University LINKs Scheme
Wageningen University (The Netherlands)
Dr Eddie Bokkers
Animal Production Systems Group
Email: eddie.bokkers@wur.nl
2013:
UFAW financially supported seven MSc students interested in animal welfare to attend the Benelux conference of the International Society for Applied Ethology
(Petra Briene, Daniela Melendez Suarez, Jenny Middelkoop, Renee van Toor, Yorike van der Weijden, Elodie Bullens and Anne-Marieke Smide)
“We were grateful to attend the ISAE Benelux Conference of the 10th of October 2013 though the support of UFAW. It was a very interesting day with seventeen presentations covering a variety of topics and animal species. The presentations were divided into four different sessions, each with a central theme, namely: Development and validation of welfare measures; Cognition, emotion, personality and fear; Housing, management and social behaviour; Automation and modelling. It was very nice to see that there is such a broad range of subjects being studied which all contribute to the improvement of animal welfare. In this regard this day was also a great opportunity to meet different people working in this field. In short, we were happy to take part of this conference. We got inspired by the broad range of work going on in this field and motivated by observing that there is still room for improvement of animal welfare which requires further research.”
Elodie Bullens and Anne-Marieke Smid
MSc-students Animal Sciences, Wageningen University
UFAW enables fourteen students interested in animal welfare to attend the Benelux conference of the International Society for Applied Ethology 2014
(Petra Briene, Elodie Bullens, Suzy Deurinck, Jonna Koper, Sander van Leeuwen, Tessa van Maurik, Annemarie Mens, Anouschka Middelkoop, Anne van den Oever, Ellen de Ryck, Anne-Marieke Smid, Anouk van Spronsen, Cathy Vanopdenbosch and Margret Wenker)
On the 8th of October 2014, the annual ISAE Benelux conference was held at the Venco Campus in Eersel, the Netherlands. The conference was divided over four sessions: early life, group housing of farm and lab animals, resources and enrichment and development and evaluation of tools and protocols. Together with two posters, these sessions covered very interesting topics regarding the welfare of sows, cows, poultry, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, ferrets and parrots. Through the LINK scheme, UFAW enabled fourteen enthusiastic students from the Benelux to attend. On behalf of these students, I would like to thank UFAW for the experience gained. At the conference, we were able to share our interest in animal welfare with others (among experts) and all gained knowledge regarding the current state of art of animal welfare. Many of the students are highly motivated to pursue a scientific career in animal welfare and behaviour. The ISAE Benelux conference contributed to interaction among students and welfare experts and offered inspiration for opportunities to improve the well-being of animals in the future.
Anouschka Middelkoop
MSc student Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
