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.
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.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.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.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.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
Featured
Podcast Pig Welfare in Action - #2: Michael Kakanis
Services and activities
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.