Admission Announcement
JNU initiated an animal welfare coursework programme at NIAW on 01 Nov., 2016, with a 4-week's course on Management and Ethical use of Laboratory Animals in Research.
The University now announces admission for a limited number of candidates to selected Certificate Courses in a new format. These courses are of 2-week's duration and will start from Monday of a week and run for 11 contact days to terminate on Friday, of the following week.
Each coursework will typically contain :
(a) 11 days of trainer/teacher contact;
(b) 60 hours of teaching (classroom + practicals);
(c) field visits for 1 day;
(d) 1-day group discussion tutorial on topics to be given to each group.
Minimum Qualifications
The minimum qualification for participation varies with the course on offer. This is indicated at the beginning of every listing of coursework details, as 'Eligibility'
What will the coursework achieve ?
It will address welfare of animals and the need for treating animals in a manner which is ethical. Concern of people for welfare of animals has been researched in a paper in 1997 by D. Fraser and co-workers titled 'A scientific conception of animal welfare that reflects ethical concerns'. Published in the journal Animal Welfare, this research qualifies animal welfare by asking three simple questions; (a) is the animal functioning normally; 2) is the animal suffering and 3) is the animal living a life, as close to its life in the natural habitat. About 15% of the world population depend on animals for their livelihood, mostly in urban and semi-urban settings. Being living beings with consciousness and a great amount of intelligence and understanding as well, humans who are in contact with animals get into a situation of responsibility towards them. The animal welfare coursework by JNU-NIAW will argue and promote a strategy, an inexplicable connection between welfare of animals and welfare of humans who are in contact with them.
Positives from ethical treatment of animals
In addition to the fact that animals are sentient (living and conscious) beings, who should be treated likewise, there are positives to take home from ethical treatment of animals. For example, in milk producing dairy animals, there is glaring research evidence that good nutrition at the developmental stage of the life of an animal has critical consequences to its physiological functions later in life. This includes improvement in milk production, for instance, as well as better growth, health and wellbeing, which reduces production costs (of milk, in the long run), and result in production animals, more profitable on account of enhanced production capacity and disease free longevity. A research paper by A. Bach and J. Ahedo in 2008, titled 'Record keeping and economics of dairy heifers', published in the journal Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice, records such findings. The animal welfare coursework undertaken by JNU-NIAW will address issues like this and much more, in an intensive manner, to be delivered by experts in the field.
