The Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders joined the third meeting of the Supervisory Board of the European Union's international technical assistance project Erasmus+ Sustainable Livestock and Animal Welfare (SuLaWe), which took place on 12-14 February in Slovenia. The University of Ljubljana invited partners from Ukrainian and European universities*, as well as three national business associations (Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, Association of Milk Producers, Ukrainian Corporation for the Production of Meat on an Industrial Basis "Tvarinprom") to discuss the interim results of the work and plan further activities within the project.
The participants agreed on roles and tasks for the development of training modules on animal welfare, sustainable production and digitalisation in livestock, discussed the organisation of study tours and planned activities to raise awareness of animal welfare and sustainable production.
In particular, representatives of industry business associations and domestic agricultural universities will be able to study the experience of their European colleagues in this area during study tours to the University of Nürtingen-Geislingen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and University of Ljubljana. During the study tours, Ukrainian academic and business partners of the project will learn about practices to improve animal welfare at all production stages and ensure sustainable production, including on the basis of real farms. In addition, Ukrainian participants of the initiative will have the opportunity to learn from the experience of European colleagues and modern approaches to the training of both young and practicing veterinarians and technologists at universities and further education centres.
In addition to planning the next stages of the project, the members of the SuLaWe Supervisory Board also discussed the current status of implementation of European legislation on welfare and sustainable production, as well as the challenges involved:
‘The clarity and transparency of European regulations allows us to bring the national legislative framework closer to these requirements without significant barriers, because we simply adopt these practices. For example, the AUPB was directly involved in the development of orders on animal welfare during keeping, transportation, euthanasia and slaughter. Given that the entry into force of animal welfare requirements in Ukraine is tentatively scheduled for 2026, we are currently intensifying efforts to raise awareness of stakeholders, including the development of training programmes for responsible personnel of both market operators and representatives of state authorities, including regulatory authorities. Such preliminary preparation will help ensure a more harmonious course of transformations in the future. At the same time, the first task for domestic business is to realise the inevitability of such changes and to conduct a self-assessment of its own readiness for them using approved questionnaires,’ the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders notes.
The European Union's Erasmus+ international technical assistance project "Sustainable Animal Husbandry and Animal Welfare" (SULAWE) brings together scientists from Ukrainian universities Stepan Gzhytskyi National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies Lviv, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Poltava State Agrarian University, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian University, Scientific and Methodological Center for Higher and Pre-Higher Education) and European universities (University of Nürtingen-Geislingen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and University of Ljubljana) and industry business associations (Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, Association of Milk Producers, Ukrainian Corporation for the Production of Meat on an Industrial Basis "Tvarinprom"). During the project implementation in 2023-2025, representatives of the scientific community and the livestock business association will have the opportunity to adopt the experience of the best European universities in training young specialists and upgrading the qualifications of specialists in livestock enterprises.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European. Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
