In mid-October 2025, Laura Whalin from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute travelled on a short-term scientific mission to visit Irene Camerlink at the Polish Academy of Sciences, near Warsaw in Poland. The primary goal of this STSM was to make progress on a LIFT manuscript from the Working Group 1 meeting that was held in Teramo, Italy in September 2025. This manuscript considers how positive animal welfare can bring new questions to the field of animal welfare. Draft pieces of the manuscript were prepared by the 14 co-authors prior to the STSM. The aim of the STSM was to get these draft pieces and all the comments into a coherent manuscript that would result in a version to submit in December 2025. Laura and Irene spent the full 5 days focused on writing and editing tasks, resulting in a rapid progress of the manuscript. Breaks in between to enjoy the golden Polish forests and to talk about other research topics complemented the writing. Visits to the pigs also gave a break from the computer work, and Laura got fully emerged in giving pigs scratches and belly rubs. The farm visits were also an opportunity to learn about training and testing methods for pigs (and generally across species) and how to provide opportunities for positive animal welfare in a research farm setting.
Watch the video of the STSM here https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wOpFKGIkJz8
Written by Laura Whalin
