FAWC Report: DEFRA Accepts Four Recommendations
UK - The Government has responded to the Farm Animal Welfare Council’s (FAWC) report on the welfare implications of animal breeding and breeding technologies.
18 July 2007
1 minute read
DEFRA has accepted some of the recommendations laid down by FAWC’s. This includes that surveillance systems should be established to monitor on-farm welfare problems associated with breeding. FAWC also suggests that surveillance should also monitor farms where new breed types or new breeding technologies are first introduced into commercial practice.
In the response, DEFRA has recognised the improvements made since the FAWC report was published. For example, a new EU-wide code of practice for animal breeding technologies is now in place. The breeding and genetics industry now routinely incorporates animal health and welfare considerations into its development programmes.
Minister for Food, Farming and Animal Health, Jeff Rooker, said that FAWC put forward eight recommendations and DEFRA has accepted or partially accepted four of them.
"We agree that they form a sensible approach for addressing the issue of breeding and breeding technologies in the future. Of those that we have rejected, we have done so becasue we believe that they are already addressed by current legislation under a new EU-wide breeding code," he added.
Lord Rooker acknowledged that the livestock genetics and breeding industry recognised the importance of animal welfare and that DEFRA continued to work with it to ensure improvements were on going and acceptable.
Click here to read the Government's response to the report.
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