Real Welfare
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REAL WELFARE - BPEX Welfare Outcomes Project
What is the aim?
An industry-led project to develop real welfare measures based on science – from the perspective of the pig itself.
Welfare outcomes measures will give all pig producers:
- credible benchmarks for real pig welfare that work for all types of production system
- an objective means of demonstrating they are good ‘welfarists’, instead of being judged on type or size of unit or the perception that one production system is always better than another
- a valuable tool to help inform decisions on farm: improved pig management = more productive pigs = more profitable business
Why?
Policy makers, animal welfare lobby groups and retailers are making ever-greater demands which are frequently ill-informed.
The pig industry needs strong science-based evidence to influence the welfare debate.
Current challenges include:
- Campaigns by animal rights organisations
- A new Farm Animal Welfare Council ‘Opinion’ report and Defra legislative interest in mutilations and enrichment in finishing pigs
- Increased retailer interest in developing their own ‘welfare standards’
- Interest in a European welfare labelling system
How?
BPEX and the University of Bristol, working closely with the RSPCA, have completed a pilot project and identified five meaningful welfare measures for finishing pigs:
- lameness
- tail lesions
- body lesions
- hospitalisation
- enrichment use
The next stage is to work with pig vets and producers on 360 farms to evaluate welfare and establish benchmark values for finishing pigs in straw and non-straw systems and for indoor and outdoor breeding sow systems.