JMICAWE deliver successful animal behaviour workshop at University of the Philippines, Los Banos

A successful animal behaviour workshop at University of Philippines, Los Banos

Last week JMICAWE Director, Cathy Dwyer, and SRUC colleagues, Fritha Langford and Marie Haskell, delivered a 2-day workshop at the College of Veterinary Medicine at University of Philippines, Los Banos (UPLB), focusing on the application of animal behaviour in animal welfare studies.

The workshop was attended by the Deans and representatives of nine other vet schools from across Philippines as well as students and faculty from UPLB. The workshop participants worked on different methods of animal behaviour measurement and testing, considered the different ways that animal behaviour is important in different aspects of animal lives, and had a great field trip out to the vet school’s farm to practice their new found behavioural observation skills on sheep and horses. Conducting a novel object test on a group of the Centre’s sheep really helped participants see the advantages and disadvantages of behavioural observation and behaviour testing.

This is a return trip for the JMICAWE team after a very successful workshop held in Manila last year, focusing on animal welfare education.  The enthusiasm and interest of the Philippine veterinary faculty in learning about animal behaviour and animal welfare was as much in evidence as our previous trip and there are now plans for UPLB faculty to disseminate the learning out to other vet schools that were not able to attend the workshop.

JMICAWE are delighted to be working with such an enthusiastic group of vets and students and are looking forward to future developments.    

Behavioural observation practical class