COLUMBUS — A partnership between The Ohio State University and the internationally-recognized Animal Welfare Science Centre is helping the university focus research and academic resources on providing a competitive understanding and training in animal welfare science.
Partnership
During an all-day symposium Oct. 16, the university explained its partnership with AWSC, which includes Australia’s University of Melbourne, Monash University, the Department of Primary Industries and The Ohio State University.
“I think these partnerships are built on relationships and our relationship between animal sciences and the department of veterinary medicine, and this group form Australia, has been very special,” said Jim Kinder, chairman of the Department of Animal Sciences.
The university has worked with Australian researchers since at least the 1990s, in an effort to improve its own standing on animal welfare education.
Curriculum
Animal welfare is now a part of the whole animal science curriculum, and students from OSU travel to Australia annually to study animal welfare research.
Kinder called the partnership with AWSC, “a partnership that’s time has come.”
The featured speaker for the symposium was Paul Hemsworth, director of AWSC in Australia. Hemsworth spoke about animal welfare benchmarks across the nation and discussed recent studies on how animals fare depending on confinement and care practices.
See more online
Hemsworth’s and other presentations are now online at http://vet.osu.edu/2816.htm.
The symposium was a project of Candace Croney, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, and Naomi Botheres, Department of Animal Science, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.