on animal welfare in Paris, attended by over 400 delegates from around the world. Following that, WOAH established three Collaborating Centres on Animal Welfare worldwide, one of which is based at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise. Since 2005, WOAH has also begun developing animal welfare standards. The Teramo Institute contributed to the work of the ad hoc group tasked with drafting criteria for the control and management of dog populations, and for the management of epidemic and non-epidemic emergencies. In 2013, a European Platform on Animal Welfare was launched, with a substantial group of experts from the Institute actively involved in the initiative.

Animal welfare is an increasingly relevant issue within the European Union, partly due to growing consumer interest in the living conditions, transport and slaughter of farmed animals. Emphasis is placed on the importance of identifying “animal-based” welfare indicators, which allow for harmonised animal welfare assessments on a global scale, and support the achievement of equivalence criteria between the EU and third countries in the context of international trade. This approach has been embraced by the Institute, which has identified animal-based indicators and developed innovative protocols for assessing animal welfare during transport and in confinement conditions.

Renewed attention has also been given to the welfare of companion animals. The Institute has conducted high-level research in this field, including the development of a protocol for assessing the welfare of dogs housed in shelters (Shelter Quality). The Institute is also at the forefront of training in Animal Welfare, having been among the first, as early as 2007, to deliver training courses promoted by the European Commission under the "Better Training for Safer Food" programme. These courses aim to build the necessary expertise to meet animal welfare standards during transport, stunning and slaughter, and in the event of culling for disease control purposes.