University LINKs Scheme
University of Bern (Switzerland)
Dr Mike Toscano
Dept of Clinical Veterinary Science
Email: michael.toscano@vetsuisse.unibe.ch
2024:
The Swiss organized Walks and Talks took place again this year in Juan, a village in the highest part of the green Gruyère region, at the foot of the Gastlosen mountains. The mountain village has preserved its character and was an ideal holiday destination for our group to combine presentations with some adventurous hiking. Twenty attendees came from multiple institutions including University of Bern, Agroscope, the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, as well as the University of Veterinary Medicine (Vetmed Uni) based in Vienna, Austria. Presentations were diverse in nature and species covering laboratory animals and livestock with a unified focus on improving animal welfare. For instance, specific topics included issues of improved housing by evaluating different elements such as drinkers for beef cattle or space requirements of dairy cows, novel methods to phenotype laying hens towards better breeding for cage-free housing, and how heatstress can be averted in swine and poultry.
We were also excited to host our special guest, Professor Bas Rodenburg, based in the Netherlands at Utrecht University who gave a special lecture on creating and maintaining professional networks. Professor Rodenburg is an internationally renowned scientist in the field of animal welfare with leading roles in a variety of national and international projects, as well as sitting on different policy boards. We thought his experiences would be an excellent way to help students understand the importance of building their own networks as they prepare for careers in Animal Welfare Science, be it as academics, policy advisors, or industry leaders.
2015:
In the second annual Swiss Walk and Talks, organized by the Division of Animal Welfare at the University of Bern, 35 animal welfare reseachers, including 22 Ph.D./MSc students, ventured into the beautiful Emmental region of Switzerland for two and a half days of scientific discussion and exchange. Taking place in June 2015, funding provided by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) allowed for an external speaker, Professor Dan Weary of the University of British Columbia, to attend the event. In addition to participating in the standard talks and hiking where his energy and experience was inspiration to the various participants, Professor Weary also gave his own talk on communicating science to the public. The event was a tremendous success and has now become an annual event thanks in part to the continued and gracious support of UFAW.
In June 2015, UFAW supported the attendance of Dr Dan Weary, University of British Columbia, Canada as an external speaker at a student focussed ‘Walk and Talk’ event at Berne, in which Swiss graduate students from a number of universities got together to talk about their animal welfare science focussed research. Dr Mike Toscano reported that Dr Weary fully particpated in all elements of the event and helped to bring an outside ‘international’ perspective to the students’ studies.
2014:
International Workshop on Keel Bone Damage in the commercial laying hen
Date: April 7-9, 2014
Held by the Division of Animal Welfare, VPH Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland
Location: Research Centre for Proper Housing of Poultry and Rabbits, Aviforum, Zollikofen (near Bern), Switzerland
Click here to download the press release
