"<< Background >>The project aims to convey the latest scientific information on animal welfare to cattle breeders and shepherds of farmed ruminants (namely sheep, goats and cattle) both in Turkey and in the partner countries. Currently, there is no animal welfare curriculum at EU standards in Turkey. Animal welfare is seen as one of the most important issues in agriculture within the scope of Turkey's EU acquis harmonization program. Therefore, it is important to create an innovative curriculum on Animal Welfare for technical personnel in Turkey and partner countries. In this context, with the cooperation of professionals such as Veterinarians, Agricultural Engineers, Academicians and Veterinary Faculty Students, the project aims to foster a more ethical and sustainable ruminant production. Learning will be based on formal and distance education, and on-farm application of animal welfare assessment protocols as a tool for product certification. Our project partners consist of animal scientists who have proven themselves in animal welfare assessment in the EU and are recognized in this area. In this context, an innovative curriculum that has never been established in Turkey and that will demonstrate to the target audience the level animal welfare has reached in European countries, will be developed.Expected Impact: Thanks to this curriculum, the professionals in the target group will enhance their knowledge and expertise in animal welfare assessment and increase their institutional capacity. Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University and other educational institutions will add this curriculum to their animal science and veterinary courses so as to raise the awareness of future professionals about animal welfare.The food safety policy of the European Union (EU) is carried out on the basis of the principle of ""farm to table / farm to fork"". Turkey, as a country at the stage of applying for membership to the European Union, continues its studies within the scope of Chapter 12 on Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policies. In the field of veterinary medicine, comprehensive regulations regarding the necessary administrative structures and mechanisms regarding animal welfare, zootechnics, notification of animal diseases, identification and registration of animals and tracking their movements are also covered under this field.<< Objectives >>The project will include many initiatives and generate learning materials, that will convey to dairy/beef cattle and small ruminant breeders some of the good animal welfare practices that have been developed within the European Union. It is expected that farmers, as well as vets and other technicians, will obtain knowledge on how to assess the welfare of their animals, by collecting and interpreting resource and animal based indicators. This will potentially lead to the certification of farms and products as a response for consumers’ growing demand. Additionally, this project will help to train and to provide technical knowledge to auditors and governmental officials so that they can carry out official controls in the area of animal welfare. Finally, the project will help developing a curriculum in animal welfare, to be included in veterinary and animal science courses in Turkey.Parallel to these activities, farmers and technicians coming from the partner countries will be able to exchange experiences and knowledge in the various planned meetings.To ensure this knowledge transfer and the correct application of strategies that promote animal welfare, the project will convey the latest research findings including welfare assessment protocols that are being used within the EU countries (e.g. Welfare Quality and AWIN protocols). The EU partners within the consortium participated in the building of such protocols and have been using and developing them extensively.In summary, this project will contribute to provide scientific and technical expertise about the application of protocols for welfare assessment of ruminants among farmers and technicians from Turkey and EU countries, in order to increase sustainability of their farms by ensuring public and consumers’ support. The project will also contribute to the dissemination of good practices on animal welfare in the EU.<< Implementation >>The project will be carried out with 5 partners in total. All the activities will be coordinated among partners through 4 Transnational Project Meetings. The first of these trainings will be held in Portugal, the second in Italy and the third in Turkey. The aim of these trainings is to adopt new approaches for some vocational training of animal welfare practices, which are supported by the European Union member organizations and developed with scientific studies, and to ensure that these methods are reflected on the professional skills. After these trainings, the professional competencies, knowledge and skills of the participants will increase. Also, this project will provide the participants with the opportunity to use these new learning methods with breeders and shepherds, as well as in different institutions and organizations, by seeing good practices in place. Within the scope of the project, education and information flow between researchers, veterinarians, breeders and shepherds will be provided, ensuring the economic benefits of animal welfare practices and contribution to safe food production. The dissemination of best farming practices and of guidelines for welfare assessment will be achieved also by the preparation of dedicated handbooks and by the production of interactive e-learning material. Thanks to the project, we will ensure that the welfare standards of the European Union member countries and candidate countries on animal farming are applied at the same level. At the end of the project, three seminars (Portugal, Italy and Turkey) will be organized in order to spread information about the project results.<< Results >>The project will produce and deliver handbooks, guides, videos and posters for different professionals (such as veterinarians, faculty students, agricultural engineers), Universities and Farmers Associations by expert project partners with the application-oriented information on animal welfare developed by researchers supported by the European Union. Intellectual outputs such as e-learning programs will be presented to students, farmers and technicians. On the basis of the European Union's food safety policy ""from field to table / from farm to fork"", farmers will produce healthy, reliable and efficient products. This will increase sustainability of animal production in both EU and candidate countries. In addition, by increasing their professional knowledge and skills, life, personal and professional development will be provided for the farmers and shepherds to be included in social life thanks to these outputs."

Although the profession of the shepherd is one of the professions of great importance for all countries' welfare, it has almost disappeared. While the number of small animals in Europe and in our country continues to increase, the enterprises have difficulty in finding shepherds to manage their flocks. For this reason, it decreases the number of animals in the enterprise.Despite the large number of sheep goats in our province, there are not enough shepherds to manage these flocks. There are shortcomings in the level of consciousness of our existing shepherds according to European standards.If we cannot make our shepherds more conscious, or if we cannot raise awareness of the shepherd profession, the yield of sheep livestock will decrease. Therefore, it will affect the national economy negatively. The aim of the project is to increase awareness of the shepherd profession and to increase the awareness of our existing shepherds to European standards and thus to increase the efficiency of sheep production, meat and dairy products.Objectives of the Project;1- Make Shepherds to recognize the importance of the sector.2- To increase the awareness of our shepherds about sheep and goat breeding.3- To increase the shepherds' welfare levels4- To increase animal welfare practices5- To understand and develop new approaches in sheep and goat farms6- Developing better strategies for better functioning of ovine enterprises7-To ensure production in accordance with European Animal Welfare CriteriaThe project will be carried out with 7 partners. Two short-term learning teaching training activities will be organized in the project. The first of these trainings will be held in Serbia and the second in Greece. The aim of these trainings is to adopt new approaches to vocational education and to reflect this method to their professional skills. After these trainings, the professional competencies, knowledge and skills of the participants will increase.Also; this project will provide participants with the opportunity to use these new learning methods in their own enterprises, institutions and organizations.Within the scope of the project, local training courses will be organized to increase awareness of the shepherd profession and to increase the awareness level by reaching shepherds in the wider masses.These courses will include the reshaping of the European shepherd profession with the criteria of European sheep breeding, local sheep goat breeds, life skills in nature, and different shepherd cultures.An information platform will be created that shepherds will always reach to solve the problem of being social and socially remote.All information that may be needed by the shepherds will be presented to the shepherds with intellectual outputs such as guidance and e-learning programs. Thus, shepherds will obtain healthier and productive products to increase their knowledge and skills in the professional sense. In addition, these outputs will enable life, personal and professional development to be included in social life.2 seminars will be organized with the participation of relevant stakeholders in Burdur and Greece. The aim of these seminars is to share and disseminate the generated intellectual outputs. In this way, shepherds will be encouraged to obtain better quality and productive products by using scientific methods instead of traditional methods of participants and participants.