WOAH Collaborating Centre
At the General Assembly in Paris on 31 May 2019, WOAH (former OIE), the World Organisation for Animal Health, approved the application from Sweden and Italy for the establishment of a joint WOAH Collaborating Centre for Animal Welfare.
This means that the Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare (SCAW) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences together with the corresponding organisation in Italy, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZSAM), will have an important task of distributing knowledge about the importance of animal welfare in Europe and the world.
WOAH helps its Member States to develop animal welfare rules by providing training, counselling and research. WOAH provides recommendations on how to include animal welfare in national legislation and how to implement existing standards.
WOAH's European Platform on Animal Welfare has published the annual report for 2024.
The annual report contains, among other things, an account of the implementation of the platform's 4th action plan in the areas of animal welfare in connection with slaughter, animal transport, management of stray dog populations, animal welfare in connection with natural disasters and the welfare of working horses.