Animal Welfare

Tuesday October 5th 2010, Strand Palace - London, 09:00 - 14:00 (half day)

Animal Welfare: Improving the Provision of Animal Health and Welfare in England

Overview

Published in 2004 by the previous government, the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain (AHWS) set-out a vision for animal health and welfare in Britain for the next ten years.

By 2014, it is hoped that:

Animals in Great Britain kept for food, farming, sport, companionship, entertainment and in zoos are healthy and treated humanely
Our disease status is amongst the highest in the world and we are able to trade our animals and animal products internationally
The costs of livestock health and welfare are appropriately balanced between industry, and the taxpayer
All disease emergencies are dealt with swiftly and effectively using an agreed approach
Consumers value the confidence they have in food produced safely from healthy animals that are well cared for. Consumers and retailers accept that higher standards of animal health and welfare are not cost free
Livestock keeping is part of a competitive British farming industry which succeeds by meeting the needs of consumers at home and abroad, producing food safely and to high standards of health and welfare

The current government is committed to promoting the highest standards in farm animal welfare, the introduction of clearer food labelling, and enforcing and promoting responsible pet ownership by introducing effective codes of practice under the Animal Welfare Act.

Agenda

08:30	Registration and Coffee
09:10	Chair’s Opening Remarks Professor Richard Bennett, School Director of Enterprise, Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Reading (CONFIRMED)
09:20	Improving Animal Health Provision Farming 2030: Developing a prosperous farming sector -efficient, sustainable, safe food production; improving Britain’s food security Strengthening bio-security: Building our capability to monitor, improve the surveillance of and to collect data to manage the spread of animal health diseases Disease management: Broaden existing powers to vaccinated animals and to test veterinary samples Animal Health Organisation: Constitution, structure, scope and decision-making Improving Animal health provision for all animals Animal health Policy development: Proposing secondary legislation; providing advice and guidance Better management of animal health research and policy development Stronger coordination: Improving animal health through stronger, effective partnerships with food and farming sectors and sector councils Sustainable food production and procurement: Assisting the farming sector to better utilise technology Cost sharing incentives: Simplifying existing powers; consult widely before detailing cost-sharing proposals in subsequent Finance Bill The UK and the EU Community Animal Health Policy (CAHP) Key strategic role: CVO for England, CVO for the UK Professor Nigel Gibbens, Chief Veterinary Officer, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (CONFIRMED)
09:40	Questions and Answers Session
09:50	Improving Animal Health and Welfare The link between animal health policy, disease management and food safety Disease prevention: Providing better research, guidance and health information on farm, wild and companion animals Responding to consumer concerns: Ensuring all animal health and welfare organisations work more Veterinary medicine and food safety standards Professor Bill Reilly, Past President, British Veterinary Association (CONFIRMED)
10:10	Animal Health and the Food Chain Tackling Campylobacter Liz Redmond, Veterinary Director, Head of Food Safety: Hygiene and Microbiology Division, Food Standards Agency (CONFIRMED)
10:30	Improving Risk Management to Prevent the Spread of Animal Diseases Animal Health Organisation: What should be its role? Collate and analyse data, commission and share research on animal health with the wider research community, and farming and food sectors Disease epidemiology: Employing evidence-based decision making Risk assessment and public health: Applying risk management principles to control the spread of infectious diseases Working cooperatively: Improving the relationship between veterinarians and the farming and food sectors Food assurance: Adopting more effective surveillance, monitoring and planning procedures The Royal Veterinary College: Training programmes for animal health specialists Dirk Pfeiffer, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology, Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Royal Veterinary College (CONFIRMED)
10:50	Questions and Answers Session
11:10	Coffee and Networking
11:40	Responsibility and Cost Sharing on Animal Health Rebuilding trust: Thinking on cost-saving models guided by key messages from stakeholder consultations Disease prevention and monitoring: Incentivising behaviour change Preventing the spread of infectious disease in animals: Which cost-sharing models are used in other countries? Cost benefit analysis of three cost-sharing models that could be adopted in the UK Responsibility and cost-sharing Key Success Factors for RCS Rosemary Radcliffe CBE, Chair, Advisory Group on Responsibility and Cost Sharing (CONFIRMED)
12:00	Supporting a Sustainable, Profitable Food and Farming Sector Encouraging greater collaboration between farmers and research bodies – food security Promoting higher standards of animal health and welfare Food assurance: Providing safe, healthy, nutritious food Increasing consumer choice and awareness: Better, clearer food labelling Supporting a sustainable, competitive food and farming sector Rob Macklin, Head of Agriculture, The National Trust (CONFIRMED)
12:20	Closing Keynote: Driving Improvements in Sustainable, Safe Animal Health and Welfare Improving animal health: Defining the role of the Animal Health Organisation Bio-security: Preventing the spread of animal diseases Food security: Working more closely with the science and technology research centres Promoting good practice: Responsibility and cost-sharing scheme - fair, equitable and effective? Driving sustainable farming: Meeting consumer demand through higher animal health and welfare standards Gwyn Jones, Vice President, NFU (CONFIRMED)
12:40	Questions and Answers Session
13:00	Chair’s Closing Remarks
13:10	Lunch and Networking
14:00	Close

*programme subject to change without notice

Audience

Delegates will include trading standards and animal welfare officers and RSPCA officers, animal health and welfare scientists and researchers, representatives from farming organisations, academics and researchers, actuaries, agricultural economists tourism officers and leisure professionals, regional development specialists, insurance underwriters and investment analysts, policy analysts, environment, business, political and agricultural consultants veterinarians, GP's and PCT managers, directors of rural and consumer groups, directors of food processing and food production plants, retail analysts, business continuity experts, directors of haulage companies.