Rearing Undocked Pigs to Slaughter. Keelin O Driscoll

Transcription

1 Rearing Undocked Pigs to Slaughter Keelin O Driscoll

2 Tail biting Pigs are born with long tails which naturally curl Tail biting is a behavioural disorder which can affect pigs at all stages of production Minor injuries, to complete amputation Docking: within a few days of birth

3 Origins Slatted floors began to displace deep straw bedded systems First recognised but not a major problem 1950s 1960s Move from small, extensive labour dependent enterprises into large, intensive capital dependent production systems 1930s Tail biting surfaces and increases in all countries and in all housing systems

4 Proposed causes scientists! Taken from Farewelldock.eu (Bracke, 2010)

5 Proposed causes farmers.. Supposed causes

6 Context Council Directive 2008/120/EC before carrying out tail-docking other measures are to be taken to prevent tailbiting and other vices, taking into account environment and stocking densities. For that reason, inadequate environmental conditions or management systems are to be changed ensure that pigs have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation and manipulation activities, such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost, peat or a mixture of such ( enrichment material ), which does not compromise the health of those animals. March 2016: EU commission recommendation (2016/336) on application of the 2008 Directive on tail docking Staff working document developed and available to provide guidance

7 Current situation 99% of Irish pigs tail docked..similar figures in most European countries! 1. What are the concrete progress indicators for this action plan for the period ? 1. Action plans from all MS by end Jan 2018 a. existing compliance with EC law b. enforcement strategy c. the rate of tail-docking at national level d. recorded evidence at farm level of tail and ear injuries e. on-farm risk assessment based on the parameters listed in Recommendation (EU) 2016/336 (2) f. implementation of improvement measures on farm 2. What specific steps have been taken by individual Member States in this regard? MS submitted by end Jan 2018

8 Ideal enrichment characteristics Odorous (feed-like), chewable (bite able), investigable (rootable), manipulable (change location, appearance or structure) Must sustain interest do the pigs start to ignore it? Provide in small doses Accessible The lower the better Sufficient quantity Clean

9 Work to date.. 1. Survey 2. Compressed straw 3. Use of wood 1. Hard soft 2. Hard soft or toy

10 Long tails! August December 2016, 14 pigs/pen (48 pens) Weaner Toy Spruce Finisher Toy Spruce Toy Spruce Control (%CF) High fibre (%CF) Weaner Finisher

11 Outbreaks 20% of the pigs had fresh blood present on the tail Weaner Toy 8 12 Wood Finisher Toy Wood Toy Wood 26 outbreaks (45%) Hospitals, labour Control (%CF) High fibre (%CF) Weaner 8 12 Finisher 4 2

12 Outbreaks Move into finisher house 12 Teagasc Presentation Footer

13 Proof of concept study 96 pigs (12 pigs/pen), 8 pens Farrow to finish 13

14 8 Enrichment Categories x 4 items Properties (Van De Weerd et al., 2003) Category Rootable Durable Edible Presentation Texture Location 1. Easyfix Y Deform Chew Move Soft Floor 2. Root toy floor Y Deform Chew Move Soft Floor 3. Wood holder Y Destruct Ingest Attach Hard Floor 4. Wood hang N Destruct Ingest Suspend Hard Eye 5. Rack N Renew Ingest Attach Loose Eye 6. Fabric N Destruct Chew Suspend Soft Eye 7. Chewtoy hang N Deform Chew Suspend Soft Eye 8. Bucket N Renew Ingest Suspend Loose Eye 14

15 15

16 Frequency/pig/min Interaction with different categories by direct observation P<0.001 weaner finisher Categories 16

17 g/day/pig Different loose materials Grass Paper Straw Week 17

18 No outbreaks!!

19 Next step March 2018 present Enriched Control Optimum Moderate Optimum Moderate Reduced Reduced

20 Unfortunately.. 7 weeks post weaning for first batch Enriched Control Optimum Reduced

21 Where to next Finnish experience: Reduce no pigs/pen (0.9 m 2 finishers since 2012) Our pens = m 2 : 12 pigs = 0.84 m 2 Reduce competition at feeder Considered important factor for Finnish farmers (Valros et al., 2015) Breeding programmes The risk factors for tail biting are shared with other production diseases Potential to improve all aspects of pig producation!!

22 Take home message! Control of tail biting outbreaks in undocked pigs is extremely difficult under current commercial conditions Step-by-step process of determining which methods work Farm specific Looking like the ban on docking will enforced reasonably shortly post 2019? Must be addressed before it becomes a non-compliance issue!

23 Thanks! Teagasc advisory, technical and farm staff Amy Haigh Jen Yun Chou Aurelie Poidevin Constance Drique Dominique Grocott