News
Q2E on intestinal prolapse in finishing pigs
EURCAW-Pigs received a question on the consequences of intestinal prolapse in finishing pigs in relation to pain, and when separation of affected animals is needed.
EURCAW-Pigs
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.
Indicator factsheets
News
News
Two new podcasts Pig Welfare in Action
Pig Welfare in Action is a podcast series from EURCAW-Pigs. Episodes three and four are now online.
News
Nest building materials for sows during farrowing
In a short review, EURCAW-Pigs provides an overview of the motivation behind nest building behaviour of sows and its behavioural elements. The review also describes how lack of ability to nest build influences maternal behaviour and sow and piglet welfare.
News
African Swine Fever and roadmap to long tails central topics in Romanian roadshow
EURCAW-Pigs organizes physical meetings - roadshows - to exchange with animal welfare officials of EU Member States in 2023 and 2024. The fourth meeting was held in Sinaia, Romania on June 25 and 26.
Agenda
Meeting
Roadshow: EURCAW-Pigs is coming to you this Summer!
With our Roadshow, EURCAW-Pigs visits several EU Member States. This Summer, Romania (in June), Poland and Spain (both in September) will be visited. The roadshow meetings are in the language of the country where they are held.
Meeting
Fourth annual EURCAW-Pigs Competent Authority & Policy Meeting
The meeting will take place live in Brussels on October 7th and 8th, 2024. It provides an important opportunity for Member State officials to address obstacles and raise questions encountered in their daily work.
EURCAW-Pigs newsletter
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Featured
Inspector@work
Podcast Pig Welfare in Action - #2: Michael Kakanis
Top downloads
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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.