15 November 2024
Events: my take-home message
Teagasc’s researchers attend many events throughout the year, sharing the findings from their research with national and international audiences. Here, we capture the take-home messages – key pieces of information that our researchers want people to remember – from recent events.
A life worth living for animals
Event: WAFL 2024, Florence, Italy
Date: 30 to 31 August 2024
The 9th International Conference on the Welfare Assessment of Animals at Farm Level (WAFL) in 2024 was organised by Laura Boyle (Chair), Keelin O’Driscoll and Amy Quinn (Co-chairs) of the Teagasc Pig Development Department with the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP).
Most presentations focused on traditional welfare issues, such as reducing suffering in livestock through improved practices during transport, stunning, and slaughter. Laura Boyle says: “Studies discussed exhaustion in sheep and rest requirements for cattle on long journeys. A discussion on boredom in pigs highlighted the need to assess welfare beyond physical health, urging a holistic approach to animal welfare that includes mental well-being.”
However, the conference also emphasised giving farm animals ‘a life worth living’, marking a shift from merely reducing suffering to promoting positive welfare. Laura explains: “A plenary talk highlighted the EU Cost Action LIFT’s work on developing indicators of animal flourishing. Researchers shared videos of pigs swimming, goats playing, and other examples of animals thriving, demonstrating the concept of positive welfare. Another talk explored how understanding animal cognition can improve both welfare and farm management.”
Overall, the work presented in the conference acknowledged the difficulty of improving welfare in current livestock systems due to economic pressures. The need to reimagine livestock systems in line with the ‘One Health-One Welfare’ framework was emphasised as the path forward for meaningful progress.
Delegates working towards positive animal welfare. Credit: Teagasc
Keeping bugs at bay
Event: ENTO 2024, Liverpool University, United Kingdom
Date: 10 to 12 September 2024
ENTO is the Royal Entomological Society’s annual conference, highlighting current research in entomology from across the world. ENTO 2024 covered all aspects of entomological research from insect behaviour to genomics.
Of particular interest to Teagasc Oak Park’s Entomology and Virology group was the session on Pests and natural enemies and the session on Monitoring and controlling crop pests. Throughout ENTO 2024 there was a good discussion on Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV), which is able to cause up to 80% yield losses in barley and is a key research focus of Teagasc. Indeed, the research conducted by Teagasc made valuable contributions to this discussion, through three oral presentations by Munir Mostafiz, Maximillian Schughart and Jack Perry (Walsh Scholar) focusing on, respectively, the life-history of grain aphids, insecticide resistance in grain aphids and the use of aphid monitoring tools to manage BYDV.
Alongside the oral presentations on BYDV, Teagasc also presented work on the use of fungi for aphid biocontrol (Simranjit Kaur), the threat of Bruchid Beetle to faba beans (Antoine Pichon) and use of mito-metagenomics to identify aphid species (Virgile Ballandras, Walsh Scholar).
Teagasc researchers enjoying the buzz at ENTO 2024. Credit: Teagasc.
Don’t miss out on Teagasc’s upcoming events! Join us at the Situation and Outlook economics event at Teagasc Ashtown on December 3 and visit the Teagasc stand at BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS on January 9 to 11, 2025. Visit teagasc.ie to see what we have planned.