During a one day seminar, October 1, 2011, organized by Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare, SCAW, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), researchers and experts in animal welfare, agricultural economics and inspectors in official control met in an interdisciplinary discussion about consequences of introducing animal based welfare assessment in legislation and official control.

The current more resource-based system is compared with the more animal-based system proposed by the Welfare Quality® (WQ) project. The report “Economic consequences of changing to a more animal based welfare assessment in legislation and official inspection” examines how a change to the latter affects i) the costs of official inspections for the inspection authorities, ii) the direct costs to farmers associated with being audited, and iii) the indirect costs and benefits to farmers associated with a change to a more animal-based welfare assessment.