Document type: DG SANTE audit report 2021-7243 of the European Commission
Author: DG SANTE
Preview: This report describes the outcome of an audit of Germany, carried out remotely from 21 September to 1 October 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 audit concludes that authorities and stakeholders consider the welfare of laying hens a priority and they succeeded in implementing an effective and well-integrated system of official controls.
The national legislation protects the welfare of laying hens with requirements that are more stringent than the EU ones and the authorities cooperate effectively with the industry. All this has supported significant improvements of the hens' welfare such as the phasing out of beak trimming and cage production systems.
There are robust procedures for the organisation and delivery of welfare checks for the sector.
Coordination between federal states (inter-Länder) and coordination within each state (intra-Land) support consistent and high quality checks. The Länder manage the high level of independence for the districts on how to plan their inspections through coordination, instructions and verification of the effectiveness of the checks.
There are risk-based checks on farms for all stages of the production (laying hens, pullets, breeders and chicks). They are extensive, comprehensive and re-enforced by ante-mortem inspection of all cull hens on farm and notifications from renderers. This, together with the use of a common platform for the results of the controls allow the authorities to analyse data and have a good overview of the welfare situation of the animals.
The Länder verify compliance with the egg marketing rules through risk-based plans. They are consistent and include checks on the accuracy of the farming method, the adequacy of the maximum hen capacity per farming method and the requirements for open-air runs. The fact that each Land has its own register, which is not accessible to the officials working in other Länder, is in some cases a handicap to establish egg traceability in the farming method during official checks.
Some Länder have extended the legal provisions for keeping the free-range egg category during avian influenza confinements to other reasons such as extreme weather conditions. That measure aims to protect the welfare of the hen but may be inconsistent with the egg marketing rules.
The country has gone far in protecting male day-old chicks. The imminent ban of their culling is ambitious and a big challenge for the industry, as rearing of males is still marginal and might involve different animal welfare challenges.
The report highlights strengths and opportunities for improvement identified during the audit.
