European mink welfare – based on WelFur

WelFur-Mink is an assessment system for assessing animal welfare in European mink farms. It is an on-farm assessment based on evaluation of different animal- and resource-based measurements. WelFur-Mink has been implemented on commercial farms since 2017, and is included in an animal welfare certification program of European mink skins. More than 95% of all European mink farms has signed up for the certification, which means that they will have a certification based on minimum three WelFur assessments (one per production season), and thereafter a yearly visit. The project will study the data from the WelFur assessments, and evaluate the mink welfare on production farms across Europe. The project will look into positive and negative effects on welfare, correlations between measurements and identify research area for mink welfare improvements.