EFSA's Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) has launched an online public consultation on its draft scientific report on practice of harvesting feathers from live geese for down production.

The consultation aims to gather the widest range of views to finalise the work and provide the most up-to-date and comprehensive scientific advice to EU decision makers. This second phase of the consultation was preceded by a technical meeting with EU Member States and stakeholders in May 2010.

Interested parties are invited to submit written comments by 2 August 2010 at 12:00hr. EFSA will consider exclusively input using the electronic template provided with the documents to submit comments and refer to the line and page numbers. Comments submitted by e-mail or by post cannot be taken into account and that a submission will not be considered if it is:

• submitted after the deadline set out in the call
• presented in any form other than what is provided for in the instructions and template
• not related to the content of the document
• contains complaints against institutions, personal accusations, irrelevant or offensive statements or material, or
• is related to policy or risk management aspects, which is out of the scope of EFSA's activity.

EFSA will assess all comments from interested parties, which are submitted in line with the criteria above. After completion of the public consultation, the EFSA AHAW Panel will consider relevant comments in finalising the report due by the end of 2010. In addition, a technical report on the public consultation will be published.

To submit comments, please click here.