Animal welfare – friendly Pig Housing Systems

A Learning Resource for teachers and trainers.

By Anne Algers, SLU

 

It is not an easy task to develop learning resources, which are in great demand from the stakeholders within pig and pork production and at the same time the result of ongoing scientific research in the Q-PorkChains project.

 

During the past six months we have been developing the learning resource "Animal Welfare-friendly Pig Housing Systems" and taking into consideration the small gap between demand and ongoing research within this learning resource. The first learning resource partly contains results from Module I:

 

"Citizens are increasingly reacting on animal welfare and environmental protection problems in pig production at the farm level, but this does not necessarily mean that such sustainability issues affect their choice in the shop"

 

and partly information from Module II:

 

"An inventory of 84 pork production systems identified in 23 European countries".

 

The learning resource consist of a number of videos which demonstrate the natural behavior of pigs and how intensive production systems can affect the behavior of the animals. It is evident that alternative production systems in many cases are related to inferior production results in comparison with conventional systems; however some animal welfare-friendly systems result in high production figures.

 

It is rewarding that teachers not participating in the Q-PorkChains from Brazil, Canada and Uganda have informed us that they make use of the learning resource in their teaching. Moreover a Portuguese version will soon be uploaded in benefit for Portuguese and Brazilian students.

 

The overall aim of the teaching and training activities in Q-PorkChains is to disseminate research through teaching, training and learning. Hopefully these learning resources will be relevant and integrated in teaching and training activities world-wide. Furthermore, it is desired that learning resources for the pig and pork sector developed outside the project will be shared within this learning platform.