Training
To facilitate training, EURCAW-Pigs offers suggestions for training and continuing education courses for inspectors. These are specifically targeted towards the eight prioritized welfare areas along the value chain (on-farm, transport, slaughter).
EURCAW-Pigs provides:
(1) Examples of training plans and materials used in different Member States in English, to the extent possible.
(2) Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support. These are provided in English so that they can be used by all EU member states. Training and education suggestions may include, for example, calibration between inspectors, seminars, lectures on new legislation, lectures on the biological basis of legislation, and communication workshops.
(3) Training suggestions for improvement of communication skills and ways to support inspection-driven welfare improvement.
EURCAW-Pigs also supports the 'Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF)' training sessions on Animal Welfare. For an update on suspension of BTSF training sessions due to COVID-19, see BTSF website.
Training activities and materials
Examples of materials used in different Member States.
If you have access to training material from your own country that can be useful for training of inspectors, please sent your example to EURCAW-Pigs. If possible in English and with a short comment on why this example can be useful in training. See an example from Sweden here:
- Evaluation of body condition and other parameters on pigs, Birgitta Staaf Larsson, Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare, SLU, 2020
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This presentation is an example how training material in pig control assessment for animal welfare inspectors in Sweden can be conducted.
- The training is performed with TurningPoint clickers and the results are shown after the voting on each slide.
- The results are discussed and the participants asked to calibrate themselves according to what the majority of the group voted.
Standards for training
Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support.
- Training on pig welfare in husbandry, transport and slaughter for inspectors: Recommendations for minimum standards and learning goals, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Anneberg, I., Sørensen, J.T., Overstreet, K., 2020
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In collaboration with national training bodies and national reference centers on animal welfare, training guides are developed for the different welfare topics as standards for national training in EU Member States.
Training guides
- Climate control and space allowance - transport of pigs, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Farrowing housing and management, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Handling in lairage, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Group-housing and mixing of sows, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Fitness for transport, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Inspection-driven improvement
Communication to handle ambivalence and make changes happen on farm.
- Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change. A Review (version 1.0), EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Overstreet, K., Anneberg. I., 2020
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This review provides guidelines, organized around the following three categories: transparency and efficiency of inspection, communication, and step-wise approaches towards compliance.
See also newsitem:
- Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change, news EURCAW-Pigs, February 2020
- Improving communication – relevant tools and resources, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors Overstreet, K., Anneberg, I., 2020
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This document provides suggestions for communication methods that could be incorporated into ongoing inspector trainings.
See also newsitem:
- Communication training for inspectors, news EURCAW-Pigs, September 2020