The project involves seven European partner organisations, as well as two nationally funded partners in China. Each of the partners have their own, complementary expertise and role within the project. The consortium is formed to ensure that all priority areas of the project are well represented, and to also make sure the partner countries represent a wide diversity of animal production, antimicrobial usage and consumer perceptions within EU. The Chinese partners do not only represent the Chinese animal production sector, but add extremely central expertise to the consortium, namely expertise on research on farm waste as a risk of environmental pollution.
The successful accomplishment of the ISAP project goals is not possible without the cooperation of a large range of stakeholders. A large variety of stakeholders have indicated their interest for collaoration with the ISAP project, including, for example, farmer associations, meat-producting companies, retailers and veterinary organisations.
The consortium is coordinated by Professor Anna Valros, University of Helsinki (contact: anna.valros@helsinki.fi)
University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest institution of academic education in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. In international university rankings, UH typically ranks among the top 100. UH seeks solutions for global challenges and creates new ways of thinking for the best of humanity. Through the power of science, the University has contributed to society, education and welfare since 1640. UH has 11 faculties, and it provides teaching on four campuses in Helsinki: City Centre, Kumpula, Meilahti and Viikki. In addition, the University has research stations in Hyytiälä, Värriö, Kilpisjärvi and Kenya.
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has a strong profile in animal health care and wellbeing as well as in food safety. The goal is to carry out and develop international state-of-the-art education and research in veterinary medicine, taking professional and social changes into account. One Health is the main focus area for research, tying together the health of both animals and humans. The Faculty has been evaluated and approved by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE).
The Department of Production Animal Medicine accommodates the disciplines of production animal medicine, reproduction of domestic animals and animal management and welfare. The Department also hosts the Production Animal Hospital, one of the clinics of the University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which includes a mobile clinic, a hospital for production animals and an outpatient clinic.
The disciplines covered at the Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health are food hygiene, meat inspection and slaughterhouse hygiene, food and environmental toxicology, environmental health and food and environmental health control. Research at the department is highly ranked in international evaluations and it covers the epidemiology of the most important microbes and toxins spread to people via foods and the environment, food spoilage bacteria and the efficacy of control within the area of food safety
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) was formed in 1977 through the joining together of three previously independent university colleges. It is the only agricultural and veterinary university in Sweden and is unique among other universities in that it is located under the Ministry of Agriculture and therefore also has an important advisory role and sector responsibility. Staff is/has been active in relevant national forums as well as internationally e.g. Council of Europe, and EU/EFSA scientific committees. The research focus relevant for the current project relates to broiler housing, management and welfare and their relation to broiler health and production. There is considerable combined experience of managing large national and international projects. In 2008 the Swedish Government commissioned SLU to establish a Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare for research, education and information.
Wageningen University & Research is a collaboration between Wageningen University and the Wageningen Research Foundation. ‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’is the mission of Wageningen University & Research. A staff of 6,500 and 10,000 students from over 100 countries work everywhere around the world in the domain of healthy food and living environment for governments and the business community-at-large.
The strength of Wageningen University & Research lies in its ability to join the forces of specialised research institutes and the university. It also lies in the combined efforts of the various fields of natural and social sciences. This union of expertise leads to scientific breakthroughs that can quickly be put into practice and be incorporated into education. This is the Wageningen Approach.
The scientific quality of Wageningen University & Research is affirmed by the prominent position we occupy in international rankings and citation indexes.
The domain of Wageningen University & Research consists of three core areas:
IRTA is the Catalan Research Institute for technology in food and agriculture. IRTA's mission is to contribute to the sustainable development of the agri-food sector and the supply of healthy, high-quality foodstuffs to end consumers, with the goal of promoting research and technology development and transfer, seeking the utmost collaboration between the public and private sectors. IRTA is considered the institutional tool of the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) to design, coordinate and execute RTD activities in the agro-food sphere. ISAP project fits within IRTA’s goal to contribute to animal health, welfare and food safety. The Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA) is the Animal Health program of IRTA and will be involved in this project through the subprograms of “Endemic Diseases”. CReSA is internationally recognized in the area of animal health, including areas of pathology, microbiology, vaccine development, immunology and epidemiology. It has been recently designated as OIE Collaborating Centre for Research and control of emerging and re-emerging swine diseases in Europe. CReSA has extensive experience in promoting research excellence in a learning environment, as it works in close collaboration with the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB).
INRA is the French Agricultural Research Institute which carries out mission-oriented research for high-quality foods, competitive and sustainable agriculture and a preserved environment. The INRA studies will be mainly conducted in research units of the "animal physiology” division. Expertise in in-vivo studies, physiology, immunology and high throughput cellular phenotyping using intact cell mass spectrometry are being jointly applied to establish the physiological mechanisms by which management practices used during animal perinatal life improve health and welfare of the animals. Three INRA units will be involved in the project:
Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) is the oldest and the largest Polish agricultural university with a complex of academic experience and a tradition of international cooperation. The university consists of 11 faculties and 6 interfaculty units with 1400 academic staff and 25,000 students enrolled. The research and education covers the entire field of agriculture related sciences, including Agriculture, Economics, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine. Academic staff has much dissemination experience to all parts of the agricultural industry through co-operation with agricultural extension service, farmers’s organizations, training activities as well as through popularization of research findings.
The Faculty of Economic Sciences (formerly faculty of Agricultural Economics) provides a wide range of expertise in such areas as multifunctional rural development, Sustainable Agriculture, Common Agricultural Policy or Animal Welfare.
Agro-Environmental Protection Institute (AEPI) was formed in 1979 approved by the State Council and Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). It is a nonprofit scientific research institute that it is located under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. AEPI is also chief unit of the national agricultural environmental pollution accident emergency plan technical support institutions, it mainly includes three fields: agricultural pollution prevention and control, agricultural environmental monitoring and agricultural ecology. Staff is/has been active in relevant national forums as well as internationally. The research focus relevant to the current project relates to the agro-waste utilization, the livestock waste and its reuse in agriculture, microbial treatment technique of the waste. There is considerable combined experience of managing large national and international projects though international cooperation e.g. Sino-EU cooperation, Sino-Finland cooperation, Sino-US cooperation and Sino-Germany cooperation. Additionally, Tianjin institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary (AHV) and Tianjin Animal Husbandry Development Service Center (TAHDSC) commissioned AEPI to establish a center of Tianjin Environmental Pollution Control Engineering Center of Large-scale Livestock and Poultry Farm. Staff has participated or is currently participating in several MOA and Projects e.g. “Detecting Techniques of Antibiotic, Heavy Metal and Pathogen in Animal Waste”, “Key technologies for utilization of livestock wastewater resources and land irrigation”, “Technology and Equipment Research & Demonstration with biogas treatment and utilization used of Life sludge”, “Technology Integration and Demonstration of Non-Point Source Pollution Prevention and Control in Agriculture in Intensive Agro-Regions of North China” etc. The inspection center of AEPI takes a lot of tasks to establish inspection standard of antibiotics, pesticides and so on.
Tianjin Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Research Institute (TAVI) was built in 1980, which has affiliation to Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It is a livestock research organization established by Tianjin municipal government. The institute have four research platforms foundation by nationally and Tianjin municipal government respectively, including Tianjin Laboratory of Veterinary Medicine and Diagnostic Techniques of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin laboratory of Chinese Animal Epidemic Data Center, Demonstration and Extension Base of Foreign Intellectual Achievements Introduction of Tianjin, and Livestock and Poultry Health Culture Technology Engineering Center of Tianjin.
The Institute is mainly engaged in the prevention and control of livestock and poultry diseases, animal nutrition and feed, animal breeding and biological engineering technology. In the field of veterinary research, the faculty of the institute major study on the diagnosis and control technology of livestock and poultry, and promotion and service for animal farms using the technology. And the staffs of the Institute are familiar with the epidemiology of animal diseases, molecular pathogens, mechanism of bacterial resistance, development of new veterinary drugs and diagnostic preparations, as well as Clinical effect evaluation of the drugs.
During the past 30 years, staffs of the Institute undertaken and completed 58 national and provincial research projects, won 28 awards from national and provincial, and published 350 papers and 15 academic monographs. They made significant contributions to the development of animal husbandry of Tianjin and North China.
The French Agency for food environmental and occupational health and safety (ANSES) is a public authority created on 1st July 2010 from the merger of the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA) and the French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (AFSSET). ANSES undertakes monitoring, expert appraisal, research and reference missions in a broad field of competence that encompasses human health, animal health and welfare, and plant health. It also performs missions regarding veterinary medicinal products.The agency reports to several Ministries: Health, Agriculture, Environment, Labour and Consumer Affairs. ANSES can therefore apply a cross-cutting approach to its health risk/benefit assessments, by including contributions from the social sciences and humanities, before submitting its opinions and recommendations to the authorities and systematically making its work public. The Agency relies on a network of 11 reference and research laboratories located in 16 different parts of the country that are internationally recognised in several areas or disciplines. The Ploufragan laboratory, specialised in poultry, rabbit, pig and fish farming, contributes to improving animal health, welfare and quality of food of animal origin. The epidemiology and welfare research units (pigs or poultry) have outstanding well recognised experience in design, coordination, organisation and statistical analysis of observational studies under field conditions and in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. Research relevant for the current project relate to pig and broiler housing, management and welfare and their relation to animal health and production and antibiotic consumption. Ongoing projects related to the current project focus on alternative housing systems for laying hens and broilers, through experimental and observational field studies studying the interaction between welfare and animal health.