Brussels, 02/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release published on 2 March, the European Commission explains that a code of good practice has been developed by the livestock breeding industry, designed to ensure maximum openness and clarity about the practices used in farm animal breeding and reproduction. The code, developed with the support of the European research Framework Programme, was presented on Thursday at the “Salon d'Agriculture” in Paris, at the launch of the sustainable farm animal breeding and reproduction technology platform. The intention is that breeding companies will adopt the code and will gain certification for complying with it. The objective is to deliver high standards of animal health and welfare in sustainable production systems that can deliver high quality and safe food. The code is available in 20 languages and will be updated regularly.
The Code of Good Practice for Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction has been developed though Code-EFABAR, a €300,000 project funded from the EU research programme. It builds on the experience gained in two previous EU projects, 'Farm Animal Breeding and Society' and SEFABAR (Sustainable European Farm Animal Breeding And Reproduction). Both projects involved animal breeders, animal breeding scientists, consumer groups, biotechnologists, ethicists, sociologists, animal welfare experts, legal experts and economists working together on ways to improve the understanding between animal breeding organisations and society at large in order to develop acceptable scenarios for sustainable animal breeding and reproduction.
The general objective of Code-EFABAR was to develop the code for farm animal breeding and reproduction organisations (mainly SMEs). Opinions from NGOs as representatives of society were taken into account from the beginning and the code is freely available from the website for anyone interested in the subject. The code will be formally certified by a certification body and includes a training package.
The 6th Framework Programme has made significant support available to research relating to the sustainable breeding and production of farm animals. Current funding runs at over €25 million. EADGENE, a major network of excellence on the genomics of host-pathogen interactions in farm animals, was funded in 2004 and SABRE, an integrated project on fundamental genomics of farm animals, is expected to begin later this year. Gene technology promises to have a major impact on animal selection and on breeding in general. In addition, mindful of the need to address the concerns of European citizens on the management of animals and the safety of the food supply, the EU supports projects such as Code-EFABAR to make sure that progress is acceptable and sustainable. (For further information on Code-EFABAR see: http://www.code-efabar.org )