Animal welfare management for pigs
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The objective of 14 organic pig farmers and their marketer Biofleisch NRW was to objectively assess animal welfare on their own farm, e.g. in order to be able to communicate the status to customers or to be able to set priorities with regard to improvement measures.With support from the NRW Chamber of Agriculture and the University of Kassel, the pig farmers assessed animal welfare indicators on their animals for 3 years in the EIP project "Animal welfare and animal health in organic pigs". Orientation values were established to evaluate the findings collected. The evaluation of the animal welfare indicators collected on the farms and at the slaughterhouse revealed indications of farm-specific strengths and weaknesses; however, commonalities across the farms also became apparent.
In addition, the project partners jointly tested how farm managers can at the same time themselves effectively use the self-monitoring required under §11 of the Animal Welfare Act to manage animal welfare on their farms.
1: The status of animal welfare on the farms (including the orientation values for animal welfare assessment) and
2: Experiences on animal welfare management using self-monitoring can be found here.
The project "Animal Welfare and Animal Health in Organic Pig Production" took place within the framework of the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) and was supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development with the participation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Here is a video about the project: