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www.poultrynews.com.au National Poultry Newspaper, December 2024 %u2013 Page 13%u00a9 Kemin Industries, Inc. and its group of companies 2024. All rights reserved. %u00ae %u2122 Trademarks of Kemin Industries, Inc., U.S.A.Certain statements may not be applicable in all geographic regions. Product labeling and associated claims may differ based upon regulatory requirements.%u201cHEALTH GUARD%u201d is a pioneering program that takes a tailored approach to livestock management, acknowledging the unique challenges faced by different species. This initiative is genuinely committed to addressing the key pain points and combines several layers of protection to avoid losses to our industry. Protection against diseases and stressorswithout the use of antiboticsHEALTH GUARDKemin (Australia) Pty. LimitedPhone: +61 2 9844 5700 Email: australia@kemin.com / greg.heeney@kemin.comwww.kemin.comAS the agricultural sector aims for zero on-farm fatalities, the launch of the Ag Safety Data Net is aiming to reinforce the collective responsibility for farm safety. The ASDN project is an initiative of the Rural Safety and Health Alliance, funded by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Australian Wool Innovation, Australian Pork Limited and AgriFutures Australia.The ASDN project will develop and implement an ongoing data system that will provide meaningful metrics for farm safety planning and, for the first time, report at industry, regional, state and national levels. The project is coordinated by AgHealth Australia and will run through until June 2027.Farmsafe Australia chair Felicity Richards highlighted the urgency of addressing farm injury, particularly as harvest and hay/silage seasons approach.%u201cWe are seeing up to 40 fatalities and an increase in serious injuries on Australian farms each year,%u201d Ms Richards said.%u201cDespite this, there is no single source of truth for all key injury measures. %u201cTherefore, by centralising this information, ASDN will make it easier to highlight issues and trends more easily. %u201cTargeted solutions that will have benefits for individuals, families, rural communities and the overall productivity of farm businesses can then be prioritised.%u201cThe better we can identify and address risks, the greater chance we have of everyone returning home safely after a day at work.%u201dThis year, farm-related deaths and injuries reported in the media have exceeded those from 2023. This underscores the urgency to prevent these incidents.ASDN consolidates farm injury information at national, state and regional levels, while ensuring privacy and confidentiality. The platform will also produce measures that target the prevention of injury through practical actions that farmers can take.As Ms Richards explained, the importance of safety education for anyone entering a farm %u2013 whether workers, family members or contractors %u2013 cannot be understated.%u201cSafe workplaces are essential to maintaining a reliable workforce,%u201d she said.%u201cOn both small family farms and larger operations, identifying risks and taking the steps required to limit injury is vital.%u201d%u201cAs machinery dominates farm incidents, especially during harvest and peak periods such as hay/silage production, we urge farmers to take regular breaks to combat fatigue during long workdays.%u201dAgriFutures Australia senior manager rural futures Ulicia Raufers highlighted the challenges of farm injury data collection.%u201cWith limited technical capacity for farm-specific analysis, most reports only offer high-level descriptions of fatalities, with less than half of onfarm injuries recorded,%u201d Ms Raufers said.%u201cQuality information is crucial for understanding the issues and taking appropriate action. %u201cBy using the ASDN platform, the agriculture sector can significantly improve safety outcomes and reduce fatalities, a goal that we all desperately want to see become a reality.%u201d New project to help in fight against farm injurythey are unconscious and don%u2019t experience pain during slaughter and prior to death %u2013 this is a very important part of humane slaughter. The two main stunning methods for meat chickens are electrical water bath stunning or controlled atmosphere stunning with carbon dioxide gas. Both have welfare risks, but electrical water bath stunning systems have several inherent animal welfare risks, including the fact that birds need to be shackled upside down while conscious.What needs to changeThe RSPCA continues to advocate for:%u2022 Improvements to meat chicken genetics in Australia and encourage genetic companies to continue selecting for pro-welfare traits, as well as the uptake of higher-welfare breeds such as slowergrowing breeds%u2022 The legal maximum stocking density allowance for meat chickens to be reduced in Australia, and work with industry to provide meat chickens with their optimal space requirements for each type of housing system%u2022 Legal minimum requirements to ensure that meat chickens are provided with adequate ventilation to maintain air quality, shed temperatures to ensure health and comfort, a lighting regime that provides adequate dark time for rest and appropriate lighting intensities and spectrum, and a litter substrate of an appropriate material and depth to encourage natural behaviours%u2022 Where meat chickens have outdoor access, that the range is designed with adequate overhead cover and palatable vegetation, as well as being managed in a way that keeps meat chickens safe and mitigates possible biosecurity risks%u2022 The phase out of cervical dislocation as a routine euthanasia method for meat chickens, to be replaced by more humane methods%u2022 The phase out of stunning methods that require the conscious shackling of birds, such as electrical water bath stunning to be replaced by more humane methods.In the meantime, the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme is about lifting the bar for animal welfare, with standards that are frequently reviewed to encourage continuous improvement. Over the past several years, through targeting specific areas such as lighting, perching, litter provision and management practices, the scheme has been able to have a positive impact for the lives of meat chickens in Australia.But while the current RSPCA Approved standard for meat chickens helps address some of the welfare issues in meat chicken production, there are things that it doesn%u2019t cover. Sometimes this is because an alternative is not yet commercially viable, sometimes it is not within the scope of the activities covered by the standard, and sometimes it is something we are actively looking at for future reviews of the standard.The RSPCA also welcomes any measures to tangibly improve the welfare of chickens raised for meat, including the Better Chicken Commitment.Overall, there have been widespread improvements to the welfare of chickens raised for meat in Australia over recent years, but there is more work to be done and we will continue to work with industry, government and the public to advocate for more improvements. RSPCA AustraliaWhat needs to change for meat chickens* from P12Farmsafe Australia chair Felicity Richards said that by centralising the information of key injury measures, ASDN would make it easier to highlight issues and trends more easily.The importance of safety education for anyone entering a farm %u2013 whether workers, family members or contractors %u2013 cannot be understated.