Animal category: Pigs

Report presenting Eurogroup for Animals's vision for the future of agriculture by 2050. It includes the reversal of the plant/animal protein ratio in human food; a net decrease in the number of farm animals; a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the food industry; improved public health; and greater consideration for the feelings of animals.

Report showing that European countries with the lowest antibiotic use are also those with the highest minimum legal standards for animal welfare, reducing the routine systematic use of antibiotics to a minimum, with 90% of antibiotics administered on an individual basis. It makes recommendations for policy, reduction targets, and animal husbandry practices  that can reduce antibiotic use in pig and poultry production.

Scientific review of the different forms of cognitive enrichment that have been tested for laboratory, farm and zoo animals. It identifies research needs and proposes new indicators for testing.

Scientific review of the various stress biomarkers most commonly used in animal husbandry and the factors that influence their expression. The focus is on the use of meat biomarkers, which would allow the non-invasive prediction of meat quality, but also on animal stress before slaughter.

Information note from eight European Union countries, including France, opposing the ban on the transport of live animals from member countries. The reasons given are 1. that this would favour imports from third countries with less stringent animal welfare standards, and 2. the difficulty of maintaining the cold chain when transporting meat. The eight countries recommend that enforcement of EU legislation should be strengthened and EU expertise should be shared with third countries to improve animal welfare during transport.

Answer to a question on the Ministry's plans to encourage alternatives to pig castration and whether it intends to end this practice.

Scientific paper developing computer visualization methods for the early detection of tail biting in pigs. The authors use a convolutional neural network to extract spatial data, combined with secondary networks to take account of temporal data.

Systematic review of the literature to identify animal-based and management-based indicators that could be influenced by changes in handling procedures for feeder pigs on the day of slaughter. Factors with the highest impact on pig welfare were the calmness of operators when handling animals, reduction of environmental noise and transport time, and control of stunning effectiveness.

Report describing the current status of U.S. policies related to practices that may impact farm animal welfare, the extent of their implementation and geographic coverage, and the legal environment and challenges these policies have faced.

Scientific article identifying 6 named categories and one general category of risk factors for lesions on the faces of piglets and on sow teats when no piglet teeth resection has been carried out.They are: presence or absence of teeth resection; housing system; litter size; piglet management; environmental enrichment; milk production; and other piglet management practices.