Health and welfare of organic pigs in Europe assessed with animal-based parameters
2014
Dippel, Sabine | Leeb, Christine | Bochicchio, Davide | Bonde, Marianne | Dietze, Klaas | Gunnarsson, Stefan | Lindgren, Kristina | Sundrum, Albert | Wiberg, Sofia | Winckler, Christoph | Prunier, Armelle | Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry (ITT) ; Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) | Division of livestock sciences, Department of sustainable agricultural systems ; Universität für Bodenkultur Wien = University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences [Vienne, Autriche] (BOKU) | Research Unit of Swine Husbandry (CRA-SUI) ; Agricultural Research Council (CRA) | Department of Animal Science ; Aarhus University [Aarhus] | Centre of Development for Outdoor Livestock Production | Animal Production and Health Division (NSA) ; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [France] (FAO) ; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Rome, Italie] (FAO)-Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Rome, Italie] (FAO) | Department of Animal Nutrition and Animal Health ; University of Kassel | Department of Animal Environment and Health ; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) | Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering | Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage [Rennes] (PEGASE) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST | ERA-net CORE ; COREPIG
Organic pig farming aims at maintaining a high health and welfare state of the animals through appropriate housing, management and feeding. Better knowledge of health and welfare indicators should help to identify critical points and hence to improve health and welfare as well as performance of organic pigs. This paper describes the health and welfare of organic pigs from 101 farms across six EU countries, using selected animal-based parameters from the Welfare Quality® protocol. Parameters were collected in sows, suckling and weaned piglets in 3 to 20 farms per country. Their assessment was trained before farm visits and inter-observer agreement determined after farm visits. The most prevalent problems identified in sows were thinness (median farm prevalence 18.8 %, range 0–81.0), injuries on the anterior part of the body (15.5 %, 0–66.7), injuries on hind part of body (7.9 %, 0–50), obesity (4.9 %, 0–50.0) and vulva lesions (3.5 %, 0–42.9). In suckling piglets, the median prevalence in terms of groups affected per farm was 0 % for all parameters but ‘> 50 % dirty piglets in group’, for which it was 10 %. Farm prevalence ranged from 0 to 100 % for ‘≥ 1 lame piglet in group’, presence of diarrhoea, and ‘> 50 % dirty piglets in group’. In weaned piglets, the median prevalence in terms of groups affected per farm was 0 % with a range of 0 to 100 % for all parameters. Based on the collected data, body condition, skin and vulva lesions in sows, lameness, diarrhoea and respiratory problems in piglets could be used as management and welfare indicators, with good potential for enhancement through farm improvement schemes like herd health planning. However, some definitions could be improved, especially lameness, diarrhoea and respiratory problems in piglets.
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