UN agency goes online with animal farming website

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched an online website today serving as a one-stop-shop for the latest information about the welfare of farm animals.

The agency said that the Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare internet site is a source of reliable information on legislation and research findings on livestock, as well as on animal welfare standards, practices and policies.

Giving developing country governments, professionals and producers online access to the latest information and the opportunity to contribute information relevant to their own situation, the portal will help to improve livestock welfare, health and productivity worldwide, FAO said in a news release issued to promote the site.

FAO noted that since the 1990s, the core of the livestock production industry has shifted from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere with a few developing countries emerging as significant forces in the sector.

Livestock production accounts for 40 per cent of the value of agricultural output around the world, and animal food products provide one-third of the global population’s protein intake, according to FAO.

The agency noted that animals also contribute income, social status and security to roughly one billion people, including many of the world’s poor.

“This portal meets a real information need in this extremely important area,” said Samuel Jutzi, FAO Director of Animal Health and Production Division.

Among the animal welfare issues covered on the new FAO website are transport, slaughter and pre-slaughter management, animal husbandry and handling and the culling of animals for disease control.

The agency expects the site’s main users to be farmers, government officials, lawmakers, researchers, as well as the livestock and food industry and non-governmental organizations.