Clinical audits have been used in human healthcare for a long time, however, their use in the livestock sector is low, with very few examples in the literature. By using clinical audits to assess treatment procedures and outcomes, evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) guidance can be drawn up to influence medication selection and usage. One of the key benefits of this is to help reduce antibiotic over-prescription and, influence the category of an antibiotic selected (using the European Medicines Agency categorisation of antibiotics).This case study will use an ovine caesarean section and assisted vaginal delivery (AVD) clinical audit (Charles and Stockton, 2022) as a case example. This case will also reference unpublished data assessing the impact of the 2022 audit recommendations which was discussed at the Sheep Veterinary Society Conference, 2023 (Charles, 2023b).[-]

For many years, the supply chain managers of large supermarkets and restaurant corporations have been conducting animal welfare audits of farms and slaughter plants. Some programs have been more effective than others. This case history describes the early implementation of a highly effective program for auditing animal welfare in slaughter plants. The lessons learned from the implementation of this program in 1999 are still relevant today. There were four major factors that made this welfare auditing program effective. They were: (1) corporate management became motivated to improve conditions in the slaughter plants after they visited plants that had severe animal welfare problems, (2) the welfare standards used to audit the beef and pork plants were simple and easy to understand. They provided clear guidance on conditions that would result in a failed audit, (3) more than one commercial company enforced the same standards at the numerous slaughter plants, and (4) there was an emphasis on repairing existing facilities and improving management instead of buying lots of expensive new equipment. There were only 3 plants out of 75 where expensive renovations were required. This case history will also discuss how veterinarians and management consultants can help food animal supply chain managers implement effective programs that will improve animal welfare. Practical commercial animal welfare assessments will need to be simpler than assessments used for research.[-]