On 15 October 2025, the four EURCAWs organised an online meeting for the National Reference Centres (NRCs) for Animal Welfare and the National Supporting Bodies (SBs) of Competent Authorities. A total of 41 people attended the meeting. Excluding EURCAW and DG SANTE members, 23 participants from 14 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia) were present. The meeting aimed to...

Our recently published factsheet in English about rabbits, describes heat stress in farmed rabbits.    On top of direct welfare indicators that can be used to assess it, the use of resource and management-based indicators is suggested and described.   For more information see the rabbits on-farm welfare webpage.

A new 'Question to EURCAW' (Q2E) has been published on “Culling individuals”.   To see more, take a look at https://zenodo.org/records/17157586 and at our Question to EURCAW's subpage!   

Maintaining high-quality litter (meaning dry and friable) is a primary objective in the management of poultry houses, as poor-quality litter could have significant consequences on the health and welfare of birds.   The assessment of litter quality can be done through various instrumental methods requiring time for analyses and/or specific costly equipment. In contrast, visual assessment can be conducted without any instruments, is instantaneous, and easily feasible.  ...

Aarhus University in Denmark has launched a new Master’s programme in Animal Welfare Assessment. The target audience is primarily for animal welfare inspectors employed by competent authorities.   “The Master in Animal Welfare Assessment has been established to provide further education for professionals who, directly or indirectly, work with animal welfare in their daily activities. The programme originates from the EU Animal Welfare Strategy (2012-2015), which assesses...

The first EURCAW-Poultry-SFA Roadshow took place in Italy on 02 and 03 July 2025. The event was organized by the three Italian members of EURCAW-Poultry-SFA. The Italian central competent Authority (CCA) expressed its interest in the topic: animal welfare indicators collected at slaughter to assess welfare on farm, as this is key to the implementation of the Italian animal welfare annual control plan for poultry. The focal point of the CCA and a representative group of 23 veterinary officials...

The Centre is celebrating the publication of its tenth scientific article as a result of the work carried out in Activity 3 in 2023-2024. The aim of this study was to study the impacts of a covered veranda on broiler chicken welfare. This article named "Positive impacts of a covered veranda on broiler chicken welfare" has been published in Poultry Science and is available here.

From 13-14 May, EURCAW Aqua hosted the annual meeting of the 4 EURCAWs in Heraklion. More than 40 professionals from all four EURCAWs (EURCAW Aqua, EURCAW Ruminants & Equines, EURCAW-Pigs, and EURCAW-Poultry-SFA) gathered to exchange knowledge, strengthen collaboration, and discuss future directions. A World Café to discuss topics such as how to improve the format of factsheets, quality assurance during the peer-review process, training initiatives and the community of practice was...

The Centre is celebrating the publication of its ninth scientific article as a result of the work carried out in Activity 3 in 2023-2024.   The aim of this study was to study the relevant indicators of consciousness after head-only electrical stunning in rabbits in commercial conditions.   This article named "Relevant Indicators of Consciousness After Head-Only Electrical Stunning in Rabbits, Stunning Efficiency, and Risk Factors in Commercial Conditions"...

The EURCAW-Poultry-SFA is proud of presenting you its two latest infographics, issued respectively from two Q2E answers, realized in collaboration with La Chaire bien-être animal: Outdoor access for pullets (available in ENG and FR) Pullets access to litter for dustbathing (available in EN and FR) You can have access to the Q2E answers following the links below: Answer-Q2E-Poultry-SFA-2021-001  Answer_Q2E-Poultry-SFA-2022-008