Earth and Life Sciences Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’ Towards socially accepted and economically viable animal husbandry 2008-2014 Final Evaluation Report by the External Evaluation Committee
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’ · 5 Societal relevance of the programme 29 6 Monitoring of the subprogrammes (site visits) 30 ... by controlling costs, and
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Earth and Life Sciences
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Netherlands Organisation forScientific Research (NWO)
Visiting address:Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië 300The Hague
Postal address:P.O. Box 93510, 2509 AM The Hague
Dr K.M. de Bruijn-SpoorendonkProgramme SecretaryT: +31 (0)70 344 07 76E: [email protected]
www.nwo.nl
November 2014
Dit eindevaluatierapport vormt de afsluiting van
het programma Waardering van Dierenwelzijn. Het
onderzoeksprogramma financierde wetenschappelijk
onderzoek dat een maatschappelijk en economisch vitale
dierhouderij moet bevorderen. Economische belangen
staan immers vaak op gespannen voet met het welzijn
van het dier.
Het programma liep van 2008 tot 2014 en had een
budget van € 5,1 miljoen, bijeengebracht door het
Ministerie van Economische Zaken en NWO Aard- en
Levenswetenschappen; daarnaast waren er bijdragen,
zowel financieel als in natura, van onder andere
het bedrijfsleven (viskwekerijen, fokkerijen en
productschappen) en van de Dierenbescherming.
Het onderzoek richtte zich op verenpikken bij
broedkippen, agressie in viskweekculturen, het
sociale gedrag van varkens, natuurlijke voeding voor
kalveren, en de latente vraag van consumenten naar
diervriendelijke producten.
EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’Towards socially accepted and economically viable animal husbandry 2008-2014
Final Evaluation Report by the External Evaluation Committee
EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
Towards socially accepted and economically viable animal husbandry2008-2014
Final Evaluation Report by the External Evaluation Committee
The Hague, October 2014
Contents
Foreword 5
EZ-NWO research programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’ – an introduction 7
1 Summary and recommendations 14
2 The evaluation committee and its approach 17
3 Results of the programme 19
3.1 Realisation of the original objectives 19
3.2 Results of the subprogrammes 20
3.3 Scientific output 27
4 Programme cooperation 28
5 Societal relevance of the programme 29
6 Monitoring of the subprogrammes (site visits) 30
7 Educational programme 31
8 Organisational structure of the programme 32
9 Final remarks 33
Addendum 1 35
Addendum 2 41
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
Foreword
Towards socially accepted and economically viable animal husbandry
Welfare issues in animal husbandry can only partly be ascribed to a lack
of biological knowledge. The problem rather is that animal welfare
clashes with production methods because of the economic needs of
producers. Throughout the production chain, farmers and retailers
maintain their market positions by producing within society’s confines,
by controlling costs, and by differentiating their products. While animal
welfare is a major concern for the general public, resulting in demands
for policies and governmental action to increase animal welfare, for a
considerable part of the consumers low priced meat is at the same time
a basic choice to cope with within their family budget. And thus, animal
welfare seems to be locked in.
Animal welfare in intensive production systems is, however, not only
compromised by economic reasons. Gaps in our biological knowledge
on how animals can cope with high production husbandry systems in
terms of behaviour, health, and stress adaptation capacity have to be
filled. Only then evidence based animal housing, farm management
and animal breeds can be developed that guarantee optimal animal
welfare under intensive, highly productive farming conditions or
extensive outdoor farming conditions.
Society, both at home and in the EU, is increasingly calling for better
animal welfare, and this prompted the Dutch Ministry of Economic
Affairs (EZ) (this ministry covers the former Ministry of Agriculture,
Nature and Food Quality (LNV)) and the Division for Earth and Life
Sciences (ALW) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
(NWO) to develop a new, jointly funded and dedicated research
programme. A programme to make the difference, and which required
an integrated, interdisciplinary approach because of the range of
scientific, socio-economic and societal issues involved. A programme,
moreover, that involved all the parties responsible for animal welfare in
order to ensure that the findings and recommendations are genuinely
appropriate and can be applied in practice.
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
The programme committee showed an inspiring engagement to
monitor and evaluate the 5 subprogrammes yearly, on the base of
site visits and progress meetings. It resulted in an impressive line of
publications and communicative actions towards the stakeholders
and the public. What makes the programme special is the attention
for the interdisciplinary learning process. Unique was the experiment
of the programme committee to take a pro-active role in facilitating
interdisciplinary training for the PhD’s and postdocs involved.
This resulted in 5 courses of 2-3 days throughout the programme
addressing interdisciplinary issues like ethics, sustainability, marketing,
animal welfare and policy. Although primarily meant to catalyze the
integration of wider societal issues in the research teams, it also served
as teambuilding instrument uniting not only the different disciplinary
PhD’s and postdocs within a team, but also across the teams. Even more,
we as members of the programme committee and steering committee,
became most welcome guests in the “speed-dating” sessions as part
of every course, which created an unmet inspiring focus of knowledge
exchange. These were memorable learning moments for all of us.
After six years of intensive work by many, the programme has now
become to an end. As may be clear from the final evaluation report,
produced by an international panel of experts, almost all parts of
the programme have been very successful and answered the original
expectations.
The programme committee and steering committee would like to
express their appreciation to all researchers in this programme,
especially the young ones, the PhD students and postdocs.
organisations, retailers, ethicists, animal scientists and market and
consumer experts.
The questions were very wide-ranging, and covered both the exact
and social sciences. The questions concerned the ethical and biological
limits to the adaptability of animals and the consequences for animal
welfare, while other issues that were addressed included ways of
measuring animal welfare and the relationship with trends in society
and consumer behaviour. The programme aimed for a balance
between fundamental and applied research, both in biological and
social sciences, because there is a clear need for knowledge developed
in cooperation with stakeholders in agricultural industry, retail, and
society.
Focus areas and key fields
For this programme, five focus areas were defined:
1. Social trends in how we treat our animals
2. Limits to productivity
3. Robustness and adaptability
4. Natural behaviour, needs and emotions
5. Selection behaviour of consumers and producers
The call of the programme was published in 2008 and was focused, in
addition to the five focus areas, on the following three key fields:
1. Interdisciplinary research aimed at enhancing animal welfare
in intensive forms of animal husbandry and thus improving the
societal and socio-economic position of these sectors.
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
2. Increasing the understanding of the emotional component of
natural behavior and/or the adaptability of animals in order to
develop methods or parameters that can be used to provide a
more scientific basis for assessing the emotional state of animals.
3. Knowledge development with stakeholder participation, aimed at
structural changes needed to achieve sustainable forms of animal
husbandry, based primarily on the needs of animals.
Origin of the programme
In 2005 the NWO-LNV Priority Programme ‘Limits to Animal Welfare
and Production’ came to an end.
This programme resulted in over 20 successfully completed PhD-projects
as well as various post-doc studies. The projects within this programme
focused on physiological and behavioural studies on stress and stress
adaptation capacity in production animals.
At the end of the programme a final evaluation took place. The
programme and its output was assessed by an external evaluation
committee (Prof Dr I. Duncan (chair), Dr L. Matthews, Dr I. Veissier,
and Dr B. Jones). In general, the opinion of the committee was that
the programme was very successful. In case of continuation of the
programme, which was strongly recommended, the evaluation
committee advised the following adjustments:
1. The researchers involved should put a real effort in interpreting
their results in terms of animal welfare.
2. The generation of greater integration between researchers
between species projects, and the stimulation of greater
coherence across species groups.
3. Procedures for the dissemination of the results should be
implemented from the start of the programme, and outcomes
should be shared with the general public.
4. The programme should adopt a more problem oriented approach
and end-users should cooperate in the research projects from the
conceptual phase.
5. Research in animal welfare offers also a fine opportunity for
interdisciplinary collaboration with, for instance, social scientists
or economists.
6. The promotion of more international cooperation. The inclusion
of selected international experts in any future programme
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
committee would enhance the capacity for worldwide networking
and the international impact of the work.
The programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’ clearly followed on
from the findings of the ‘Limits to Animal Welfare and Productions’
programme, but essentially went further by explicitly involving
stakeholders in the research strategies.
Organisation and management
The research programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’ was funded for
two-third by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ) and for one-third by
the NWO Division for Earth and Life Sciences (NWO-ALW). Together,
both parties invested 4M€. In addition, the subprogrammes got
financial (and in kind) contributions from third parties. Those included,
the total budget for the programme was 5.1M€.
The management of the programme was structured according to the
NWO guidelines and consisted of a programme committee and steering
committee. Administrative support and financial control has been
supplied by NWO-ALW and both committees were assisted by a NWO-
ALW programme manager.
The programme committee was formed by representatives of the Dutch
research community with backgrounds in animal sciences, behavioural
sciences, social sciences and veterinary sciences, representatives of the
ministry of Economic Affairs, and representatives of other relevant
organisations (e.g. the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals).
See addendum 2 for the full list of programme committee members.
The committee is responsible for the scientific content and quality of
the programme, and should aim to reach the goals set out at the start
of the programme. The programme committee advises the steering
committee on its decisions.
The steering committee was formed by the representatives of the
financing parties and was chaired by an independent chairman. The
steering committee has a controlling and deciding function. See the
addendum for the list of steering committee members.
After publication of the call for the programme, 23 preliminary
proposals were submitted. After a first selection by the review
panel, 11 full proposals were assessed by international referees. The
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
reports were rendered anonymous and sent to the applicant for the
purposes of a written rebuttal. The review panel – that consisted of
several independent international scientific experts complemented by
representatives from policy and society (see the addendum for the list
of review panel members) - then ranked the proposals by allocating
scores to the following criteria:
1. Relevance to the objective of the programme, as formulated in
the three key fields;
2. Scientific quality;
3. Applicability of research results;
4. Active participation of industry;
5. The interdisciplinary extent and added value of cooperating
groups: a proposal should combine at least two focus areas.
Finally, the steering committee granted the first 5 proposals of the
ranking list.
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
Five subprogrammes
In every proposal, the main applicant applied for 2 to 3 PhD positions
and sometimes for a postdoc position as well. Therefore, after granting,
the five awarded proposals became so called “subprogrammes”:
File Number Name Main Applicant M/F Institute Project Title
1 827.09.010 Prof Dr Johan van Arendonk m WUR Seeking sociable swine? Incorporating social genetic effects into pig breeding programs to achieve balanced improvement in productivity and welfare
Co-applicants: Dr J.E. Bolhuis (f; WUR), Prof Dr B. Kemp (m; WUR), Dr Rodenburg (m; WUR), Dr P. Bijma (m; WUR), Prof Dr F. Brom (m; WUR/Rathenau Institute), Ir. C.G. van Reenen (m; WUR), Prof Dr J.M. Koolhaas (m; RUG), Prof Dr T. de Cock Buning (m; VU)
2 827.09.020 Dr Bas Rodenburg m WUR Preventing feather pecking in laying hens: from principle to practice
Co-applicants: Dr S.M. Korte (m; UU), Prof Dr B. Olivier (m; UU), Dr J.T. Lumeij (m; UU), Prof Dr A.G.G. Groothuis (m; RUG), Dr B.J. Riedstra (m; RUG), Dr J. ten Napel (m; WUR), Dr O.N.M. van Eijk (m; WUR), Dr I.C. de Jong (f; WUR), Dr J.E. Bolhuis (f; WUR), Prof Dr B. Kemp (m; WUR)
3 827.09.030 Prof Dr Hans van Trijp m WUR Mobilizing the latent consumer demand for animal-friendly products: an interdisciplinary system approach to support stakeholders? decision making
Co-applicants: Dr G. Backus (m; WUR), Dr V. Beekman (m; VU), Dr H. Hopster (m; WUR), Dr P.T.M. Ingenbleek (m; WUR), Dr H.W. Saatkamp (m; WUR), Prof Dr R. van Tulder (m; EUR)
4 827.09.040 Prof Dr Gert Flik m RUN Aggression in catfish aquaculture
Co-applicants: Dr R. van den Bos (m; UU), Dr E. Lambooij (m; WUR), Dr F.L.B. Meijboom (m; UU), Dr J.W. van de Vis (m; WUR)
5 827.09.050 Prof Dr Wouter Hendriks m WUR Novel roughage-based feeding strategies to improve welfare of veal calves
Co-applicants: Dr P.B.M. Berentsen (m; WUR), Dr E.A.M Bokkers (m; WUR), Dr I.J.M. de Boer (f; WUR), Dr W.J.J. Gerrits (m; WUR), Dr N. Stockhofe-Zurwieden (m; WUR), Ir. C.G. van Reenen (m; WUR)
In total, 12 PhD students have worked on projects within this
programme. 11 of them have or will defend their thesis in 2014. In
addition, the research programme also included 7 postdoc projects.
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
Results and cooperation aspects
In total, 50 peer-reviewed papers were published at the time that the
final evaluation took place. In addition, next to publishing papers and
presenting their results at congresses, the researchers organised several
stakeholder meetings and they were active in involving the general
public.
In order to monitoring the progress and results of the research projects,
the members of the programme committee and steering committee
have made so called site visits. All the subprogrammes were visited
twice. In addition, the programme committee organised several
events during the course of the programme: the kick-off meeting, a
progress symposium, and a debate day. Prior to the debate day, the
researchers per subprogramme first organised their own societal
afternoons: a societal aspect picked by the researchers was discussed
with stakeholders and other interested parties (e.g. farmers). At the
debate day the conclusions and output of the societal afternoons were
subsequently presented for and discussed with all researchers of the
programme.
The programme ended with a final symposium. Next to all involved
participants of the programme, a number of journalists was invited
for the final symposium. The journalists got the chance to talk to the
researchers individually (per subprogramme): this resulted in quite a
few articles that were published in journals and newspapers. Four of
them are included in this booklet.
The programme also included an educational part for the PhD-students
(obligatory) and postdocs (highly recommended) working on the
projects. Under the supervision of the programme committee a set of
five courses, two to three days each, have been developed.
The goal of the educational programme was threefold:
1. To bring in touch the researchers of the EZ/NWO-ALW programme,
team building;
2. To educate beta researchers in the relevant selection of theories,
models and methods of gamma researchers;
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EZ/NWO-ALW Programme ‘The Value of Animal Welfare’
3. To stimulate and support the development of high quality beta-
gamma research, and the production of shared beta-gamma
papers.
Next to lectures and assignments, every course included an excursion to
a company/organisation:
Course no. (date) Topic Excursion
1 (October 2010) Sustainable Animal Production Rondeel Barneveld (laying hens)