Virtual animal welfare conference: attending the UFAW conference from home!
In these unusual times things are very different – rather than travelling to Birmingham to present at the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare Conference: Recent Advances in Animal Welfare Science VII, JMICAWE Director, Cathy Dwyer, was able to attend without leaving home! Over two days up to 1000 attendees were able to virtually attend the conference, making the conference much more accessible to those interested in hearing the latest in animal welfare research. The annual UFAW conference always covers the broad sweep of research topics that make up animal welfare and this virtual meeting was no different. We covered a range of species from cattle, pigs, chickens and sheep to donkeys, cats, dogs, rabbits and rats, and a range of topics from fundamental biology (e.g. hippocampal neurogenesis, micro-behaviours and Bayesian expectations in animals) to the impact of pasture access in cows, assessing the welfare of working donkeys and views on welfare of Hungarian farmers.Cathy was the first to present on the opening day of the Conference, which provided the rather unsettling experience of listening to a recording of oneself presenting, and gave an update on research she has been carrying out with colleagues at the Moredun Research Institute on the welfare impacts of disease. In the presentation, she described a series of studies that looked at the animal’s experience as disease develops, and how this can be treated or managed to reduce the pain and distress associated with the disease.
Another highlight of the conference was the award of Young Animal Welfare Scientist to Dr Irene Camerlink, a former colleague at SRUC who has helped with JMICAWE research in China in the past. A very well deserved award to Irene who is passionate about animal welfare and has already achieved a great deal in a relatively short career, particularly in improving the welfare of pigs. The UFAW medal for animal welfare was awarded to Professor Dan Weary of University of British Columbia, Canada (see www.ufaw.org.uk).
The next UFAW meeting with be in our own backyard, in Edinburgh in June 2021, pandemics permitting, and it will be great to be able to see friends and colleagues face-to-face again. But the virtual conference environment has worked really well, and been able to make animal welfare science accessible to many who would not have been able to attend in person, suggesting a new way forward for sharing information about animal welfare.
