Centre gets worldwide remit for animal welfare
massey-university
Mon Jun 11 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Centre gets worldwide remit for animal welfare
Monday, 11 June 2007, 12:40 am
Press Release: Massey University
Monday, June 11, 2007
Centre gets worldwide remit for animal welfare
The University’s Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre has been named a collaborating centre of the OIE, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and will provide expert scientific, bioethical and educational advice for the OIE and its 169 member countries. The centre is the first in New Zealand to be acknowledged as a collaborating centre, and the only collaborating partner with a sole focus on animal welfare.
Co-director Professor David Mellor says the Centre has a foundation of at least fifty years of scientific, veterinary and practical research. Professor Kevin Stafford, the Centre’s other co-director, says it is now in a powerful position to influence animal welfare around the world. There is increased likelihood of the University attracting research contracts and further strengthening links to other animal welfare organisations and centres. The Centre also works closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which supported the OIE recognition, and has taken a major role in development of New Zealand’s animal welfare infrastructure.
A “virtual” centre, it operates across the University’s Institute for Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences and Institute for Food, Nutrition and Human Health. Current projects include developing practical solutions to welfare problems, evaluating husbandry practices, developing efficient and acceptable methods of pest control, preparing livestock industry and other animal welfare codes, devising and validating parameters for stress assessment, teaching animal welfare sciences, applied animal behaviour and ethics, and analysing ethical dimensions of welfare problems and technological developments.
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Consultation on the need for an animal health body took place from the late 19th century, and, after a serious outbreak of animal disease in Belgium in 1920, the OIE was formed in Paris in 1924. It is involved in veterinary public health issues including zoonoses (diseases transmitted to humans from animals), food hygiene, drug residues and the environment. More recently it has included animal welfare among its global roles. The Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, which focuses on new and emerging diseases, is the only other Southern hemisphere OIE collaborating centre.
ENDS
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