Colombia joins regional WOAH network to guide advances in animal welfare and livestock production

• AGROSAVIA joins the Consortium of Collaborating Centres for Animal Welfare and Sustainable Livestock Systems as its fourth member, alongside institutions from Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. Researcher Fredy García Castro, from the Tibaitatá Research and Technology Transfer Center (CIT), will coordinate Colombia’s participation.

 

Mosquera, Cundinamarca. September 10, 2026. Colombia will play a direct role in a scientific network in the Americas working to advance Animal Welfare and Sustainable Livestock Systems, specifically when transporting live animals, pre-slaughter handling, pain management, and production conditions in livestock, poultry, and equine systems.

During its 93rd General Session, the World Assembly of Delegates of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) confirmed AGROSAVIA’s incorporation into the Consortium of Collaborating Centres for Animal Welfare and Sustainable Livestock Systems. The organization formalized the designation through Official Letter GT/MD 35.634, issued from its Paris headquarters. Fredy García Castro, a researcher at AGROSAVIA’s Tibaitatá Research and Technology Transfer Center, was confirmed as Colombia’s Coordinator.

With the addition of AGROSAVIA, the consortium brings together four institutions: Universidad Austral de Chile; AGROSAVIA, representing Colombia; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); and Universidad de la República of Uruguay.

 

What Does This Mean for Colombia?

Participation in the consortium will connect Colombian research with regional teams to generate and share evidence, methodologies, and technical training on the welfare of production animals. The work will cover on-farm management, transportation, and pre-slaughter stages.

The priorities planned for 2026–2030 include reducing stress during animal transport, improving pre-slaughter handling protocols, and studying poultry systems, specialized dairy production, dual-purpose cattle farming, and working animals. The agenda will also address pain-management regulation and practices that promote positive emotional states.

The agenda responds to challenges already affecting the Latin American livestock sector: heat stress, high parasite burdens, extensive systems with low efficiency, and a lack of comparable data to support health- and production-related decision-making.

 

Animal Welfare with Measurable Impacts

Animal welfare can be assessed through animal behavior, health, and performance, but its effects also extend to the environment and food quality. Silvopastoral systems are one example: better forage supply can increase carrying capacity, improve livestock nutrition, increase carbon dioxide sequestration, and reduce the intensity of methane emissions per unit of meat or milk produced.

Within the production chain, measures such as reducing noise during milking or implementing appropriate pre-slaughter handling can reduce stress factors that may alter the physicochemical quality of meat and milk. These practices are becoming increasingly important for accessing markets that require verifiable animal welfare standards.

The consortium will work under the One Health and One Welfare approaches, which jointly examine the health and welfare of animals, people, and ecosystems. In practice, this requires assessing how a management decision affects workers in the production system, the animals, and the surrounding environment.

 

From Evidence to Decision-Making

Colombia contributes experience gained by establishing the National Council and National Technical Committee on Animal Welfare, created through Resolution 000153 of 2019 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This work helped translate international WOAH guidelines into national regulations for different species and production stages.

The next challenge will be to translate the regional agenda into comparable studies, actionable recommendations, and training processes for producers, professionals, industry associations, and authorities.