Livestock production and processing: coordination of animal welfare compliance and enforcement management

It is just over one year since Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed between MAF and the New Zealand Food Safety Association (NZFSA) to ensure the effective coordination of animal welfare compliance and enforcement management of livestock production and processing in New Zealand.

The MOUs were both signed off in November 2006, and regular meetings since ensure those involved understand and implement their roles and responsibilities, and that the MOUs continue to provide a clear focus and create an environment for improving efficiency in the management of animal welfare compliance in our livestock production and processing industries.

The Animal Welfare Directorate within MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) is charged with administering the Animal Welfare Act 1999. Its focus is policy and standard development and it does not directly perform animal welfare compliance and enforcement activities. MAF Enforcement, which is responsible for enforcement and prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act, does not have the resources to provide veterinary technical expertise to support its investigation and prosecution work. When such expertise is required, it turns to private veterinarians and/or veterinarians from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority Verification Agency (NZFSA VA).

The NZFSA VA, whose primary responsibility is the verification of requirements under the Animal Products Act 1999, employs over 200 veterinarians throughout the country, the majority being based at export slaughter premises. Traditionally, these veterinarians have also been trained and appointed as inspectors under the Animal Welfare Act in order to verify compliance with animal welfare requirements in meat processing facilities.

With the evolution of MAF over the past few years, and the formation of the stand-alone New Zealand Food Safety Authority incorporating the Verification Agency as an operational group, there was a need to develop a formalised agreement to confirm the animal welfare working arrangements and also to clearly define accountabilities and responsibilities.

MOUs have been signed off between the Animal Welfare Directorate of MAFBNZ, MAF Enforcement and the NZFSA VA to ensure animal welfare compliance monitoring and enforcement activities are effectively coordinated and managed across agencies and groups.

The MOU between the MAFBNZ Animal Welfare Directorate, MAF Enforcement and NZFSA VA defines the accountabilities and commitments of each organisation for the provision of domestic animal welfare compliance and enforcement activities. The MOU excludes the market access activities that NZFSA VA is required to perform at export slaughter establishments.

The MAFBNZ Animal Welfare Directorate has a system for determining the training and competency requirements of animal welfare inspectors. The NZFSA VA trains its staff and makes recommendations to the Animal Welfare Directorate for their appointment as inspectors under the Animal Welfare Act.

NZFSA VA verification activities monitor compliance with the Animal Welfare Act and the codes of welfare through the inspection of animals prior to slaughter. Its procedures for dealing with non-compliance and offences include:

  • the immediate mitigation of an animal’s suffering
  • educational activities with farmers, and those in charge of animals, to highlight instances where the welfare of animals sent for slaughter has been compromised
  • referral of serious cases of welfare abuse to MAF Enforcement for further investigation.

All cases, whether dealt with through education or referred to MAF Enforcement, are documented and reports shared with MAF Enforcement.

Importantly, issues and trends are analysed from this case-reporting system. All three parties discuss the reports and use them to prioritise work programmes. Summary reports are also provided to industry groups to discuss trends and develop joint strategies to address specific issues.

A separate MOU between MAF Enforcement and NZFSA VA has also been developed. The purpose of this MOU is to ensure that MAF Enforcement on-farm investigations have access to independent expert veterinary technical advice from the NZFSA VA. The need for MAF Enforcement investigators to have ready access to well-trained and available veterinary expertise to assist with welfare investigations was the catalyst for this MOU. While MAF Enforcement used private veterinary practitioners to provide this expertise, inspectors found that private practitioners were not always readily available, were often not specifically trained for this type of investigative work and could have conflict of interest issues if the farmer under investigation was a client of theirs.

The scope of the MOU involves the identification and training of a group of 12 NZFSA VA veterinarians to provide consistent and calibrated technical expertise into welfare investigations. MAF Enforcement inspectors are responsible for the calibration and training of these veterinarians, and for leading the teams involved in the on-farm investigations.

Some of the issues that have been a focus for a cooperative strategy over the past 18 months include:
- deer develvetting
- the East Coast drought
- bobby calf transport
- emaciated cull stock
- transport of late pregnant bovines
- improved technical input into on-farm investigations.

  • Richard Wild, Technical Coordinator, New Zealand Food Safety Authority Verification Agency, phone 029 943 1702,
    richard.wild@nzfsa.govt.nz

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Page last updated: 12 June 2008