Pigs

There are 13.5 million breeding sowsin the EU-27 producing 22 million tonnes of pig meat from just over 248 million finished pigs (Eurostat, 2010). Germany is by far the largest producer, followed by Spain (Figure 1).

Animal welfare is an increasingly important factor in the purchasing decisions of consumers (Napolitano et al., 2010), sustained despite the prevailing recession (IGD, 2011). Recent surveys indicated almost half of UK consumers surveyed rated animal welfare as either ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ (IGD, 2011), whilst 76% (Defra, 2011) and 85% (Clonan et al., 2010) rated welfare as ‘an important’ issue. In fact, farm animal welfare was rated the single most important sustainability related food issue for British consumers (IGD, 2011; Defra, 2011), above health or safety concerns. Over 70% of U.S citizens surveyed also reported ‘concern’ forfarm animal welfare (Norwood and Lusk, 2011a). Pigs were identified amongst the three animal systems most in need of animal welfare improvements by EU citizens (European Commission, 2005).

Full technical information sheet. Suitable for readers with some prior knowledge or wanting to learn about the topic in more detail. Covering legislative requirements, key features of group housing systems, suggested layouts, housing and feeding systems in commercial use, welfare assessment and Compassion’s recommendations.

Commercial farrowing systems predominantly operate indoor confinement crates or outdoor arks, which represent the two extremes of sow restraint, substrate provision and environmental control. Both systems perform similarly with regards to mortality of piglets born alive, averaging 12.30% and 12.85%, respectively (BPEX, 2009). Approximately 92% of sows in 14 European countries were farrowing in crates by the late 1990’s (Hendriks et al., 1998); the system raises welfare issues for both sows and piglets, and there is growing pressure for discontinuing its use (RSPCA, 2011; CIWF 2006). Realistic estimates suggest 25% the UK national herd are kept outdoors (BPEX, 2008), whereas in France, less than 1% of pig production is outdoors (Ifip, 2011). Indoor, commercially viable alternatives to the confinement crate are required. Despite many years of research into alternative farrowing systems, and some success with Schmid pens (Weber et al., 2007), clear

Recommendations for commercially viable alternatives have been limited, until recently (Baxter et al., 2011; Edwards and Baxter, 2010).

Around 80% of male piglets in the EU are castrated (EFSA, 2004), equating to approximately 100 million piglets each year, mostly without anaesthetics or analgesics (Fedriksen et al., 2009). The primary reason for castrating male piglets is to reduce boar taint (Prunier et al., 2005), although important secondary benefits include reduced aggression and sexual behaviours such as mounting, that increase with the onset of puberty in entire males (Zamaratskaia et al., 2009). Aggression and sexual behaviours increase the risks of injury to pigs, such as fight lesions and lameness (Fabrega et al., 2010; Rydhmer et al., 2010) and thus convey a reduction in welfare (FVE, 2009). There are also associated increased risks to stockpeople.

Tail biting in pigs is a problem of modern pig production and can occur at all stages in the production cycle. It leads to tail damage of varying severity (see Hunter et al., 1999) and can include swelling and infection, which travels up the spinal cord causing abscessesin the lungs, and pyaemia (a type of septicaemia causing widespread abscessesin the organs (see Schroder-Pedersen and Simonsen, 2001 for full details). Tail biting is therefore a serious welfare issue. In order to reduce the risk of tail biting in modern pig production systems, producers dock the tails of pigs, either with sidecutting pliers or gasheated cautery clippers. Tail docking does not eliminate tail biting however, and is a procedure that causes acute and transient pain, with potential long term chronic discomfort.

Piglets are born with eight sharp needle teeth which are either cut just above the gum-line (with sharp side cutter pliers) or the tip is ground (with a rotating grindstone), shortly after birth. Teeth clipping and grinding are collectively known as tooth resection, practiced to prevent damage to sows’ udders and facial fighting lesions of piglets during lactation. Routine tooth resection is not permitted under EU legislation (Commission Directive 2001/93/EC) and teeth-clipping (as opposed to teeth grinding) is not permitted in some countries, such as Germany, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland.