Special issue—organic pig production in Europe—animal health, welfare and production challenges

Abstract

Within Europe, organic pigs are produced in many different ways according to local environment, national standards and farm-specific facilities and preferences. However, all herds must adhere to the minimum standards for organic production set out in European Directives and, in consequence, face some common challenges in the management of health and welfare. Since the use of antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs is undesirable in organic pig production, the main focus of health management is on developing herd management strategies that prevent diseases and parasites. It is therefore important to understand the relationships between housing andmanagement practice and disease incidence in organic pig production and to convert this knowledge into tools that the individual farmer can use to improve livestock health on the farm. Between 2007 and 2010, a pan-European project on organic pig production focussed on the ‘Prevention of selected diseases and parasites in organic pig herds – by means of a HACCP based management and surveillance programme’ (COREPIG). The overall objective of the COREPIG project was to promote animal health and welfare in organic pig herds in Europe. The project had three main components: (i) to conduct an international knowledge synthesis to establish future needs for research into disease and parasite prevention in organic pig production; (ii) to estimate risk factors for selected diseases and parasites in European organic pig herds and (iii) to develop and evaluate a management and surveillance system for organic pig herds based on a hazard analysis, critical control points (HACCP) concept. More details of the project can be found at www.coreorganic. org/research/projects/corepig. This special issue of Organic Agriculture draws together the knowledge synthesis work carried out as part of the COREPIG project. The review papers presented here describe the diversity of current organic pig production systems and then analyse the available information on health and welfare issues associated with the following: (i) pregnant and lactating sows, (ii) suckling piglets, (iii) weaners and (iv) fattening pigs, to provide an important critical reflection on the current status of, and challenges facing, the pig production sector. In addition, experimental papers are included which report work carried out within the project on (v) the use of animal-based measures in the assessment of health and Org. Agr. (2014) 4:79–81 DOI 10.1007/s13165-014-0078-y