Document type: Report DG(SANTE) 2021-7248 from the European Commission
Author: DG SANTE
Preview: This report describes the outcome of an audit of Spain, carried out remotely from 20 to 25 September and on-site from 28 September to 1 October 2021 as part of the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety work programme.
The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of official controls to ensure the protection of the welfare of laying hens at all the stages of production.
The report concludes that the administrative and legal framework (at central and autonomous community level) adequately supports the system of official controls on animal welfare in place. The planning and implementation of those official controls:
- covers the full laying hen production chain;
- gives good assurances that laying hen farms start production only if they comply with animal welfare structural requirements; - on average, exceed the planned control frequencies;
- includes control verification procedures, that are nevertheless inadequately documented; and - includes actions for non-compliance that obtain appropriate corrective action from farmers.
The system of controls on egg labelling, and coordination between authorities involved, satisfactorily ensures labelling with the correct egg production code. Official controls in place cover all animal welfare requirements, are generally effective and can mostly ensure animal welfare all along the laying hen production chain. The laying hens, and respective production records, seen by the audit team provided evidence of a general satisfactory level of welfare.
Small differences/gaps in the autonomous communities' procedures, with instructions for the official controls, resulted in issues in individual farms in relation to perches, and claw-shortening devices (negative impact on caged hens).
The report contains a recommendation to the competent authorities to address the shortcomings identified.