SAC wins animal welfare research grant

The team behind the Scottish Agricultural College winning the biggest-ever animal welfare research grant awarded by the European Union yesterday claimed it was an endorsement of Scotland's long term pre- eminence in this field.

Professor Alistair Lawrence, head of sustainable livestock systems, said the awarding of the 3.8 million project raised "the banner of Scotland".

Lawrence believed there was now a "hunger for information" on animal welfare throughout the world and the comprehensive project would help feed that demand. The four-year project, which involves nine other research institutes in Europe, South America and the US, will work with sheep, goats, horses, donkeys and turkeys and will try to identify indicators of the state of animal welfare that are based on scientific evidence.

Project leader, professor, Adroaldo Zanella said one of the key areas of work would be in trying to quantify pain. Speaking yesterday at the first meeting of the group, he said it was increasingly important that there was more understanding of how animals were affected by pain.

He instanced research where even before birth, young piglets could be affected by treatment meted out to the pregnant sow.

He hoped that as a result of the work, SAC would become a "one stop shop" as a worldwide source of information on animal welfare. As such it could have a major bearing on improving the welfare of animals throughout the world.