Document type: DG SANTE audit report 2021-7245 of the European Commission
Author: DG SANTE
Preview: This report describes the outcome of an audit of the Netherlands, carried out remotely from 1 to 5 February 2021 as part of 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 Netherlands has more stringent animal welfare requirements for laying hens than the European Union. The laying hen sector is well developed, with modern holdings and professional farmers. Alternative farming systems with aviaries are the most common housing systems while "colony housing" is the only enriched cage system allowed in the country since January 2021. Beak-trimming is not allowed for laying hens reared in the country. However, an exemption from this requirement has been granted in the case of certain birds reared in veranda style housing until 1 January 2027.
The enforcement strategy involves several well-coordinated authorities and bodies carrying out different types of controls and sharing information and data. It includes risk assessment, use of a Private Quality Scheme, analysis of data from different levels and inspections.
The effectiveness of the official controls is robust regarding the verification of stocking densities and labelling of eggs, and they provide strong assurances on compliance for these areas. The competent authorities consider the veranda to be part of the usable area when calculating stocking limits. This means that the veranda should be permanently accessible. The instructions define 'permanently accessible' as being available to the birds during daylight hours.
There are certain weaknesses in the control system. They create gaps to verify the actual level of implementation of some requirements such as the on beak-trimming. There is also no systematic verification of the welfare of animals at hatcheries, breeding flocks and pullet farms after the approval of these establishments although welfare breaches identified during animal health inspections would trigger further investigation.
The competent authority has access to databases containing relevant information but their use for planning proactive and risk-based inspections at farms is still under development. The NVWA implements specific projects to check animal welfare in laying hen farms every five years (in between, the inspections are mainly reactive to notifications and complaints). However, the characteristics of the sample do not allow to establish the level of compliance of the sector.
A significant proportion of the laying hens are slaughtered outside the country, which reduces the possibility for the competent authority to monitor animal welfare indicators at slaughterhouse level and increases the risk of animal welfare problems associated with long distance transport of the hens. The findings at national slaughterhouses indicate a good level of animal welfare for laying hens.
The report contains recommendations to the competent authority aimed at addressing areas in which further improvements are required or to address the shortcomings identified.
