There is a critical relationship between animal welfare, animal health and food safety.
A report (http://tinyurl.com/yedh82q ) aimed at fostering harmonised risk assessment approaches on animal health and welfare issues across the EU (and observer countries Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) was published on 9 October 2009.
The main goal of this animal health and animal welfare networking was to improve dialogue among member states and observers and assist in the harmonisation of risk assessment methodologies.
Many animal diseases can pose a risk to consumers via the food chain or, less commonly, through other pathways including direct transmission. Well known examples include Salmonella, Brucellosis and BSE which can contaminate foods and cause illness among consumers. Outbreaks of animal diseases can often have serious socioeconomic and environmental consequences.
The report received information from 24 countries out of 30 and one of its' main conclusions found the level of integration of food safety aspects into animal health assessments is higher than that for animal health and animal welfare, and between animal welfare and food safety. Also, more ongoing risk assessment activities are found within animal health than for animal welfare issues.
However, the safety of the food chain is indirectly affected by the welfare of animals, particularly those farmed for food production, due to the close links between animal welfare, animal health and food-borne diseases. Stress factors and poor welfare can lead to increased susceptibility to disease among animals which in turn then poses risks to consumers. The European Commission has called for measurable animal welfare indicators to reinforce the scientific basis of EU regulation in this field and the EFSA is working on developing these.
This, in addition to increased consumer concern on welfare issues, is likely to influence a greater regard being had to animal welfare issues in risk assessments in the future.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 02/02/2010.
