Animal welfare in organic pig farming
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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 farms in order to be able to communicate the status to customers, for example, or to set priorities for improvement measures. With the support of the NRW Chamber of Agriculture and the University of Kassel, the pig farmers assessed animal welfare indicators on their animals for three years as part of the EIP project "Animal welfare and animal health in organic pig farming". Reference values were defined to evaluate the findings. The evaluation of the animal welfare indicators collected on the farms and at the abattoir revealed indications of individual strengths and weaknesses; however, commonalities across the farms also became apparent.
In addition, the project partners jointly tested how farm managers can effectively use the self-monitoring required by 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 the animal welfare assessment) and
2: Experiences on animal welfare management with the help of self-monitoring can be found here
The project "Animal welfare and animal health in organic pig farming" took place within the framework of the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) and was funded 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: