The IZS of Abruzzo and Molise participated in the annual congress of the European College of Veterinary Animal Welfare and Behavioral Medicine (ECAWBM). The College Vets are professional associations, which represent and distinguish all the international graduates in veterinary medicine just involved in specific sectors of their profession. In this case, the ECAWBM aims to bring together individuals and organizations working in the fields of animal welfare science, ethics and law and veterinary behavioral medicine.
At the Congress in Cascais (Portugal), which had been held since 20 till 22 October 2016,there were more than 250 veterinarians, who attended it, coming from all Continents. The most important topics on animal welfare emerging contents had been debated, both for livestock (positive welfare, transport, slaughter, analysis of their emotional state and pain assessment) and for pets (welfare of dogs in kennels, human-animal relationship and behavior).
Representing the IZSAM at this conference, there were Paolo Dalla Villa, Greta Berteselli and Stefano Messori, for the Human-Animal Relationship and Animal Welfare Laboratory. Dr. Berteselli introduced a presentation concerning using a Delphi method to estimate the relevance of a set of indicators for the evaluation of shelter dog welfare, which had been run by an iterative method, which involved more than 100 experts all around the world.
Dr. Dalla Villa - de facto - graduated at the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Science Animal welfare science and ethics & Law – presented some preliminary results on a study conducted in several kennels throughout the National territory exploring dogs shelter operators’ relationship: study on the impact on human quality of life and emotional sphere
Dr. Messori - also graduated at the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Science Animal welfare science and ethics & Law - presented a poster on a research project “Young Researchers”, financed by the Ministry of Health, focused on assessing the impact of higher welfare systems for broiler chickens on farm and pre-slaughter on food safety, which involves several departments of the IZSAM. Stefano Messori also presented a second poster with the results on a study in order to investigate the level of perception of all the problems related to animal welfare among Italians studying veterinary medicine.
