Development of a risk assessment methodology for animal welfare in EFSA’s scientific opinions

EFSA provides scientific advice regarding risks associated with the food chain by using, whenever possible, the Risk Assessment (RA) approach. RA is commonly used to describe and quantify the risk of introduction of infections by importing live animals and their products or to identify options for the control of epidemic or endemic diseases. The AHAW (Animal Health and Animal Welfare) Panel of EFSA provides specific advices on risk factors related to animal diseases and welfare, primarily of food producing animals, terrestrial and aquatic animals. The AHAW panel is currently actively engaged in applying RA to evaluate risks related to animal welfare (AW); however, this is a newly emerging field of application of RA and no specific guidelines have yet been proposed. Therefore, for the development of the AHAW scientific opinions, existing RA methodologies were adapted to the field of AW. This paper primarily describes the RA methodology applied to AW across several of the most recent assessments performed by EFSA since 2003 up to now. Examples from the specific assessments of calf welfare, where the first RA approach was initiated, captive birds' health and welfare, where some challenges were introduced, and pig welfare will show that this approach has been under evolution. Secondly, the paper presents some of the results of the pig welfare assessment to illustrate how the outcomes of the RA process can be helpful in describing and ranking risk factors at the farm level and prioritise possible management measures. EFSA is currently working on the development of RA methodological framework in AW.