Animal Welfare Research Group
Animal Welfare Research Group
Faculty of Veterinary Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Turkey welfare indicators for improved animal welfare, health and sustainable food production (NFR project 267603)
TURKEY-LATOR: 2017-2020
The project TURKEY-LATOR will meet the Norwegian turkey industry’s urgent need for scientific knowledge about turkey welfare. It is expected that the project through its multidisciplinary industry/academia approach will identify turkey welfare challenges and “best practice” management strategies for better turkey welfare under Norwegian production conditions. The primary objective is to generate knowledge that can help to assess and improve turkey welfare under Norwegian production conditions, in order to assist with the industry’s development of an evidence-based Animal Welfare Program (AWP) for turkeys. We will do this by:
1. Identifying the main turkey welfare challenges under Norwegian production conditions based on a) investigations of prevalence and risk factors associated with welfare relevant slaughterhouse data and welfare issues as assessed by the “transect walk” method, b) the associations between on-farm measures and slaughterhouse data, and c) evaluation of the feasibility and potential for improvement of recordings post mortem as a basis for the novel AWP for turkeys.
2. Identifying “best practice management factors” based on focus group discussions and interviews with farmers with above-average production results.
3. Disseminating results through relevant channels, e.g. the project group currently developing the AWP for turkeys, producers, scientific community, authorities and the common public.
The project is funded by:
Forskningsmidlene for jordbruk og matindustri (MATFONDAVTALEN, Kompetanseprosjekt for næringslivet; Foundation for Research Levy on Agricultural Products and the Agricultural Agreement Research Fund), Animalia (Norwegian Meat and Poultry Research Center)
Local researchers:
Randi Oppermann Moe (project leader)
Karianne Muri
Erik Georg Granquist
Andrew Janczak
Collaboration:
Joanna Marchewka (Assistant Professor, Polish Academy of Science, Poland)
Valentina Ferrante (University of Milano, Italy)
Helena Hansson (Associate Professor in Business Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden)
Guro Vasdal (Animalia)
Theodor Bye (Nortura)