Review of evidence on livestock breeding

Queen's University Belfast will conduct a systematic literature review with the provisional title: "The welfare implications of animal breeding and breeding technologies in commercial agriculture". This review will focus on examining the peer reviewed scientific literature published since the 2012 Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) "Opinion on the welfare implications of breeding and breeding technologies in commercial livestock agriculture", which can be viewed here. In line with that report, it will cover the following species: dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, pigs, broiler chickens, laying hens, turkeys and salmon. The aim of the review will be to critically analyse the scientific literature associated with animal breeding, breeding technologies and the welfare of farmed animals. Importantly, the review will also highlight knowledge gaps and areas that lack sufficient evidence. As the topic was previously reviewed by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, the current review will focus on peer reviewed scientific literature published since 2011. Objective 1: Statement of agreed search terms and filtering approach for evidence review. The first objective involves setting out the project objectives and agreeing the scope and search terms with the Animal Welfare Committee. Scope considerations will include species, previous AWC projects, location of breeding programmes, timing of publication, sample numbers and other factors. Objective 2: Evidence review report. The report will include search term descriptions and databases used, a diagram setting out the approach and filtering criteria with numbers of papers carried forward at each stage and the number of papers used in the final evidence synthesis. The outcomes will inform the remainder of the AWC project including written consultation with industry and stakeholder roundtables.