The World Association for Buiatrics and Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health announce the 'Ruminant Well-Being Awards
(24.11.2017) The annual Ruminant Well-Being Awards, held in partnership with the World Association for Buiatrics (WAB), crowns Boehringer Ingelheims long-term commitment to promoting the health and well-being of farm animals.
The event, sponsored exclusively by Boehringer Ingelheim, is held at the annual WBC (World Buiatrics Congress) highlighting the important role played by vets in the continuous improvement of animal welfare for food-producing ruminants.
The next congress will be held in Sapporo, Japan (28 Aug - 1 Sept 2018), and for the first time presents two different awards: (1) a Ruminant Well-Being Research Award, and (2) a Ruminant Well-Being Achievement Award.
Each award comprises a 10,000 cash prize, plus reimbursement of the recipients travel expenses to attend the conference and ceremony.
The Ruminant Well-Being Research Award
- This award will be offered to a recent PhD graduate in veterinary science, animal science or related disciplines that made an exceptional contribution to the scientific knowledge on ruminant well-being by:
- Improving our understanding of pain expression as well as the recognition of pain and other forms of suffering
- Developing scientific methods of measuring animal well-being, with potential practical applications
- Developing scientific based strategies that improve animal well-being
- Identifying issues of concern and seeking solutions to challenges
- Developing methods to change human attitudes and behaviour to ensure proper stewardship
The Ruminant Well-Being Achievement Award
The second award category will be offered to a practising veterinarian or a researcher in veterinary science, animal science or related disciplines to recognise his/her achievements in advancing the well-being of ruminants. It aims at rewarding an individual that made a contribution to the well-being of food-producing ruminants by:
- Improving our understanding of pain expression as well as the recognition of pain and other forms of suffering
- Developing scientific methods of measuring animal well-being
- Developing practical well-being assessment methods
- Developing practical strategies to improve animal well-being
- Raising awareness of issues of concern; engaging different stakeholders in seeking solutions to challenges
- Changing human attitudes and behaviour to ensure proper stewardship
- Communicating information about, and proposing solutions to, animal well-being challenges with courage and integrity
The winner of the award will be selected by an independent expert panel under the supervision of Xavier Manteca, Professor in Applied Ethology at the University of Barcelona and founder of the Farm Animal Welfare Education Centre (www.fawec.org).
Application forms and criteria can be found here - and on the Boehringer Ingelheim website on Farm Animal Well-Being www.farmanimalwellbeing.com as well as on the WAB website www.wbc2018.com.