Year: 2024
Dr Han Quang Hanh
Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Vietnam
Aarhus University, Denmark
HSA Special Travel Award 2024: £5,500
I will benefit from the visit in several ways. First, the training and visits to different facilities will help me to improve my knowledge and research skill on welfare of animals during transport, marketing and at slaughter. Although I have studied farm animal welfare in recent years, the international cooperation will facilitate knowledge exchange on animal welfare during transport, marketing and at slaughter, and increase the mutual understanding of pig welfare when pigs are kept under different conditions at different geographical regions. The knowledge about Vietnamese animal production will be very useful for the teaching of global livestock production and global challenges in animal transport for the professors from Aarhus. Secondly, the expertise and knowledge gained from the visit will help me to expand my research areas and my network. One important aim of the visit is to facilitate future collaboration and knowledge exchange between scientists in different regions of the world, hopefully allowing us to do larger international studies in the future. In summary, the visit will help me to develop my career at my university. I am one of the first researchers who focus on animal welfare studies in Vietnam. Thus, the visit will enable me to develop my teaching, research activities and international cooperation.
On the home return, the knowledge and skills that I acquired from the visits will be applied to my works at the university and disseminated to my students, my colleagues and also producers in Vietnam by different activities. First, I will apply advanced research methodology learnt from Denmark to my study on welfare of farm animals during transport, marketing and at slaughter in Vietnam. I will develop a research proposal to apply for funding sources from both Vietnamese government and international funds. My study will focus on identifying the current welfare issues and the way to improve welfare quality of pigs and poultry during transport, marketing and at slaughter. I will collaborate with professors from Aarhus university to conduct this research project. Secondly, the new knowledge and information gained from the visit will be added to my lectures to introduce to my students. I will also present these advanced research methods and situations of pig welfare in Denmark to my colleagues during a seminar at my university. From these presentations, I hope to develop a research group on animal welfare at my faculty. Finally, the improved welfare practices that I learn from Denmark will be disseminated to Vietnamese producers, transporters, abattoir and other stakeholders during my field trips to pig, poultry and cattle farms and slaughterhouses in Vietnam. I will discuss with stakeholders and give them some suggestions on good practices during transport, marketing and at slaughter of farm animals.
The visit will benefit the welfare of food animals during transport, marketing and at slaughter in Vietnam in different ways. First, it is necessary to repeat that a majority of the livestock population in Vietnam is now being kept in intensive farming systems, but little attention has been paid to their welfare improvement, especially during transport, marketing and at slaughter by producers and transporters. Although the government has issued some regulations related animal welfare (in Animal Husbandry Law, Veterinary Law), there is a lack of good practices on animal welfare, especially during transport, marketing and at slaughter. Therefore, education and research program will provide the basic and implications for welfare improvement. Secondly, welfare of food animals should be improved when the vet students are provided with advanced knowledge and also good practices. These students will work on animals after graduation, thus improving their knowledge and skills today may help improve the welfare quality of food animals in the near future. And finally, by sharing information with producers and transporters during my field trips in Vietnam after the training course, the welfare of food animals might be improved by related stakeholders. Besides that, I will disseminate the information on welfare of animals during transport, marketing and at slaughter throughout seminars and also publication that more and more people may know about it and improve their practices while handling the animals.
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