Process required to maintain NFACC recognition of an animal care assessment program that has been changed

Animal care assessment programs will change over time. This mechanism enables NFACC to continue to recognize programs as they evolve and is for organizations that have already developed an animal care assessment program following NFACC’s ACAF.

The decision to continue recognizing a program will follow from a commodity group providing NFACC with the necessary information to determine that the ACAF principles have been followed. This process will be overseen by the NFACC General Manager and Executive with the outcomes brought forward for NFACC Board approval. This might include a presentation by the commodity association as an opportunity to share information about the program and its evolution.

Organizations need to:

  • Summarize the changes made to the animal care assessment program (referring to the program originally recognized by NFACC).
  • Provide evidence that the procedural requirements of the ACAF have been followed.

An ACAF Standard Reporting Form for maintaining NFACC recognition will be completed. In particular, do changes to the program continue to meet the following procedural requirements of the ACAF:

  • Are all Code requirements applicable to the relevant stage of production evaluated within the program as mandatory Critical Areas of Management?
  • Does the program utilize all three types of assessment measures (animal- or outcome-based; input- or resource-based; and management-based)?
  • Are the assessment measures practical, and, where possible, explain to program participants how the measures are linked to improved welfare, better productivity or other benefits? Yes/No
  • Are performance targets or critical levels given within a Code Requirement included in the program?
  • Have sampling procedures been established for all aspects of the assessment? (Sampling procedures might include number of pens to assess for resource based measures or number of animals to observe for animal based measures).

If any of the answers to the bullets above are “no” an explanation/justification is required. This includes acceptance of these changes by the stakeholder groups that need to be involved in the program’s development. Refer to www.nfacc.ca/resources/assessment/animal_care_assessment_framework.pdf (pgs. 7 & 8) for a list of the stakeholder groups that need to be meaningfully consulted.

The commodity group also needs to confirm if the original Program Development Team was involved in making program edits. If not, which individuals/groups were involved/not involved?

If not directly involved, how were all necessary stakeholder groups meaningfully consulted and do they support the content of the edits to the animal care assessment program?

It is recommended that, ideally, the original committee should be reconvened via meeting or teleconference as they will have additional context from which to understand the changes made. Where this is not possible, replacements from the representative stakeholder groups should be brought in. Commodity groups need to provide notice of support from requisite stakeholder groups.

If applicable, the Supplementary Information and Resources section of Standard Reporting Form should also be completed.

The NFACC General Manager, under the guidance of the Executive, confirms all information provided by the commodity group such that a recommendation can be made to the Board.