53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology in Bergen, Norway

The International Society for Applied Ethology held its 53^rd annual Congress in Bergen, Norway at the beginning of August. The Society has been promoting the use of animal behaviour in animal management for more than 50 years, since its beginnings in Edinburgh (as the Society of Veterinary Ethology), and has grown to become the most important annual congress for those interested in animal behaviour and welfare. The society has also been keen to expand its activities into new regions to support animal welfare activities in Asia, South America and Africa and, through the generous support of the Open Philanthropy Project, was able to bring 14 fellows to the Conference from a diverse range of countries including Sudan, Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Tai-Wan and Colombia. As part of the activities for these participants, JMICAWE Director, Cathy Dwyer, along with fellow ISAE members: Dr Jeremy Marchant-Forde (USDA, USA), Prof Dan Weary (UBC, Canada) and Dr Laura Boyle (Teagasc, Ireland), together with ISAE Development Officer, Rebecca Sommerville (Dog’s Trust, UK), hosted a workshop before the conference began to provide the new members with essential skills in behaviour and welfare.

‘The participants were extremely enthusiastic and dedicated to learning about animal behaviour and animal welfare’ said Cathy, ‘and it was wonderful to help them work on animal welfare skills to take back to their own countries after the Congress’.

The Congress itself began with a wonderful Wood-Gush memorial lecture (held each Congress in memory of Prof David Wood-Gush, University of Edinburgh), given by Prof Emeritus Felicity Huntingford. This covered the application of fundamental biology of fish behaviour to practical and applied problems to improve fish welfare, an important and emerging area of interest. The conference covered a range of important and inspiring areas: social behaviour, behaviour and genetics, environmental enrichment, human-animal interactions and future trends in animal production, among other topics. Overall it was good to see more than 400 people contributing to different areas and problems, but all with the aim of using science to improve animal lives.    

The Congress ended with poster and travel awards, and honouring those Society members who had achieved particular awards. And the all-important handing on of the batten (or in this case the wooden ISAE logo carved by JMICAWE associate, Mike Appleby) to the next Congress organisers.  Excitingly, this will be in India for the first time, and JMICAWE will be involved in the helping with the organisation of the Scientific Programme, with an Asian flavour. Watch this space for further updates on the Congress development!