MSU Researchers and Partners Receive Animal Welfare Project Planning Grant

1/24/08

Contact: Dr. Janice Swanson
Michigan State University                                             
517-432-4134                                                                                    
or
Dr. Paul Thompson
Michigan State University
517-432-0316
or
Dr. Joy Mench
University of California, Davis
530-752-7125

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- A $400,000 planning grant will bring together animal welfare experts from Michigan State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and several other U.S. universities to develop a proposal to establish the Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) for the Health and Welfare of Egg Laying Hens. 
           
Funded by the American Egg Board (AEB), the CAP planning grant comes amidst mounting consumer and food retailer concerns about animal production practices—concerns that are often narrowly targeted toward a specific practice or behavior rather than examining a proposed change with respect to the entire system.    
           
“Approval of this planning grant by the American Egg Board extends beyond the funding dimension,” said Janice Swanson, MSU animal welfare researcher and planning grant leader.  “Supporting this groundbreaking project sends a very clear signal that the egg industry is open to a systematic social and scientific examination of U.S. egg production.”
           
In addition to Swanson, a professor in the MSU colleges of veterinary medicine and agriculture and natural resources, other planning project leaders are Joy Mench, an internationally recognized poultry scientist from the University of California, Davis, and Paul Thompson, MSU professor of philosophy. The project coordination team includes scientists from Purdue University, Iowa State University, Washington State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. Expert study groups utilized in the project will broaden the participation to other institutions and stakeholders.
           
The planning will be conducted in two phases.  The first phase will identify key issues, formulate the study questions and develop research priorities.  During this phase, the project coordination team will conduct two-day workshops focused on the  effects of egg production system changes on hen health and welfare; food safety, security and quality; human health;  the environment; and economics, labor and the supply chain.
           
Another key area of examination is public attitudes toward egg production practices and the shaping of constructive public discourse and action. 
           
“Although consumer attitudes play a major role in shaping public policy, there has been very little scholarly attention paid to U.S. public attitudes toward laying hen housing systems,” Thompson said.   
           
The second phase will be the writing of the CAP proposal by a multi-institutional team and then submitting it to the USDA for funding.   
           
During both planning phases, key stakeholders will be involved, including representatives from animal protection, environmental and consumer organizations.   
           
If the proposal is approved by the USDA, the CAP will support research that will ultimately provide an integrated model in which proposed changes to egg production systems can be evaluated to predict potential effects to all segments of the system. This will allow for better informed discourse, sound implementation of change, and the opportunity to mitigate or avoid unintentional negative impacts. The integrated systems model for examining egg production practices could serve as a model that could be modified and extended to other animal production systems.    
           
“Many factors can affect the well-being of laying hens and the sustainability of egg production systems,” Mench said. “To appropriately assess and advance this area, an integrated approach that evaluates all factors from the farm to the consumer must be considered. We have not developed an integrated systems model of U.S. egg production that will allow us to adequately predict the effects of a change on all components of the system.
           
This CAP would be the first study ever conducted in the United States to evaluate the potential short- and long-term system wide effects of proposed production changes on hen health and welfare, Swanson said. 
           
“The American Egg Board recognizes that consumers and food retailers want independent, third-party verification that food-producing animals are treated humanely,” said Joanne Ivy, AEB president and chief executive officer.  “Our willingness to fund this planning grant is indicative of the egg industry’s continuing responsiveness to the American consumer.”
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