The UAB will become part of the new reference centre on aquatic animal welfare created by the European Union in a consortium that includes the University of Crete, Greece, and the Biology Centre and the Institute of Parasitology, both from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
The Aquatic Animal Welfare Centre has been established to provide support and assistance to the European Commission and EU countries in the implementation of animal welfare requirements at farm level, during transport and at the time of slaughter. It has been appointed through a public selection process.
This is the fourth EU centre dedicated to animal welfare. The first is focused on pig welfare (established in 2018), the second specialises in poultry and other small farm animals (2020), and the third on ruminant and equine welfare (2020).
The new centre will give support to the activities of the European Commission and Member States by carrying out scientific and technical studies, organising training courses and disseminating research results and information on technical innovations.
UAB lecturers and researchers want to highlight the "support given from the first moment to this candidacy by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the Spanish Government".
With this integration into the new centre, the UAB is further positioning itself as a leading European institution in animal welfare. The powerful group of research groups such as AWEC (Animal Welfare Education Centre), SNIBA (Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service) and others in animal welfare at the UAB Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, are joined, on the aquatic side, by the research group on fish health at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, led by Professor Francesc Padrós; and the group on stress and welfare in fish at the Faculty of Biosciences, led by Professor Lluís Tort. These teams are also supported by SEAaq, an interdisciplinary research group at the UAB in the field of aquatic ecosystem and animal health.
