Page 49 of articles about behaviour-welfare

BPEX and the University of Bristol are leading a major research project to develop a system of assessing pig welfare using welfare outcomes as indicators. Along with the current welfare ‘inputs’, such as stocking density and pen enrichment, producers will be able to demonstrate welfare from the pig’s perspective.

The European Commission welcomes the announcement made earlier this week that several main actors in the pig meat chain have agreed on a plan to voluntarily end the surgical castration of pigs in Europe by 1 January 2018.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, has announced funding of $100 million for world-class collaborative research and innovation under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres.

Pig gestation stalls (sow crates) will be phased out by December 2015, Agriculture Minister David Carter announced.

An abandonment of piglet castration is approaching. Specialists believe that rearing the entire population of young boars is the best way to permanently abandon the practice of castrating male piglets without anaesthesia right across the board. That is the main conclusion reached by the expert workshop "Abandonment of piglet castration – status and perspectives" held by the Fed-eral Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection together with QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH on 11 November, 2010 in Berlin.

Member States have the obligation to establish a system for advising farmers on land and farm management, the so-called Farm Advisory System (FAS). It is a major component of the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and had to be introduced by 2007. The objective of the FAS is to help farmers to become more aware of on-farm processes relating to the environment, food safety and animal health and welfare.

In a world first, the Australian pork industry voted today to pursue the voluntary phasing out of gestation stalls by 2017.