aWISH - Seeking to improve animal welfare indicators at the slaughterhouse

aWISH | Animal Welfare Indicators at the Slaughterhouse is a 4-year project funded by the Horizon Europe programme, which began in 2022 and will end in 2026, in which CONSULAI leads Communication and Dissemination.

The main objective of aWISH and its 24 partners, representing 11 European countries, is to develop and deliver the capacity to assess and improve the welfare of meat-producing animals across Europe through the automated monitoring of animal welfare indicators at the slaughterhouse, in order to provide feedback and advice on best practices to those responsible for the various stages of production.

At the heart of this project are 6 Pilots cases from the pig and broiler production chain, who is develop and test new animal welfare monitoring technologies, collecting the respective data for subsequent analysis and development of a feedback tool. By 2024, it is possible to say that most of the technologies have already been successfully implemented in the pilots cases.

CONSULAI participates in this project by leading the Communication and Dissemination of results and supporting the creation of a panel of experts in the various European countries (for which applications are open here https://www.awish-project.eu/networking/). Experts from the sector in each partner country were also interviewed, and in Portugal, we were able to count on the contribution of Professor George Stilwell, an expert in animal welfare, Professor of Animal Production Teresa Matos and the Director of ELIPEC, António Rodrigues, who shared their perspectives on animal welfare in Europe, the inspections that currently exists in the area and the economic problems that hinder and create barriers to the adoption of good practices in animal production.

By the end of the project, a catalogue of animal welfare indicators will be presented, to be shared with stakeholders in the sector, as well as a good practices guide, in order to encourage and support producers to use the tools developed and, consequently, to improve animal production throughout Europe.

For more information on aWISH, check out the website and social media for regular updates on the work in progress: LinkedIn | X | YouTube

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