Seasons Greetings

We wish you all a happy and restful Christmas and New Year, wherever you are in the world

As we come to the close of 2016, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for all that you do to further animal welfare in your work.  Without the support and collaboration of people like you, our team would not have been able to achieve what we have over the past year, and certainly the future of animal welfare would not have moved forward as it has.  Highlights of our year include:

•             The ‘Send a Vet Nurse’ projects in India and Sri Lanka, as well as collaborating with the Indian Government to run a production animal health and welfare workshop for veterinarians and researchers working in Animal Science and Veterinary medicine;
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•       Working visits to Edinburgh by the Deans and representatives from Indonesian, Philippine and Chinese veterinary schools to learn about international standards, innovation in veterinary teaching, integration of animal welfare and best practice animal care;
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•       Ongoing collaboration with Dogs Trust to improve free-roaming dog welfare around the world;
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•            Jointly hosting the 50th Anniversary meeting of International Society for Applied Ethology in Edinburgh, which was attended by a record 600 delegates; 
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•       Improving zoo veterinary skills in China, Japan and Indonesia through collaborations with Animals Asia and Wild Welfare;
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•       The continuing success of our free online course (MOOC) in Animal Welfare, and a new Dog & Cat MOOC to be launched in 2017;
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•       The graduation of more ‘online’ Masters students in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law and an increase in our Animal Welfare Masters community to more than 150 each year;
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•       The delivery of animal welfare education to multiple partners around the world including China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, USA, Canada and Spain.

Finally, we are extremely grateful to the Marchig Trust for providing the funding that supports the Centre’s work as an integrated unit within the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh.           

With our very best wishes and many thanks to you all,

from Professor Cathy Dwyer and the team at the

Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education

November IAWEL MSc graduation ceremony

At the end of November we celebrated the graduation of our International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law MSc students. The graduation ceremony took place at the University of  Edinburgh’s beautiful Usher Hall and afterwards our graduates and their families were invited to a post-graduation drinks reception at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh.

We very much enjoyed meeting up with our students, some of whom we had never met in person before due to the online nature of the MSc in International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law.  This year, graduate Jane Stirling was awarded the UFAW prize for the best dissertation for her thesis entitled: Does the cage-trapping of corvids cause unnecessary suffering? A behavioural study of trapped magpies (Pica pica).

The ceremony is a wonderful way to celebrate their achievements and we congratulate all our graduates, those that were able to attend the ceremony and those that could not make it to Edinburgh this time. We welcome the graduates into our growing IAWEL Alumni community and wish them all the best in whatever they do next. 

JMICAWE has a new Director.

JMICAWE has a new Director

Following the departure of the inaugural Director of JMICAWE, Prof Natalie Waran, to a new job in New Zealand in September, we are delighted to announce that a new Director of the Centre has been  formally appointed.

Prof Cathy Dwyer has taken over the leadership of the Centre with effect from 1^st December 2016. Cathy will combine the role with her continuing job as the head of the Animal Behaviour and Welfare research team at SRUC (Scottish Rural College). Cathy’s background has been as a research scientist specialising in livestock behaviour and welfare, as well as teaching on BSc and MSc programmes in animal behaviour and welfare. She is an expert in maternal behaviour in sheep and lamb survival, but also conducts research in behavioural development, animal pain and welfare assessment, particularly of extensively managed animals. She has supervised many BSc, MSc and PhD students in these fields. She was awarded the BSAS/RSPCA award for innovative developments in animal welfare in 2013 in recognition of her research in animal welfare. In addition to her research and teaching, Cathy is passionate about research making a difference to the lives of animals, and has worked with farmers, in participative projects, and given talks to the general public, participated in many science festival events and talked about animal welfare to school children.

Cathy has previously worked with Nat and others in the JMICAWE team on delivering workshops in livestock welfare in India and in running the 50^th Anniversary meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology in Edinburgh in July 2016. Her appointment to the Directorship will bring the SRUC research team and the education function of the Centre closer together to develop a strong presence in animal welfare at the University of Edinburgh’s Easter Bush Campus.

Cathy says, ‘It will be a hard act to follow Nat’s inspirational leadership of the Centre, but I am looking forward to the challenge of continuing her good work and of increasing the excellent reputation of the Centre globally’.

A very big welcome to Cathy, we look forward to working alongside you.   

  

JMICAWE & SRUC in India

New Delhi

JMICAWE has recently been involved in visits and workshops in New Delhi, India. Our new Director Professor Cathy Dwyer and Dr Marie Haskell visited Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in late November. Both Universities are engaged in developing animal welfare education opportunities for students in India. There are currently no university degrees covering animal welfare in India, and veterinary students receive only a few hours of training in animal welfare. We will be working with both Universities to help them develop teaching materials to address this issue. Whilst at IGNOU Cathy recorded a radio interview, for broadcast as part of the course on IGNOU’s dedicated radio channel, and both Cathy and Marie gave seminars on animal welfare and animal cognition at JNU attended by students, faculty and NGOs. This led to a lively debate on current welfare issues in India, particularly issues with stray dogs and stray cows. 

Cathy and Marie were then joined by SRUC scientists, Laura Dixon and Fritha Langford, to host a 2-day workshop at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) on 1-2 December. We discussed concepts in animal welfare, the need for an evidence-based approach to animal welfare assessment and provided training in animal welfare science methods. This involved a ‘hands on’ session where the thermal imaging equipment sparked much hilarity about who was the coolest! After the workshop we spent a day visiting the ICAR dairy research centre to hear about some of the behaviour projects they are beginning to carry out there, and to discuss future collaborations. We are looking forward to hearing the outcomes of the cognition tests for buffalo calves!

We concluded the visit by a trip to a ‘gaushala’ which provides a home for non-productive stray cows. Cows are sacred to the Hindu religion, and Indian law prohibits the culling of cows. However, this means that elderly or non-productive animals are often left to roam the streets. Gaushalas collect these cows from the streets and volunteers work to worship and take care of them. We were greeted with garlands of marigolds, and took part in a ceremony to honour the cows with jaggery (palm sugar) and some ceremonial cleaning of the stables (in which we participated a little too enthusiastically in sweeping up). The visits ended with prayers in the shrine and a blessing from an old lady who has dedicated her life to worshipping cows.   

   

Send a Vet Nurse to Sri Lanka - project report

Two vets, 5 vet nurses and 1 Sri Lankan vet school

This month sees the return of our veterinary nurse Hayley Walters and vet Heather Bacon from their two week visit to Kandy, Sri Lanka where they led a team of three newly qualified veterinary nurses, one student veterinary nurse and one feline medicine vet.

The ‘Send a Vet Nurse to Sri Lanka’ project was a collaboration between the JMICAWE and the University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Sri Lanka’s only vet school.

The project involved fully integrating the vet nurse team into the teaching hospital in Sri Lanka and demonstrating to their Sri Lankan counterparts the invaluable support a well-trained VN has to offer in not only improving animal welfare but also the smooth-running of a hospital.

The VNs were professional, hardworking, compassionate and despite being either students or newly qualified, developed the confidence to teach and explain to the vet students there what they were doing and why.

Hayley said, “Sri Lanka has a few challenges when it comes to the veterinary profession: 1) one vet school is providing the education for every single vet in the country and they are incredibly busy and sometimes understaffed; 2) they don’t have trained, qualified veterinary nurses to provide the supportive care needed to ensure a high level of patient care. Many of the small animals that arrive at the hospital are badly injured in road traffic accidents or have complicated medical conditions, but with limited staff and resources, many of the animals are unable to receive the level of care they need as there are almost no staff dedicated to their daily needs”.

Currently in Sri Lanka, trained veterinary surgeons are responsible for all veterinary duties, from basic techniques such as blood sampling or bandaging, to complex surgical procedures. The vast scope of this workload is a challenge to the development of the profession, as excessive time is taken up with minor procedures, basic animal management, and logistics such as stock control, which would, in other parts of the world, normally be the responsibility of the veterinary nurse.

The 4 VNs fully immersed themselves in all aspects of hospital work including the inpatient area, anaesthetic monitoring, surgical patient preparation, handling, cleaning and physiotherapy. The evenings were spent delivering workshops to students and faculty members, clinical skills practise on models and manikins and protocol writing to improve patient care and the running of the hospital. The University had also invited the dog units of the Sri Lankan police, army, navy and air force to attend so outreach was larger than originally expected.

The University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science were impressed with what the vet nurses had to offer and all faculty members unanimously agreed to endorse a VN training programme and qualification.

Hayley has just finished writing a VN curriculum for the university to consider and we hope to see Sri Lanka’s first ever Veterinary Nurse Training Curriculum and Associated Diploma Level Qualification in the near future. We trust this will be a long and successful collaboration.

Judging animal welfare in the US

Judging Animal Welfare

The annual US Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Competition was held at Columbus in Ohio State in November this year, sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association (http://www.awjac.org/).

This is an initiative originally developed by Michigan State University and Purdue to engage undergraduate Animal Science students with Animal Welfare, and has now grown to include veterinary undergraduates and graduate students, with around 100 students from schools across USA and Canada taking part this year. Students reviewed two different scenarios for each of three different species management (meat sheep, laboratory guinea pigs and pedigree dogs) and one live scenario (poultry), and provided reasoning for why welfare was better in one situation compared to another. 

This year Prof Cathy Dwyer was one of the judges for the meat sheep scenarios, alongside animal scientists and veterinarians from Canada and the US, and also gave a guest lecture on welfare issues associated with sheep production. It was a fun, thought-provoking and exhausting weekend, with lots of intense debate about the welfare merits or costs of various practices, and Cathy was very impressed with the dedication and hard work of all the students and coaches, many of whom were students themselves. Listening to, and marking, the rapid fire delivery of 40 students, each explaining the welfare benefits of sheep scenarios in three minutes, was hard work but very rewarding to see so much attention to detail in thinking about animal welfare. Congratulations to the University of British Colombia on winning the overall best team trophy, and to all the other winners and runners-up for a close-fought competition with such impressive breadth of welfare thinking.    

http://www.awjac.org/

New Director in France for animal welfare meeting

ESLAV 20^th Anniversary Meeting focuses on Animal Welfare

The joint meeting of the European Society for Laboratory Animal Veterinarians (ESLAV) and the European College for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ECLAM) took place in Lyon in November, with the 3 day meeting focusing on animal welfare.

JMICAWE's new Director Prof Cathy Dwyer was an invited speaker in the session on understanding animal needs, presenting a paper which explained the impact of early life experiences for animals on their later stress responses, behaviour and welfare.

It was a stimulating meeting, with genuine concern for laboratory animal welfare and a desire to improve matters through the development of a ‘culture of care’ running from top to bottom in institutions involved in research. The meeting involved a line-up of excellent speakers including Prof Don Broom, Prof David Fraser, Dr Birte Nielsen, Dr Sarah Heath and Prof Paul Flecknell to name but a few, and was wide-ranging dealing with conceptual issues, animal sensory abilities, lessons which can be learnt from other species and future directions. 

Dr Nielsen reminded us that many animal species have very different sensory abilities to our own: seeing in wavelengths, vocalising at frequencies and having olfactory capabilities all of which differ from human perception. Dr Heath discussed welfare issues around companion animal lives, and how owners understanding of the welfare needs of their pets may fall short of reality. Prof Fraser concluded the meeting with an excellent presentation that drew on developments in One Welfare, and reminded us that the most important part of animal welfare was the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of the people who cared for animals.

The meeting stood out as one that engaged with animal welfare of laboratory, farm, zoo and companion animals in attempts to learn from the welfare messages developed by these different sectors.  

http://www.alphavisa.com/eslav-eclam/2016/index.php   

JMICAWE Vet recognised as inspirational Woman of STEM

Equate Scotland makes a positive difference for women in science, engineering, technology and the built environment.

Established in 2006, Equate Scotland is Scotland’s expert in gender equality throughout these fields. It makes a tangible and sustainable change, enabling women studying and working in these keys sectors to develop, by supporting their recruitment, retention and progression. Equate’s vision is of a progressive Scotland where women can contribute equally to advancements in science, engineering and technology and have fair access to the jobs of the future.

To this end, Equate have collated a few examples of inspirational women of past and current Scotland and JMICAWE were delighted that our own Heather Bacon was included in this listing. Heather said “It’s really important to champion the role of women in Science, and I’m incredibly honoured to be included with such inspirational women.”

 www.equatescotland.org.uk

   

International Deans' visit promotes veterinary education and animal welfare

At the beginning of November, the JMICAWE was delighted to host a 3 day workshop for visiting Deans from the Veterinary faculties of Cavite State University, Philippines; the University of the Philippines Los Baños; and the University of Bogor, Indonesia. The Deans were accompanied by Dr Daniel Ventura Jr, Dr Goy Satayaprasert and Dr Nancy Clarke, of World Animal Protection, who funded the trip.

After an incredibly successful visit comprising discussion, presentations, visits to the University farms, clinical and pre-clinical teaching facilities, the Deans left stating they felt ‘inspired’ to make changes within their own Universities aiming to enhance their educational teaching of veterinary undergraduates, and promoting concepts of animal welfare within their veterinary teaching.

Heather Bacon of the JMICAWE said “It was a wonderful visit and very positive for all of us. It was helpful for us to better understand the challenges some of our international colleagues face, and we hope to further develop our relationships through ongoing collaboration. We’re especially looking forward to hearing about the changes the Deans will implement on their return.”

Sheep & Maple Syrup

Sheep and Maple Syrup

Professor Cathy Dwyer has just returned from a few days in Ontario, Canada, where she was the guest speaker at the Ontario Sheep Convention, held in Alliston, Ontario. Cathy spoke to nearly 200 sheep farmers and delegates about the science of ewe-lamb bonding, and how management could work with the natural behaviour of the ewe to improve lamb survival. She explained the biological processes that govern the onset of maternal care in sheep, and how the ewe is driven by hormonal changes around birth to develop a bond with her own lambs, and to reject others. Knowing the biology of the relationships can help farmers ensure that ewes and lambs are given the best chance to develop a strong mother-young relationship, which is good for sheep welfare and for farmer morale. In particular she emphasised giving the ewe time and space to show maternal behaviour without excessive human intervention.

Cathy was the guest of the Ontario Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, who organised the convention with the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency. Following the convention she visited a number of sheep farms, to see how Canadian farmers were dealing with the challenges of producing sheep in areas where temperatures can reach -40°C and coyote predation is a significant threat to sheep welfare. She met many of the guardian dogs that North American sheep farmers use to protect their flocks, and was impressed by the innovative and enthusiastic approach to sheep farming shown by many of the farmers.

Of course, no trip to Canada in the autumn would really be complete without sampling some of the (many) maple sugar products on offer, being amazed by the autumn colours in the trees and stunned by the incredible Hallowe’en decorations! 

Dog Day at Vogrie Park - The Science behind the Wag

Dr Amy Miele from the JMICAWE team recently took part in a Midlothian Science Festival event entitled, ‘Dog Day: The Science Behind the Wag’, which was held at Vogrie Country Park on Sunday 9^th October. The free event attracted hundreds of dog enthusiasts of all ages, who were able to get involved in hands on drop-in activities, workshops, agility and obedience demonstrations as well as an expert Q&A session. 

Members of the R(D)SVS, The Roslin Institute, Midlothian Dog Training Club, Dog’s Trust, Guide Dog’s Association, Canine Concern Scotland (Therapets) and All4paws came together to create an educational and fun-filled afternoon.

Activities focussed on understanding canine body language and emotions, with a ‘name the emotion’ task led by Benjamin Cross, R(D)SVS student and founder of the Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society and a desensitisation workshop run by behaviour consultant and R(D)SVS lecturer in Clinical Animal Behaviour, Dr Amy Miele.  Amy was also one of the experts in the Q&A session (alongside trainer and behaviour advisor Julie Morrison from the Dog’s Trust and trainer Carol Mcdonald from the Midlothian Dog Training Club) , which was lively, stimulating and informative.

Event organiser Dr Heather McQueen from the University of Edinburgh and Midlothian Dog Training Club commented, ‘The event was a resounding success, people were genuinely fascinated by what the experts had to say and seemed really keen to utilise what they had learned to optimise their relationship with their dog’.

The event ended with the ‘Corridor of Temptation’, where owners were given the opportunity to show off their dog’s recall skills by asking them to run past a plethora of tempting treats and toys, including a plate of sausages and a rather life-like moving cat toy! While some dogs took the distractions in their stride and had eyes only for their handler, others were a little more curious, requiring the sausages to be replenished on a regular basis!

Promoting animal welfare and veterinary care in Chinese zoos

Promoting animal welfare and veterinary care in Chinese zoos

Earlier this year the JMICAWE built on a long-term collaboration with NGO Animals Asia, and the Chinese Association of Zoo Gardens delivering an advanced Veterinary training workshop to 80 zoo vets from collections across China.

Standards of veterinary training in China remain much lower than in the UK, and there currently is no further training available on the subject of zoological medicine, meaning that for thousands of zoo animals across China, even basic healthcare is a challenge. Building on the success of this relationship representatives from AAF and JMICAWE were invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the CAZG Education Committee in September, and will be moving forward to cooperate with the North Eastern Forestry University in China, and CAZG to develop a strategy for education in veterinary skills, animal behaviour and welfare across the Chinese zoo community.

“We know that zoos are controversial to many people”, said Heather Bacon of the JMICAWE, “but we also recognise that zoos are a reality for many animals around the world, and if we can provide zoo vets and keepers with the skills to deliver good standards of husbandry and veterinary care, we can dramatically improve the welfare of hundreds of thousands of animals”

JMICAWE's Heather Bacon awarded BVA's Trevor Blackburn Award

Last week, the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education was delighted to hear that our own Heather Bacon was announced as the recipient of BVA's Trevor Blackburn Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to improving animal health and welfare in developing countries through education, charity work and research.

The award particularly recognises Heather’s work with Animals Asia to rehabilitate victims of the bear bile industry; her role as Veterinary Welfare Education and Outreach Manager at the University of Edinburgh’s Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education, in encouraging the use of manikins and models in place of live animals in veterinary teaching; her research and clinical practice to raise animal welfare and veterinary skills standards within the global zoo community; and her work with street dogs involved in Trap-Neuter-Return programmes.

On learning that she had been awarded the Trevor Blackburn Award, Heather commented:

“I’m truly honoured to receive the Trevor Blackburn award. To be recognised alongside previous recipients, and the wonderful contributions that they’ve made to animal health and welfare overseas is incredible. However, I’m acutely aware that none of my work would be possible without an amazing array of colleagues and friends around the world who support, facilitate, and advise me in order to ensure that the educational work that I do is not ‘lost in translation’. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do the work that I do, and hope that awards such as this, which are so important in recognising the global impact of the UK veterinary community, will inspire vets across the UK to make a difference internationally.”

https://www.bva.co.uk/news-campaigns-and-policy/newsroom/news-releases/heather-bacon-receives-the-trevor-blackburn-award-for-raising-standards-of-animal-health-and-welfare-in-developing-countries/

Well done, Heather - the team all send their sincere congratulations on this latest achievement!

Professor Nat Waran leaves the JMICAWE and Edinburgh to return to New Zealand

Sadly this month, we are saying good bye to Prof Nat due to her family’s decision to

return to New Zealand.

Prof Nat was invited to return to Edinburgh in early 2011 (after 6 years of working in

New Zealand) to lead the development of the newly-established Jeanne Marchig International

Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) within the Royal (Dick) School of

Veterinary Studies. The creation of such a unique entity was made possible due to the

generous support and vision of the late Madame Jeanne Marchig and the Marchig

Trustees.

During the last five years, Prof Nat has led the Centre’s work in building some

influential and positive relationships with Governments, Universities, Professional

organisations and NGOs, in different parts of the world. Working with our various

partners has led to whole array of different initiatives related to improving animal and

human welfare using a ‘One Welfare’ approach. Last year, we were fortunate to secure

the continued commitment of the Marchig Trust to ensure the future operation of the

Centre, and so we look forward to deepening and widening these relationships over

the coming years.

However having spent 5 years leading the Centre as the inaugural Director and

travelling to many parts of the world to work with some great collaborators, Prof Nat

has now made the decision to return to New Zealand, where she and her family

(including three dogs, three cats and two horses) will enjoy reconnecting with the

country that they call home.

She will take up her new position as Professor of ‘One Welfare’ and Executive Dean for

Education, Humanities and Health Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology in

Hawkes Bay on October 3rd 2016 and she says that she is certainly planning to remain

involved with the Centre’s work and welcomes continued contact with you all.

Prof Nat Waran says:

‘The last 5 years have certainly been challenging but also wonderfully rewarding.

It has been a huge privilege to work with all of my colleagues overseas, without

whom the work we do would not be possible. I am extremely grateful to the

Marchig Trustees and the University of Edinburgh for trusting me to lead the

development of the Centre, and the initiatives and activities aimed at bringing

about positive changes for animals, through engaging with national and

international stakeholders involved in veterinary education, policy and animal

welfare practice. It has certainly been life-changing for me, and I know that this

has also been the case for many of the people we have reached so far; not just the

veterinary and masters students studying in Edinburgh, but also the wider

international community we work with and reach through our various online

programmes. I know that there is still much to do, but I hope that the work I have

been honored to play a part in developing, will continue to grow and influence

future generations of vets, as well as the thinking and practices of policy makers

and animal carers in places where animals suffer daily, and in parts of the world

where changes in attitudes and behaviour are essential if people are to

understand why improving conditions for animals is so important for both animal

and human health and welfare. I will miss working closely with my wonderful

team, but will certainly be staying involved with the Centre in my role as Hon

Professor for Animal Welfare, and I look forward to seeing how things develop

further with all that the opportunities that a new leadership will bring’.

Prof Nat’s position as Director of the Centre will be taken up by her Edinburgh

colleague, Professor Cathy Dwyer. Prof Dwyer is an esteemed animal welfare

researcher and she is already involved in a number of the existing JMICAWE projects

and is looking forward to introducing herself to you all in due course.

Nat will be leaving us on the 22nd September 2016 and we hope you will join us in

thanking her for all that she has done and wishing her and her family all the best for

their future life in NZ, ‘The land of the long white cloud’

Prof Waran in Sweden to present on equine welfare and examine a PhD

On her last visit to Europe as the JMICAWE Centre Director, Prof Nat was asked to present on 'Is it possible for Horses to be Happy Athletes'? alongside equitation science colleague Dr Katalijner Visser, who talked about welfare assessment protocol development for horses transported long distances for slaughter. 

The afternoon seminar was well attended by staff and students at the Swedish Agricultural University who had turned out to see the external experts establish their credibility in equine welfare prior to Sofie Viksten's successful PhD defence. 

Under the Swedish system, as the 'opponent' it was Nat's task to question Sofie about her work in order for the assessment panel to decide if she was worthy of her PhD. The thesis described a horse welfare assessment system Sofie had developed and tested for use in the Swedish Equine Industry, and the impact that the results of her assessments had on the attitudes and behaviours of the horse owners given feedback. Interestingly she found that horse owners, despite being provided with a large amount of individual feedback, were not particularly open to change and welfare improvements were minimal. There's clearly a lot to be understood about human behaviour change if we are to improve animal welfare, and this is something Sofie plans to develop further now that her PhD studies are behind her.

Prof Nat Waran presents to horse professionals on improving the welfare of horses in training

Its fitting given her passion for horses that our Centre Director Prof Nat Waran's last presentation in the UK for some time, before she leaves for New Zealand, was at the invitation of the British Horse Society. Presenting to an audience of some 250 BHS accredited coaches, professional riders, judges, horse breeders and horse keepers, she outlined the need to reduce the stress commonly caused due to  confusion during training and performance, through; promoting the use of evidence based humane training methods, improved understanding of the correct application of learning theory, improved rider/judge education for recognition of stress related behaviours and acceptance of the need to reward behaviours indicative of positive emotional states.

One attendee commented, ' For me personally hearing learning theory applied to horse training explained so eloquently by Prof. Nat Waran, taking main stage at such an important conference AND the fact that it counted as my official BHS Accredited Coach compulsory CPD, shows me the BHS is serious about positive change which will benefit horse welfare'. 

Prof Cathy Dwyer presents on Lamb welfare at well attended European Conference

The European Association of Animal Production in Belfast (EAAP) held its annual meeting in Belfast this week, attended by more than 1000 scientists from across Europe and beyond. The meeting covers all aspects of animal production from dog breeding and equine welfare to genetics and genomics of milk and fibre production, and everything in between.

Our own Prof Cathy Dwyer presented in the session on methods for reducing lamb mortality, by seeking to translate their group's  extensive research findings into practical on farm applications to improve lamb survival and welfare. She gave an overview of the biological principles behind survival, and then chaired a lively session focussed on understanding the barriers to collecting good quality data on farm.

In addition Cathy attempted to navigate the complexities of the timetable (73 sessions running in 10 parallel streams) to hear some interesting papers on the use of Infra Red Thermography to assess stress and welfare in dairy calves and racehorses, on farm assessment of welfare in pigs and how dressage trainers translate the ‘voice of the horse’ (through interpreting horse behaviour) to their riders.   

The best quote of the day came from Huw Davies (a well known Welsh sheep farmer and member of the Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) who reminded us that, without good data or records we can always fool ourselves that we are being successful. A good reminder that production and welfare evaluations should always seek to be evidence-based! 

International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law Masters students complete their projects and their degrees

Our second cohort of students studying on the online Masters programme in International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law (IAWEL) received notification of their Masters degree results this week (to be awarded in graduation ceremony in November). The students have been working really hard on their projects for the past year, writing a thesis and undertaking two live presentations. The subjects of this year’s projects have varied widely, all have made fascinating reading and will certainly add to our knowledge in animal welfare science.

The subjects covered are varied and challenging. We have had two legal analyses: one, assessing the effect of so-called ‘Ag-Gag’ laws on farm animal welfare and the other, evaluating the levels of protection given to rabbits as pets, lab animals, and pests. One student undertook a gap analysis of non-surgical methods of dog population control from a welfare perspective. A student based in Vietnam assessed understanding and attitude of people in different regions of Vietnam to Pangolins, an animal that is at great risk of extinction from hunting and trading. One student who is based on Saipan assessed attitude to pet and ‘boonie’ (street) dogs on the Pacific islands of Guam and Saipan. Our first IAWEL student from mainland China carried out the first ever survey of Chinese dog owners about dog behaviour problems.

All of our IAWEL students are encouraged to publish their work in scientific publication if possible, and we look forward to hearing about their publication successes in the coming months.

Programme Director, Dr Fritha Langford said; 'The combined welfare team of  JMICAWE and SRUC staff, along with all of our enthusiastic external lecturers, wish our new graduates all the best in their future endeavours'.

NEW Clinical Animal Behaviour MSc

With only a few weeks to go before the new Clinical Animal Behaviour PG programme goes live, Programme Director, Prof Nat Waran and Prog Coordinator Dr Amy Miele are really pleased with the good number of applications that they received. ‘It looks like we will be welcoming considerably more students than we originally planned for in our first year, and the diverse range of backgrounds and expertise makes for an excellent student cohort ’ said Dr Amy Miele. She adds, 'this is a subject area of growing interest and it is fantastic to see that so many veterinary and animal welfare professionals are committed to developing their knowledge of behaviour in order to improve the welfare of the animals in their care'. The Programme, is an extension of the highly successful suite of online Masters programmes offered through the RDSVS, including the International animal welfare, ethics and law programme that was developed through the JMICAWE in 2012. 

JMICAWE Director Prof Nat Waran, who is responsible for developing this new programme comments; ’Its an interesting and challenging subject area, with students from many countries coming together to study wholly online, a range of subjects related to the theory of companion animal behaviour, causes of problem behaviour and animal welfare needs including; learning and motivation, behaviour modification, the science behind different therapies and treatment of behavioural problems, and the human-animal bond . We are really pleased to be able to offer this extremely socially relevant programme here at the RDSVS where we are committed to providing quality evidence based education to help improve animal welfare’.

Information about the programme can be found at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/studying/postgraduate/taught-programmes/clinical-animal-behaviour 

MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour | The University of Edinburgh www.ed.ac.uk The MSc in Clinical Animal Behaviour is a new programme in 2016 using the University of Edinburgh’s award winning online learning environments.

Filming for MOOC 2- 'The Truth about cats and dogs' gets underway

With the success of our first MOOC (a Massive Open access Online Course) addressing issues relating to international animal welfare, we have responded to the many requests we have had to create a new MOOC, to provide an indepth look into the world of cats and dogs worldwide, to help dispel some of the myths and misunderstandings about pet behaviour and discover the truth about their needs.

Scripts are being created, images sourced and filming has now started, and the JMICAWE team's pets have all been washed and spruced ready for their big moments. We are well underway and excited about what we have planned.

JMICAWE team dogs are all ready for their starring roles

This free online course will be made available on Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) by January 2017, but you can follow our, at times quite hilarious progress as we make our films (well anyone working with animals and scientists should expect some unplanned events!) by watching out for our tweets, blogs and facebooks posts at this link: http://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/jeanne-marchig-centre/news

Tina Widowski lectures on the free range egg debate

An interesting link from our colleagues in Australia:-

Tina Widowski's Dean’s lecture, “Marketing vs science – who's really winning in the free range egg debate?”, can now be accessed on our website seminar page. PDF, video and narrated presentation.

http://www.animalwelfare.net.au/article/scientific-seminars

Animal Welfare Science Centre

Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

The University of Melbourne

Meeting our Animal Welfare ambassadors in China and Hong Kong

Meeting our Animal Welfare ambassadors in China and Hong Kong

On our travels, its wonderful to meet up with our former and current animal welfare Masters and veterinary students, as well as overseas colleagues who have spent some time in Edinburgh. It makes you realise that the network of animal ambassadors is growing all of the time, and like a tree – the branches expand our animal welfare teaching far wider than our little team could ever reach.

This week I was fortunate to meet up with Prof Li Peng and Prof Lin DeGui in Beijing at the Chinese Agricultural University’s veterinary school. Both of these veterinary lecturers have been involved with us over the past few years, inviting our team to teach their students and staff about the use of non animal models for teaching veterinary medicine and last year they came to Edinburgh to look at how we embed animal welfare into our teaching and practice. It was heartening to discuss their interest in deepening our working relationship through a veterinary programme link.

In addition when in Hong Kong I had the chance to meet with Dr Tinny Ho, Prof Amanda Whitfort, Dr SK Kong and Elaine Su – all Masters students of the International Animal Welfare, Ethics, Policy and Law programme at Edinburgh. Tinny showed me around the equine facilities at Beas River Country club where she keeps her horse, and where she is carrying out her Masters research project (see picture below). In addition she was keen to share her enthusiasm for developing an understanding of equitation science in HK. Later we met with our vet school Alumni and great friends of the JMICAWE who all work with the HK SPCA – Assistant director Dr Fiona Woodhouse, Head Vet Dr Jane Gray (who is currently studying on our online Animal Welfare Masters) and Tanya Masters (a RDSVS graduate). With this animal welfare powerhouse in HK – there is no wonder that there have been a number of positive moves for animal welfare here and certainly more to come with the recent discussion relating to animal breeders.

Veterinary Education collaborations welcomed in Jilin, China

Veterinary Education collaborations welcomed in Jilin, China

Earlier this month, the JMICAWE team travelled to the city of Changchun in Jilin province to deliver a 2 day workshop on animal welfare, animal behaviour, and veterinary skills to veterinary lecturers and students from 13 vet schools across China.

Comprehensive veterinary knowledge of subjects such as animal behaviour and pain recognition are essential to the good welfare of our animal patients, but are often not taught in Chinese vet schools; additionally the overuse of live animals in veterinary training may cause emotional conflicts in students who naturally want to ‘help’ animals.

Building on the success of the workshop, Jilin University is keen to develop training courses in the wider nursing and pain management of animal patients, and students from the course were delighted to learn of international standards in veterinary education.

Heather Bacon, of the JMICAWE, who received a follow up email from a student at the workshop, said she was delighted with the response “Animal welfare in China is sometimes seen as being a contentious issue, but significant improvements in animal welfare can be made simply through improving standards in veterinary education, and the skills of vets in practice, and it is this practical approach to improving welfare through improved veterinary care, that the JMICAWE focuses on”

And the student email?  Well you can read for yourself the importance of these topics to veterinary students in China!

“I sincerely hope the collaboration between the university of Edinburgh and Jilin University could improve the welfare of animals beginning from Jilin University. I remembered Hayley said it would be ground-breaking to start using non-animal models in teaching, and it could even earn the university itself a reputation (although I think it should not be the reputation that we are after, it should be the true affections for animals that drive us to care the welfare of animal). But it does not harm because I have always believed in the saying that ‘fake it till you make it’. 

I am sure a lot of students are feeling the same way I do.

Thanks for sowing the seed into our hearts. It will grow.”

Discussing Equine Behaviour and Welfare at ISES in Saumur

Discussing Equine Behaviour and Welfare at ISES in Saumur

It's always a treat when we get to meet old friends and discuss new directions in animal welfare research. The International Society for Equitation Science recently held their annual meeting at the invitation of the Cadre Noir, at the French National Riding School in Saumur. During the conference, we heard of the findings of research into potentially painful and restrictive issues with the use of over-tight nosebands used on horses, an all too common practice in the world of competition horses, and the subject of a three year PhD carried out by one of our former Masters in Animal Welfare students, Dr Orla Doherty. We also had the chance to observe and question different equine trainers, and to discuss the methods used for equine temperament testing in France and to provide valuable feedback to the relevant research team.

Prof Nat Waran, who is a founding member and Hon. Fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science, a subject that is now taught as an MSc Course within the University of Edinburgh’s Equine Master’s programme says:

 ‘Many of the methods used to train horses around the world rely on traditional approaches, which work, but may not always be the most humane,effective or ethical. This annual gathering of equitation scientists and practitioners provides an excellent forum for constructive discussion and exchange of ideas, encourages research to inform better practice and allows us to question beliefs and non-evidence based approaches in the hope that we will help improve equine welfare’.

Centre Director at "Key Animal Welfare Drivers" conference in Malaysia

Successful Last World Animal Protection Sponsored Animal Welfare Key Drivers workshop

It was a real delight to meet with the animal welfare lecturers from various Asian Veterinary Schools in Kuala Lumpur for the final WAP sponsored workshop for what we call the ‘Key Animal Welfare Drivers’. Professor Natalie Waran was honoured to be asked to attend and speak at the workshop, and to discuss how the JMICAWE can continue to support the educational work being carried out by these amazing animal welfare veterinary lecturers from Asian countries where animal welfare is generally poor and where there is a pressing need to help transfer knowledge about the science and practice of animal welfare to their future veterinarians.

First day of the International Society for Applied Ethology's 50th Anniversary conference here in Edinburgh

We are very excited to have been part of the organisation of this landmark event. With over 600 scientists from all over the world gathered to hear the latest research into applied animal behaviour and animal welfare issues and new methodologies - this is definitely the event to be at this year. Edinburgh hosted the first ever meeting of what was then called the Society of Veterinary Ethology, 50 years ago - and some of the Giants of our field have played an important role in furthering the aims of the Society. One of these was Prof David Wood-Gush - the first Hon Programme Director of the Masters in Applied animal behaviour and animal welfare, which was launched with funding from the European Union in 1990.  1990 was a significant year for our JMICAWE Director - who took on the role of Programme Coordinator, as her first job as a recent PhD graduate, to welcome the first ever Masters students on this course to Edinburgh. Tonight she looks forward to meeting some of the many Edinburgh graduates from over 25 years of the programme, as well as some of those who will join us from on online Masters in International Animal Welfare and ex PhD students! Many of these are now Professors and world influencers, with their own Animal Welfare research and education programmes and their own students. Its wonderful to think that Edinburgh has played such an important part in helping to shape their future careers!

The welcome event this evening will be opened by our own Prof David Argyle, the Head of the Veterinary School at Edinburgh, and this will be followed by the Wood-Gush Memorial talk given this year by Professor Christine Nicol from Bristol University Veterinary School.

Working with the JNU to develop teaching at the National Animal Welfare Institute of India

In June this year, Prof Nat Waran met with the academic team led by Prof Sen at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who have just signed a contract with the Indian Government, to develop and provide various levels of courses addressing the development of animal welfare sciences at the Ballabhgarh campus of the National Institute of Animal Welfare (NIAW) in Haryana.

The JMICAWE team are delighted that the NIAW, which was first discussed by Minister Maneka Gandhi and Prof Nat Waran during the Minister’s visit to Edinburgh in 1999 – has now come of age. The JNU, signed the agreement in the presence of human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Zubin Irani and environment minister Prakash Javadekar, to provide animal welfare education for India and plans with the help of the JMICAWE to develop a range of Certificate and Diploma level animal welfare courses initially, to address the needs of animal shelter work, the laboratory sector and street dog management. 

Government Minister Mrs Maneka Gandhi with JMICAWE director Prof Nat Waran at the Minister's residence in Delhi, June 2016