The Council of Agriculture Ministers agreed a final text for Directive 98/58/EC concerning the protection of animals kept for farming purposes in June 1998, and the Directive was formally adopted in July 1998. This Directive sets minimum standards for welfare of livestock throughout the EU and a framework for adoption of more detailed standards for individual farmed species. It is not uncommon in legislation for the taxonomic range of the species covered to be rather poorly defined and often more inclusive than, one guesses, the legislators had in mind (eg specifying ‘bovine animal’ when ‘domestic cow’, rather than any member of the subfamily Bovinae was intended). In this case, it is made clear that the Directive applies only to vertebrate animals kept for farming purposes. However, while Article 3 requires that owners or keepers of any vertebrate animals kept for these purposes ‘…take all reasonable steps to ensure the welfare of animals under their care and to ensure that those animals are not caused any unnecessary pain, suffering or injury’, Article 4 applies only to some vertebrates, thus: ‘Member states shall ensure that the conditions under which animals (other than fish, reptiles or amphibians) are bred or kept‥, comply with the provisions set out in the Annex.’ The provisions in the Annex outline requirements for staffing, inspection, record-keeping, freedom of movement, buildings, accommodation and mechanical equipment, feed and water, mutilations, and breeding procedures. The final paragraph of the Annex, paragraph 21, appears strikingly sweeping and perhaps a potentially powerful force against the use of strains with high prevalences of production diseases. It states: ‘No animal shall be kept for farming purposes unless it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of its genotype or phenotype, that it can be kept without detrimental effect on its health or welfare’. Member states are required to bring the legislation, administrative provisions and sanctions necessary for compliance with the Directive into effect before 31 December 1999.

In 1996, a Working Group comprising representatives of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Local Government Association, was set up to substantially update guidance on the licensing of dog breeding establishments. The Group's report was published recently and provides a comprehensive and valuable set of guidelines.

Following the publication in September 1996 of the Farm Animal Welfare Council's (FAWC) report on the welfare of farmed fish, the UK Government consulted interested parties and has now produced a response taking account of these views. This comprises a 4-page overview document with a 17-page Annex which: (i) outlines the points which the Government proposes for inclusion in a welfare code for farmed fish production; and (ii) lists FAWC's recommendations. Two general points are made regarding the way forward. First, since the recently adopted EU Directive on the protection of farm animals (Council Directive 98/58/EC) does not include any requirements which deal in detail with the welfare of farmed fish, the UK will continue to play an active part in the Council of Europe's negotiations to develop recommendations. Second, the Government proposes that many of FAWC's recommendations should be met by developing voluntary codes of practice with the farmed salmon and trout industries. FAWC made a number of recommendations on the need for research and the Government has prioritized these as follows. First to review commercial slaughter methods for trout and ensure that humane methods are available (Government-funded work is already underway on this). Second, if funds become available, to investigate improved methods for stunning and killing farmed salmon and setting stocking densities. Further research into environmental stimulation and interrelationships between food distribution, fish size and fish welfare is then to be pursued. Other research topics, such as the development of systems which minimize injuries to snout and fins, are viewed as matters for the industry to pursue.

The primary legislation protecting wild birds in the UK is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This basically provides protection to all wild birds and their nests but includes additional special provisions for some rare species. It specifies various exceptions to allow for sport hunting and for the control of certain species which cause conflict with some human interests. The law is quite complex and includes a number of schedules which list various species that are, or are not, covered by various provisions in the Act. For example, provided that they are ringed and have been bred in captivity, birds on Part I of Schedule 3 (including a variety of finches and the barn owl) may be sold alive at all times, and birds on Part II of Schedule 3 (only the woodpigeon and coot) may be sold dead at all times. In view of these complexities, this little booklet is a useful aide memoire. Its use is made easier still by listing UK birds, species by species, with brief notes on the legal protection each one is given. The booklet is fully up to date and includes the provisions of the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997 and the rules concerning the operation of Larsen (cage) traps in the prevention of damage by some bird species to livestock or crops.

The first report by the UK Independent Scientific Group on cattle TB, chaired by Professor John Bourne, was published in July 1998, giving details of a randomized trial which will involve the extensive culling of badgers. The Group was formed to advise the UK Government on the implementation of the recommendations contained within the Krebs Report on Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle and Badgers, published in 1997 (see, Animal Welfare 7: 217).