Postgraduate teaching in farm animal welfare and ethics

A survey was performed in the Spring of 1995 to map postgraduate education world-wide in animal welfare and ethics. Twenty-one universities in ten countries on three continents were identified that either offered, or had definite plans to start, postgraduate courses relating to animal welfare and/or ethics. Of these universities nine were European, one Australian, one New Zealand, one Canadian and nine were American. In Australia, Canada and the United States courses are given during a semester or quarter of a semester, while in Europe short but concentrated courses or seminars are more common, with several of them aimed at practising veterinarians rather than at postgraduate students. Interest in the subject of animal welfare and ethics seems to be increasing. Many of the existing courses were started during recent years, and two of the most comprehensive programmes offered were started irt 1995. Also, four chairs in animal welfare were recently established or were advertised in Europe at the time of this survey. One chair had been established in 1994, in New Zealand, one was to be advertised in the United States and one in Canada. Another trend is towards the establishment of 'centres' for the study of animal welfare issues. Associated with these new chairs and centres, educational programmes will probably be started. Few of the present courses focus mainly on farm animal issues, instead they cover a large spectrum of the human-animal relationship. Ethics is a minor part of the courses as compared to the science and animal welfare components.