Tag Archives: Announcement

PigWatch: Combining the ‘eye of the stockman’ and precision farming techniques to improve pig welfare

Pigs, ,

PigWatch is a new ANIHWA project.

Abstract:

Tail biting and aggression between finishing pigs are injurious behaviours affecting health, welfare and productivity. Solutions to these behavioural problems have been researched extensively and include tail docking, provision of environmental enrichment and increasing group stability. However, their effectiveness differs considerably between research labs and commercial practice, and between farms. It is obvious that farmers themselves play a key role in the effectiveness of these ?standard recommendations?. Experimenting and sharing their experiences with scientists and advisors will help to progress existing knowledge into farm-specific tailor-made solutions.

To facilitate the exchange of ideas, and to monitor the effects of these solutions, it is important that there is a common definition and description of injurious behaviours. Therefore, together with pig farmers, PigWatch aims to develop and apply animal based measures to avoid the pain, frustration and negative emotional states associated with tail biting and aggression in finishing pigs.

As a starting point the knowledge generated in FareWellDock and EU Welnet will be used, as well as national initiatives from the participating countries. PigWatch continues these developments at two levels: on-farm and at the abattoir.

The first WP develops animal based warning signals to identify and, if possible predict outbreaks of tail biting or fighting on farm. This will allow farmers to respond to imminent problems before they get out of hand. It includes precision farming techniques for detection of behavioural activity, and lesion detection based on presence of haemoglobin. Finally, it develops protocols for visual scoring of behavioural and other warning signals.

The second WP uses animal based measures to monitor tail biting and skin lesion incidence through routine automated data collection at the slaughter plant. The data will facilitate comparisons (bench marking) between farms, and monitoring the effects of solutions over time. The technology is based on analysis of digital images of live pigs and carcasses. This will be developed in a laboratory setting, validated on a slaughter house and tested in a commercial situation.

The pig farming community will be involved through the whole project, via Farmer Focus Groups which help to develop and disseminate the innovative techniques proposed. PigWatch aims to do this in the five participating countries: France, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands.

Principle investigator: Dr. Hans Spoolder, Wageningen UR Livestock Research (WLR), Netherlands

Project partners: INRA, FiBL, FBN, CEA LETI, DMRI

PigWatch website

European commission initiative to reduce tail docking and improve enrichment

Enrichment, Legal, Pigs, Policy, Tail docking, , ,

March 2016 the European Commission takes another step to reduce tail docking and improve enrichment for pigs as part of its animal welfare strategy.

Here are some relevant phrases from the announcement made on the Commission’s website:

The welfare of pigs is assured by Council Directive 2008/120/EC.

It applies to all categories of pig and lays down minimum standards for their protection:

  • Providing permanent access to …. materials for rooting and playing

COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION (EU) 2016/336 of 8 March 2016 on the application of Council Directive 2008/120/EC laying down minimum standards for the protection of pigs as regards measures to reduce the need for tail-docking.

STAFF WORKING DOCUMENTpdf(706 kB) on best practices with a view to the prevention of routine tail-docking and the provision of enrichment materials to pigs [SWD(2016)49 final] Following the adoption of the Commission Recommendation (EU) 2016/336 as regards measures to reduce the need for tail-docking, the staff working document provides useful tools to a harmonised understanding on how the provision of manipulable material and avoidance of tail-docking can be practically achieved.

The working document recognises that proper enrichment is important to help prevent tail biting, and hence the need for tail docking.

Specified as unsafe are synthetic ropes, tyres, dry wood, dry sawdust, poorly stored straw, untreated peat/mushroom compost and dirty objects.

Furthermore proper enrichment should have one or more of the following qualities:

  • Edible or feed-like (to eat or smell)
  • Chewable (to bite)
  • Investigable (to root)
  • Manipulable (to change its location, appearance or
    structure)

Provision should be

  • of sustainable interest
  • accessible
  • of sufficient quantity
  • clean
MATERIALS OF MARGINAL INTEREST
Materials of marginal interest should not be used as essential or single component of pig
enrichment materials. They can provide distraction but should not be considered as
fulfiling the essential needs of the pigs. Other materials should also be provided.
Materials of marginal interest include objects, such as hard plastic piping or chains.
Marginal materials may supplement suboptimal materials like stones or strawdust briquette.

Strategies to reduce the risk of tail biting in pigs managed on slatted floors

Enrichment, Pigs, Straw, Tail biting, Tail docking, , , , , ,

By Jen-Yun (author)

A 4-year project of “Strategies to reduce the risk of tail biting in pigs managed on slatted floors” has started. It is a collaboration between Teagasc, SRUC and the University of Edinburgh.
Below is a poster on the project presented in the Teagasc Pig Farmers’ Conference 2015.
The project will aim to explore ways to reduce tail-biting on slatted floor systems where straw is not available by environmental enrichment and nutritional strategies.
The enrichments used at the moment are compressed straw and different wood types.
Later the project will also investigate the effects of various lengths of tails, measures to predict tail-biting outbreaks and methods to interfere effectively.
The project will be supervised by Dr Keelin O’Driscoll (Teagasc), Dr Rick D’Eath (SRUC), Dr Dale Sandercock (SRUC), and Prof Natalie Waran (University of Edinburgh).
Dr Amy Haigh is the postdoctoral researcher working together on this project in Teagasc, and Dr Laura Boyle and Dr Edgar Garcia Manzanilla are also the collaborating researchers in Teagasc. I (Jen-Yun) am the PhD student on this project.
fwd uk jy291015 entail poster - JC 28102015c

Synergy for preventing damaging behaviour in group housed pigs and chickens (GroupHouseNet)

Meeting, Pigs, Tail biting, , ,

CA COST Action CA15134

Description are provided by the Actions directly via e-COST.

The GroupHouseNet aim is to provide the European livestock industry with innovations in breeding and management for pigs and poultry that are needed for a successful transition to large group housing systems without necessitating painful tail docking and beak trimming. Allowing the animals greater opportunities to display their species-specific behaviour while avoiding the routine use of painful procedures, group housing of unmutilated animals sits at the core of the new animal welfare paradigm driven by consumer demand. Group housing is associated with increased risks of damaging behaviours among the animals, such as feather pecking, aggression and cannibalism in laying hens and tail biting, bellynosing, excessive aggression and cannibalism in pigs. Recent research suggests the key to reducing the incidence of these behaviours lies in refining and applying methods of genetic selection, and developing husbandry innovations that improve early and later life conditions – which is exactly what GroupHouseNet will use the COST Action framework and tools to do. GroupHouseNet brings together researchers and industrial partners dealing with animal breeding and genetics, animal nutrition, epidemiology, engineering, animal behaviour and welfare, epigenetics, immunology, (neuro)physiology, economics and ethics. To strengthen the scientific and technological basis in these areas the Action will facilitate knowledge sharing, creation and application in pigs and laying hens in both experimental and commercial environments. The activities will be conducted in an open, output-oriented transnational, multisectorial, and multidisciplinary research and development network emphasising COST Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy.

Proposer of the action: Prof Andrew Janczak
(action arising in part from the FareWellDock project).
 

Germany to improve cooperation on tail biting research

Pigs, Tail biting, Tail docking, , ,

By Sabine Dippel

As a follow-up to the German tail biting research review, German federal research institutions are currently making arrangements for better cooperation and coordination of their tail biting research. Representatives agreed to update an existing lesion scoring format from 2011 in such a way that it can be used to score tail and ear lesions in basic research as well as on-farm projects. In addition, a web-based database for tail biting experiments and projects will be launched in 2016 in order to facilitate knowledge exchange. The database will be based at the Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry (ITT) within the German Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI).

The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) also recognised the great importance of tail biting and other pig topics, and granted a new permanent pig welfare research position at ITT for 2016.
fwd 191215 pixabay piglets tails

5th FareWellDock meeting

Meeting,

Today, Oct 7 2015, FareWellDock is having its 5th (3rd videoconference) meeting to discuss project progress.

As far as communication is concerned we are doing fine. We now have about 5 scientific papers, 16 conference contributions, 6 farm magazine articles, 1 training, 6 internet contributions (besides the FareWellDock website) and 1 radio performance (see project overview). In addition, the FareWellDock website lists 37 posts. Twelve of these are new since our last meeting in Paris. Also, most partners are present on our partner page.

At the meeting we discuss the report and factsheet for end-users on how to deal with tail biting and tail docking. As part of that discussion we also talk briefly about the HENNOVATION project. In that project a webtool is being developed providing extension information about welfare problems like featherpecking, in a structured and flexible way. It includes the possibility to set up a forum for end-users to discuss innovations, and wiki pages to aggregate collective knowledge (see the Beta version). This is not feasible within the FareWellDock project, but it is good to learn about cross-disciplinary activities.

Videoconference meeting

Videoconference meeting Oct 7, 2015

Soundbites Pig Welfare Conference: 1. Introduction

Enrichment, Legal, Meeting, Pigs, Policy, Straw, , , , ,

On 29 – 30 April 2015 Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Dan Jørgensen hosted an international conference “Improving Pig Welfare – what are the ways forward?“.

During the two-day conference, top academics, experts and political stakeholders from around the world debated and worked to prepare the way forward in improving pig welfare in Europe and ultimately in the world. Ministers from the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden participated.

Below you find ‘soundbites’ from the conference, all more or less related to the subjects of study in the FareWellDock project. This is part 1. Parts 2-5 are other blog posts on this website.

It is truly remarkable that we have been able to gather almost four hundred participants to discuss the ways forward for pig welfare; some are joining us from as far away as the state of Iowa, USA, and Australia
Dan Jørgensen, Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries

fwd PWConf DK Minists IMG_1817c
Left to right: Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, DK. Sharon Dijksma, Minister for Agriculture, NL. Sven-Erik Bucht, Minister for Rural Affairs, SE. Christian Schmidt, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, DE.

At the conference a position paper was signed by
Christian Schmidt, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, DE
Sven-Erik Bucht, Minister for Rural Affairs, SE
Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, DK
Sharon Dijksma, Minister for Agriculture, NL

The position paper, final version(PDF)

Video of signing

Dan Jørgensen
Dan Jørgensen, Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries

Meeting Paris April 2015

Meeting

The third meeting of the FareWellDock project took place on the 8th and 9th April 2015 in Paris (France) with 16 participants. Two external participants having scientific interest in tail docking and/or biting were also invited for the first day. During that day, we informed each other on progress on the first half of the project within each of the three Work Packages. When results were available, they were discussed. Schedule for new or ongoing experiments as well as plans for data analyses during the upcoming 18 months were also discussed. External participants (Nanda Ursinus from university of Wageningen, NL and Keelin O´Driscoll from Teagasc, Ireland) presented their own research projects (see Nanda’s contribution and Keelin’s) and discussed the possibilities to interact further with partners from the FareWellDock project. On the second day of the meeting, content and schedule for the mid-term report, update of the list of participants, dates, location and content of the next meetings were discussed. In order to communicate the results of the project to the pig industry, the possibility to organize a stakeholder meeting at the end of the project was thoroughly discussed. At the end of the present meeting, the participants split into small groups to discuss in details topics that needed new input: a) the screening method regarding the use of straw to fulfil behavioural needs of pigs, b) the assessment of pain and the use of immune markers, c) the use of AMI sensors for assessing pig behaviour, the use of tear staining to assess stress in pigs in relation to tail biting, d) the analysis of behavioural sequences leading to tail biting. The 2-days meeting was intensive and fruitful, and allowed good sharing of expertise and ideas between partners of the six countries. The first half of the project already led to the production of a lot of data, fully in accordance with the plans and even beyond. To continue the discussion between participants, a video meeting will be held on the 7th October 2015 and a physical meeting (last meeting) will be organized in November 2016 in Denmark.

Meeting in Paris,
FareWellDock meeting in Paris, April 2015

Meeting in Paris

 

Conference: Improving pig welfare

Meeting, Pigs, Tail biting,

A a two-day international conference focusing on pig welfare will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from the 29th to the 30th of April 2015 – and is open to all with an interest in the field of animal welfare, production and research.
The conference is organized by the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and The Danish Centre for Animal Welfare (DCAW).
Entitled “Improving pig welfare – what are the ways forward?”, the conference will bring together scientists and specialists who will present recent knowledge on animal welfare with the main focus on pigs.
In addition the conference will facilitate discussions on the ways forward for pig welfare in several workshops and a panel discussion where stakeholders from different organizations will be brought together.

The conference topics include:

  • Recent knowledge on tail docking and castration
  • Recent knowledge on piglet and sow mortality
  • Animal welfare in the organic pig production
  • Pig welfare and sustainability
  • Use of animal welfare indicators to improve animal welfare
  • The ability of market forces to drive animal welfare improvements
  • The role of education in improving animal welfare

Important dates:

Conference website www.IPWC2015.dk opens December 15th 2014
Conference registration on the website from December 15th 2014
Deadline for registration: January 30th 2015
Deadline for poster abstract submission: February 25th 2015

Read more about the conference

Meeting October 2014

Meeting,

The yearly FareWellDock meeting was held on October 9th 2014 using video conferencing between participants from Finland (Anna Valros, Mari Heinonen, Camilla Munsterhjelm), the UK (Sandra Edwards, Dale Sandercock, Pierpaolo Di Giminiani), France (Armelle Prunier, Celine Tallet), Denmark (Lene Juul Pedersen, Margit Bak Jensen, Mette Herskin), The Netherlands (Marc Bracke), Sweden (Stefan Gunnarsson, Rebecka Westin), and Norway (Andrew M Janczak, Janicke Nordgreen, Anastasija Popova, Frida Aae). Researchers in Work Package 1 shared updates on the characterization of pig tail caudal nerves and the histopathology of traumatic neuromas in docked pig tails, as well as activities aimed at testing effects of tail docking with or without analgesia on neural transmission, endocrine responses, and behaviour and facial expressions. Work Package 2 researchers summarized studies testing effects of providing straw on exploratory and tail directed behaviour, use of remote sensors for animal monitoring, and the efficacy of measures to prevent tail biting. For Work Package 3 updates were given on relationships between health and the risk of tail biting outbreaks. Progression in research and dissemination was summarized relative to project milestones and deliverables and plans were made for the next meeting to be held in Paris in April 2014. The meeting was productive and indicated good work progression in the enthusiastic project team.