Award for study on pain perception in chicken embryos

Animal welfare research prize for TUM researchers

The Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) awards this prize of up to 30,000 euros every two years to outstanding research projects that replace animal experiments or fundamentally promote animal welfare. The study team led by Prof. Christine Baumgartner with her cooperation partners Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Fenzl and Prof. Benjamin Schusser took up the topic in the course of the controversial social debate about the killing of male chicken embryos that are discarded by the poultry industry.

In their study "Animal Welfare for the Egg," the researchers investigated chicken embryos' cardiovascular, neurophysiological, and behavioral responses to find out at what point they can feel pain. "Our results showed that chicken embryos show physiological, neuronal brain activity from the 13th day of hatching and that clear reactions to painful stimuli can be measured from the 15th day of hatching," explains Baumgartner. Politicians adopted this finding and implemented it in current animal welfare legislation.

Prof. Baumgartner emphasizes: "As researchers, we see it as our responsibility to continue to advance animal welfare through our work. On behalf of the study team, I would like to thank you for this honorable award." The Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at LMU, Prof. Reinhard Straubinger, emphasizes: "I am very proud that we can award this prize to scientific work that contributes to promoting animal welfare and animal protection."

The award ceremony will take place on 13 March 2025 in the Great Hall of the LMU.