IX European Symposium on Poultry Welfare in Uppsala, Sweden

Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the Swedish Organizing Committee, the International
Scientific Committee, the Swedish Branch of WPSA and the Working Group
no. 9 “Poultry Welfare and Management” of the European Branch of the
WPSA, we are pleased to invite you to Uppsala, Sweden on June 17th-20th
2013 to attend the IX European Symposium on Poultry Welfare. At this
meeting we will share and discuss the latest developments, scientific
findings and experiences in order to assist the poultry industry to
keep bird welfare at high levels and in line with future demands while
maintaining production at acceptable levels.

The European poultry industry, especially, has faced considerable
constraints regarding production methods during the last decade. The EU
directive on minimum welfare standards for layers is to be fully
implemented no later than January 1:st 2012 and the standards for meat
producing chickens are already in force.

The organic poultry production has increased considerably in many
countries in recent years. This production is also facing strict
European directives mainly on nutrition, stocking density and age at
slaughter. Two different EFSA reports, on the welfare of broiler
breeders and the animal welfare aspects of broiler genetics
respectively, have recently been published and may influence both
industry standards and EU minimum legislation in the future.

Thus, all welfare directives and reports prepared are challenging to
the industry and for the welfare of the birds. Also, different national
conditions exist which may strongly affect the success of specific
production systems. One relevant and controversial topic in this
context is beak trimming.

The discussion on competitiveness and costs of production methods used
in different continents/countries is still on the agenda. However,
having so far been mainly a European topic, there are now clear
developments in several other countries and continents that the
development of welfare issues are spreading. The scientific program of
the IX European Symposium on Poultry Welfare in Uppsala will address a
wide range of topics influencing welfare and sustainability of poultry
keeping in different countries. Topics like production and rearing
methods, behaviour, health, nutrition, genetics and important
interactions between them will be covered.

Once again, welcome to Uppsala in June 2013 - the city of science and
art - the home town of e.g. chemist Anders Celcius, botanist Carl
Linnaeus and famous film director Ingmar Bergman. We hope for a high
number of participants, not only from Europe of course, but from many
parts of the world – do not forget poultry is the most widely spread
food producing species on land in the world!

http://www-conference.slu.se/poultrywelfare2013/