Fourth annual EURCAW-Pigs MS officials meeting

In addition, two delegates from DG SANTE and seven staff members from EURCAW-Pigs attended the meeting. The meeting report is now available.

Priority topics

Hans Spoolder, Director and Co-ordinator of EURCAW-Pigs welcomed the participants and introduced the aims of the two-day programme. He also provided a brief introduction to EURCAW-pigs, highlighting the centres’ current achievements. This was followed by presentations on four priority topics that the delegates wanted to discuss:

• Topic 1: Disease and tail biting by Dr. Hanne Kongsted.
• Topic 2: Farrowing Housing by Prof. Lene Juul Pedersen.
• Topic 3: Finishing pig housing by mr. Herman Vermeer.
• Topic 4: Diets and feeding by Dr. Paul Bikker.

After the presentations, the topics were discussed further in three parallel sessions held in breakout rooms.

Work Programme 2025-2027

During the intermezzo sessions of the meeting, highlights from the new Work Programme for 2025-2027 were shared. This includes structured projects for the three-year work programme, which features a safe, protected platform for inspectors and policy workers to exchange and share ideas, known as the Community of Practice. The development of a digital support tool, a training platform for scoring tail lesions and tail length and the list of topics for technical and literature studies was also mentioned.

Introphoto: MS Officials meeting 2024 (©EURCAW-Pigs)