EURCAW-Pigs

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.

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 2021-2022:

• 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.