Development and integration of animal welfare standards into company quality assurance programs in the Australian livestock (meat) processing industry

A collaborative project between the Australian Meat Industry Council and the Animal Welfare Science Centre, a Centre partnered by the University of Melbourne, Department of Primary Industries (Victoria) and Monash University, that commenced in 2005, resulted in the development of a series of industry animal welfare standards designed to complement existing regulatory and commercial requirements. The project was the fourth in a series of similar projects conducted since 1998 for the poultry, pork and dairy industries, that was aimed at developing industry-wide animal welfare audit material. This concept was further developed to result in national industry animal welfare standards with accompanying audit material that could be integrated with existing industry, commercial and regulatory quality assurance documentation to demonstrate animal welfare practices. The resultant animal welfare standards were accompanied by additional implementation and reference information to enable integration and uptake within the industries and for the delivery of assurance on animal welfare to Governments, customers, trading partners and the consumer.