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EURCAW-Pigs

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Quick access to welfare topics
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Tail biting and tail docking

dossier

Farrowing housing and management

dossier

Group-housing and mixing of sows

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Climate control and space allowance during transport

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Indicator factsheets

Welfare indicators addressing nine prioritized welfare areas are described. These can be used by inspectors to identify potential or existing welfare problems and to verify compliance with EU legislation.

For each indicator, a factsheet is developed which describes the underlying welfare concern, the legal requirements, and a suggested inspection and scoring method. The factsheets are available in English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch.

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Services and activities

EURCAW-Pigs provides scientific and technical knowledge to Competent Authorities of EU member states and their support bodies, for the official controls on pig welfare requirements laid down in the European pig welfare legislation.

The consortium between Friedrich Loeffler Institut (FLI, Germany), Aarhus University (AU, Denmark) and Wageningen Livestock Research (WLR, The Netherlands) was designated as the European Union Reference Centre for Animal Welfare for Pigs (EURCAW-Pigs), and started operating on 1 October 2018. EURCAW-Pigs' main areas of activity are described in detail in its Work Programme 2023-2024:

  • EURCAW-Pigs' scientific output consists of review documents and thematic factsheets, which summarize the latest scientific and practical knowledge for eight prioritized welfare topics.
  • For each of eight prioritized welfare topics a webdossier is built. The review documents and thematic factsheets developed by EURCAW-Pigs form the basis for the dossiers. Each dossier is a central source of technical information on a particular topic, with links to documents, video's etc..
  • Welfare indicators addressing eight prioritized welfare topics are also described. These indicators are described in Indicator factsheets, which describe the underlying welfare concern, the legal requirements, and a suggested inspection and scoring method.
  • With our Questions to EURCAW (Q2E) service, we provide technical and scientific advice on pig welfare. This Q2E service is open to Competent Authorities and government policy workers of EU Member States.
  • To facilitate training, EURCAW-Pigs offers suggestions for training and continuing education courses for inspectors.
  • All EURCAW-Pigs deliverables, as well as other relevant documents can be found in the Knowledge base.

    Inspiring example: Active stall fatteners

    Gabriele Mörixmann, a German Farmer, shows in the video her active stall for fatteners, which provides different adequate enrichments. She is housing pigs with intact tails. The stall also provides a darkened lying area and hospital pens. In standard housings pigs live mostly in barren environments. One risk factor for tail biting is inadequate environmental enrichment. Environmental enrichment should provide possibilities for performing exploration, foraging and comfort behaviour.
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    Adequate enrichment - Smart4Life

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