Abstract

Simple SummaryAnimal welfare is a major challenge that most European pig producers have been facing in recent decades to comply with EU legislation and to meet the increasing societal and market demand for pork produced in a sustainable way. Pig welfare is ruled in terms of minimum requirements for housing and management, but stakeholders have considered that both farm-level and animal-based indicators are fundamental to monitor animal welfare. Some of the welfare issues still affecting fattening pigs are the lack of space, bedding and manipulable material, and the continued practice of routine tail docking of pigs. Tail docking is applied routinely across most European countries to reduce the occurrence of severe tail biting lesions, despite its ban in the EU. An observational study on 51 pig farms in seven EU countries, aimed at investigating housing risk factors for the welfare of finishing pigs, showed that body weight and presence of bedded solid floored resting area (BED) identify three clusters of farms. The outcomes of this study confirmed that BED and larger availability of space per pig, above the minimum requirement of EU legislation, can limit the occurrence of lesions in pigs with undocked tails.Pig welfare is affected by housing conditions, the minimum requirements of which are set up by EU legislation. Animal and non-animal-based measures are useful indicators to investigate housing risk factors for pig welfare. An observational study on 51 pig farms in seven EU countries, aimed at investigating housing risk factors for the welfare of finishing pigs, showed body weight and presence of bedded solid floored resting area (BED) identifying three clusters of farms. Farms with BED were featured by no or limited tail docking, larger availability of manipulable materials and lower number of pigs per farm and per annual work unit. In these farms, less skin and ear lesions were found, compared with lean pigs of farms without BED, which were characterized by lower pig space allowance, mortality rate and medication cost. In farms without BED, heavy pigs were featured by more space per pig, more pigs per drinker and higher mortality rate and medication cost per pig, compared to lean pigs. No statistical difference in tail lesions was found between the three farm clusters, although tail docking was performed in all farms without BED and not performed on most farms with BED.

Highlights

  • Animal welfare is a major challenge that most European pig producers have been facing in recent decades to comply with EU legislation and to meet the increasing societal and market demand for pork produced in a sustainable way

  • A maximum number of fattening pigs per functioning drinker is recommended, depending on the type of drinker [21]: 12 pigs per nipple or 15 pigs per water bowl

  • Complete data from 51 fattening pig units were processed statistically, including: (1) economic/production data of visited farms, considered as potentially relevant for pig welfare; (2) animal welfare measures of up to 15 pig groups observed during farm visit, except for three Polish farms in which 16, 17 and 18 pig groups have been observed for more representativity

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Summary

Introduction

Animal welfare is a major challenge that most European pig producers have been facing in recent decades to comply with EU legislation and to meet the increasing societal and market demand for pork produced in a sustainable way. Resource-based measures are indirect measures of animal welfare because measuring the ability of the farming system (housing and management) to provide pigs with conditions to which the pigs can adapt without endangering their welfare; monitoring resource-based measures can be useful to identify risk factors that lead or may lead to actual welfare problems in pigs, which can be measured by animal-based measures. Monitoring both animal-based and non-animal-based measures is a promising approach to advice pig farmers to control and improve the welfare conditions of pigs. “Age of the animals, type of floor, feeding system, stocking density and environmental temperature can be useful to predict the appearance of a given welfare measure of ‘good housing’ on a farm” [6,7]

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