P.MDC.0039 - CMA Welfare Partnership

Summary

Each year a CMA is established to allow the operation of the welfare partnership program - running advisory and producer meetings, publishing advisory bulletins and pamphlets and other small tasks.

Objectives

This project was set up to fund operations undertaken as part of the animal welfare strategic partnership program.

Key findings

Projects P.PSH.0807 and P.PSH.0898 sit under the 'Animal Welfare Partnership Program Agreement' and are based on a concept to develop a framework to enable welfare assessment and benchmarking for the livestock Industries. The combined objectives of these two projects will identify practical objective measures of animal welfare for both sheep and cattle.

Benefits to industry

Six MDC funded projects that sit under this partnership aimed to identify objective animal welfare measures. They covered physiological parameters (biomarkers such as mRNA, immune fitness measures and carcass quality), behavioural indicators (remote monitoring of low resilience behaviour) and resource/management characteristics (mortality risk detection, automated monitoring and management systems).

This partnership aims to deliver benefit to industry through improved animal welfare and value for money.

MLA action

A strategic objective of MLA’s investment in animal welfare R&D is to establish objective parameters for assessing the welfare state of livestock. No system currently exists to benchmark animal welfare in the Australian livestock industries. This aligns with MLA and industry priority for ‘continuous improvement of the welfare of animals in our care’, included within Pillar One of the MLA strategic plan (2016 – 2020).

Future research

MLA continues to engage in projects that improve animal welfare through its animal wellbeing program.