1. Actions and research rearing Pigs with intact tails
Geert van der Peet, Henk van de Velde
Dublin, 4 – 6 oct 2016
Geert van der Peet is not able to be here in Dublin. He asked me tot give this lecture. Geert is projectleader of the tail project in the Netherlands. When there are questions on the research he is willing to answer them.
In this presentation I will tell you about:
The declaration of Dalfsen
The results of the experiments till now
The specific questions of Desmond about the Dutch practical sitiation.

2. Declaration of Dalfsen
Road map towards
curly tails
The declaration of Dalfsen contains the roadmap towards curly tails. This is signed june 2013 by our Minister, a representative for the Pigfarmers and the director of the anmial protection organisation in the Netherlands

3. The Dutch approach Working group Curly tails 2012-2013
Many stakeholders involved:
Pig farmers organizations
Breeding company
Feeding company
Animal protection society
Veterinary society
Meat company
Government
Researchers
The declaration is a cooperation of the here mentioned organisations

4. Discussion scientific knowledge per factor
What is scientifically known about tail biting in relation to:
Genetics
Economic consequences
Feeding
Health
Enrichment materials (Welfare)
Indoor climate
In 2013 we have started by inviting the scientists of the different topigs. They gave a presentation what in literature is known about tailbiting in relation to these topigs. I.e we know that tailbiting is a multifactorial problem. The results are published in a Dutch report

5. Declaration of Dalfsen: ambition
Phase out tail docking step by step;
In the long run abolish tail docking completely when it can be done in a responsible way Key areas:
Gradually longer tails
Focus on tail biting
New pig production systems
Assistance to pig farmers experimenting with long tails
The ambition is to phase out tail docking step by step.Therefore in the declaration we work with a roadmap. Important is we do it carefully: we don’t want any problems with animal wellfare or economic problems for the pigfarmer. This results in the mentioned key areas.

6. Road map Demonstration project In a safe environment at VIC Sterksel
In an intensive system as in practice
Developing a toolbox (safety net)
Effective curative (practical) measures
3. Exchanging knowledge and experiences
Network of farmers
4. Perspective of market concepts long tails?
Damage on the tail can lead to health problems and with that worse production, extra costs for treatment by the vet, and further secundary damage on the carcass due to higher risk on infections. That is the reason to work step by step: demonstrating ‘keeping pigs with intact tails’, developing a toolbox, working with a network en searcing for perspectives of market concepts long tails

7. Findings demonstration: base line
Tail biting is a multifactorial problem
Importance of resilience of the animal in order:
How to keep the bucket empty:
We show the cause of biting with a bucket. Animals behave normally untill one of the factors is too much: the bucket runs over, falls and we have an outbreak of tailbiting. The challange is to keep the bucket as empty as possible with good good housing conditions and a high resilience of the animal.

8. Conclusions Demo Steps were made, but we’re not there yet!
Outbreaks severely compromised animal welfare
Early signals were not always present or noticed
There is no golden standard, every case can be different: the farmer/caretaker is the key
Protocols and safety net should be further developed using scientific knowledge as well as practical experiences
In the demo we learned very much. Important is that there is no golden standard: every farm and farmer is different. Despite the careful demonstration there were outbreaks of tailbiting which we not always noticed. Still we went to the next step experimenting in practice with a network of pigfarmers

9. Practice network
Motivation for participation is reducing tail biting on farms with docked and farms with intact tails
Started with 8 pig farmers
International cooperation on “SchwIP”: analysing farms on critical factors for tail biting
Each farmer made his own Action Plan
Within a few months increase of participants to around 20 pig farmers
Even with docked tails, tailbiting is a problem. That was also the motivation of the pigfarmers to start with the network. In this we work together with Germany by using SchwIP (a kind of checklist to determine the critical factors for tailbiting on a farm) and developing it for specific the Dutch situation and for piglets and sows as well.
We have farmers having pigs with docked tails: sows and fattening pigs; further we have an organic farmer having pigs with intact tails.
I think the motivation of the pigfarmers to work on stopping taildocking is the biggest challenge in the Netherlands. Despite this, we are upgrading with a bigger groep of farmers and especially together with the veterenarians and the advisors of the farmer

10. Reference over EU counties
(a) the enrichment materials provided;
(b) cleanliness;
(c) thermal comfort and air quality;
(d) health status;
(e) competition for food and space;
(f) diet
Present situation and developments
With this I want to say more about the questions Desmond asked and the situation in the Netherlands. I want to do this by telling about the present situation and the new developments I see.

11. enrichment materials provided
Demo: practical problems with some materials (ie straw)
Practice: most farmers use a chain including a ball
Handful of roughage? Mostly crude fibres in pellets
Developments “KDV”:
Lucerne floorfeeding
Lucerne paid by slaughterhouse
In practice most farmers use a chain including a ball; norouphage like straw is used. In the demo in the beginning we had problems with straw (to empty manure cellars). Later we were more succesfull with Lucerne.
A positive result is ‘KDV’ where the slaugherhouse ‘Westfort’ pays for the lucerne so farmers uses it. In total 350 farmers are working within KDV and from scepsis now most farmers are enthousiastic : giving some lucerne gave a better controll and showed earlier health or welfare problems

12. Cleanliness Mostly used ‘All in all out’ cleaning and disinfecting
Developments:
Probiotica
Acid in water
Innovation housing systems: ‘Hy Care®’ for sows and fattening pigs
Mostly all in all out is used and in beween the stables are cleaned and desinfected.
New developments for higher health are the use of probiotica or acid in the drinking water; further a total new housing system for sows (picture) and fattening pigs: Hy Care. Motivation is the necessary reduction of antibiotic use.

13. Thermal comfort and air quality
Low priority in R&D last 20 years
Attention and R&D on outgoing air (ammonia, odour)
Problems in spring and autumn
Developments:
The manure directly removed from stable instead of storage under the slatted floor
Last two decades all energy went to systems concentrated on the outgoing air reducing ammonia emission and odour. Inside the stables the climate was neglected. In relation to tails specially in spring and autums we see tailbiting problems. New development are systems where the manure is directly removed outside the stable resulting in better climate, An example is ‘Starplus’.

14. Health status Positive effect of action plan antibiotica
Developments: insight in three type’s of biter
‘two-stage’ from sucking to biting
‘sudden-forceful’ due to frustration
‘obsessive’ continuously searching for tails
In the Netherlands industry and government have worked together to reduce the antibiotic use resulting in much lower Antibiotic use and better health. I think the resilience of the animal is the perspective development for the future.
Important as development is to mention the three types of biter: each having its own way to work with.

15. Competition for food and space
Mostly dry feeding systems: competition
Legislation NL: somewhat more space?
In the Netherlands mostly dry feeding systems are used; so the pigs can not eat together and there is competition. The amount of farms using wett feeding with a trough where alle animals can eat together is reduced.
The space is somewhat above the EU.
In for instance ‘better life label’ the space is higher: in this case 1 square meter like Sweden.

16. diet Hardly/no handful of roughage Mostly dry feeding/pellets
Alternative for roughage: ‘welfare feed’ extra crude fibres
When the discussion started about giving a handful of rouphage, the dutch farmers had problems to fulfill this and the industry reacted by giving al welfare feed. It was scientifically proven that some crude fibres have a positive effect on welfare and for that reasons they made this welfare feed. However it is only given to sows and not fattening pigs.

17. Thanks for your attention h.vandervelde@minez.nl
You can contact us for questions