Recommendations for the introduction of a national animal welfare monitoring system in Germany : 6 steps for implementation

As part of the ‘National Animal Welfare Monitoring’ (NaTiMon) project, a consortium of 10 institutions developed a concept for the regular and systematic assessment of animal welfare in livestock farming for Germany. With the involvement of stakeholders, suitable indicators were selected, possibilities for the use of existing data were identified and procedures for the collection of missing data developed. Indicators for an assessment of animal welfare in husbandry, transport and slaughter of cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep and goats from terrestrial livestock farming and of rainbow trout and common carp from aquaculture were included as well as indicators describing conditions of livestock farming. The following steps are recommended for the implementation of a future national animal welfare monitoring system:
(1) Create a legal basis
(2) Provide an institutional basis and infrastructure
(3) Provide funds for implementation
(4) Enable the use of existing data
(5) Implement the collection of missing data
(6) Publish an animal welfare monitoring report