Animal welfare considerations are becoming increasingly important for farming of animals, both in Tunisia and internationally. Practices which may have once been deemed acceptable are now being reassessed in the light of new knowledge and changing attitudes. And a clearly defined concept of welfare is needed for use in precise scientific measurements. If animal welfare is to be compared in diff...

Introduction Consumers' perception of food quality is not only determined by its overall nature and safety but also by the welfare status of the animal from which it was produced. In other words, animal welfare is an important attribute of an overall 'food quality concept'. Recent surveys carried out by the European Commission (e.g. [1,2]) as well as studies within Welfare Quality®, confirm tha...

In 2006, the German Animal Welfare Federation started its 3rd survey since the establishment of ethics committees for animal experiments according to the German Animal Welfare Act in Germany in 1987. As animal welfare has been included as a "state goal" in the German constitution in 2002, the present survey aimed at an analysis of specific changes within the licensing process. A series of other...

Implementation of the 3Rs (Replacement, Refinement and Reduction) in animal studies is a legal requirement in many countries. In The Netherlands, animal welfare officers (AWOs) are appointed to monitor the welfare of laboratory animals. As part of this task, AWOs give advice to researchers and can therefore have an influential role in implementing 3R methods in research. A national survey was c...

As the final contribution to this important World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) publication, this paper provides some relevant background and contextual information and identifies a number of strategically significant international activities that will influence the future direction of animal welfare internationally. The assumption of an animal welfare leadership role by the OIE, with th...

On 8th September 2010 the long process of revising the EU Directive for the protection of laboratory animals was concluded. Here a comparative evaluation of the new and old Directive is provided. While its ultimate goal is to replace the use of animals, the new Directive acknowledges that animals, including nonhuman primates, are still needed for scientific purposes today. Importantly, animals ...

Animal welfare has become a growing concern affecting acceptability of agricultural systems in many countries around the world. An earlier Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible (1982) that dominion over animals meant that any degree of exploitation was acceptable has changed for most people to mean that each person has responsibility for animal welfare. This view was evident in some ancie...

Welfare Quality® proposes a system for aggregation according to which the total welfare score for a group of animals is a non-linear effect of the prevalence of welfare scores across the individuals within the group. Three assumptions serve to justify this: (1) experts do not follow a linear reasoning when they assess a welfare problem; (2) it serves to prevent compensation (severe welfare prob...

There are a number of nonhuman animal welfare monitoring schemes for animals on the farm in Australia and in other countries. Although the majority of such schemes are voluntary rather than legislated, some are nevertheless enforced through a number of customer requirements that industries must meet to gain access to markets. Animal welfare monitoring schemes rely on a number of measures, but t...

This paper analyses data obtained from an online survey related to animal welfare and religious slaughter topics. The questionnaire was conducted with the purpose of examining the purchase behaviour of a group of consumers (with different religious orientation) and their views on animal protection and ritual slaughter. The main results of the consultation were two. The first evidenced the respo...