Study visit to Swedi sh University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden
Study visit to Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden
10-19 of March, 2024
In the period from 10 to 19 March 2024, a study visit took place at SLU (Sweden) within the framework of the Erasmus+ SULAWE project. The training was organised to improve the skills of teachers and provide additional materials and knowledge for the development of Module 2 “Animal Welfare”.
As part of the programme, university professors and representatives of the Associations attended lectures, visited laboratories and experimental livestock farms. The presentations were focused not only on animal husbandry and animal welfare, but also on pedagogy and teaching methods. Alexandra D’Urso told the training participants about E-learning and the Asynchronous and synchronous teaching. It was very interesting to visit the university’s audio-video studio, where teachers record video lectures and create other audio and video materials.
Since the visit was dedicated to the development of the Animal Welfare module, the organizers of the visit from SLU invited many lecturers to provide information on these topics. The presentations of Elina Asbjer “Animal Welfare and animal welfare assessment”, Else Verbeek “Ethology”, Lotta Berg “Slaughter”, Mattias Gårdlund “Animal welfare during transport” provided the necessary information and will help in the development of the module. The visit to the experimental farm Lövsta was very interesting and useful for all memers of study visit. They had the opportunity to visit a pigsty and a cattle farm, learn about the conditions of animal welfare and compliance with animal welfare standards on Swedish farms.
It was very interesting to meet the Ukrainian scientists who are currently in Sweden and work at SLU. Khrystyna Kurta made a presentation “Living and working in Sweden with Ukrainian PhD education”, Oleksiy Guzhva together with Niclas Högberg told about precision livestock farming. About her experience in SLU told Oksana Dudarko from Department of Molecular Sciences, group Inorganic and Physical Chemistry.
As the theme of the visit was animal welfare, the main focus was on presentations and discussions on these topics. At present, Ukrainian specialists do not yet have the same experience in implementing animal welfare practices as our Swedish colleagues, so communication with them was particularly interesting and useful. The presentations of Lotta Berg “Animal Welfare in Europe”, Johan Lindsjö “Animal Welfare education for veterinary students at SLU “, Elina Åsbjer “One Health and One Welfare” contributed to raising the level of knowledge of Ukrainian teachers.
It is especially important to be aware of all legal regulations in livestock farming, especially when it comes to animal welfare. The lectures on this topic were particularly important for all participants of the study visit. The study of European legislation in order to adapt Ukrainian legislation on animal welfare is a separate point of work in this area. That is why it is necessary to mention the presentations of Lina Göransson “Husbandry, AW & legislation in poultry (layers and chicken)”, Rebecka Westin “Husbandry, AW & legislation in pig production” and Sigrid Agenäs “Husbandry, AW & legislation in dairy production”.
The final day of the training was devoted to the visit to National Veterinary Institute, department of pathology. Karin Olofsson-Sannö has presented her department and told about main directions of the work. Her colleague Hedvig Kjellström made very interesting presentation “AI applications for animal health”.
The final presentation was of Paulina Lingers” Optimizing Animal Health: Swedish Methods and Tools” and reflected the main focus of our training. It was like the “final chord” of our stay in Sweden, where we learnt the basic principles of animal welfare and studied the Swedish experience.
At the end of the training, all participants of the study visit received certificates.
The experience gained will be used in further work and will contribute to a better understanding and implementation of basic animal welfare principles in Ukraine.
