1. Maintaining low stress pig production - rearing pigs with intact tails Roland Weber
5th October 2016

2. Contents Legislation in Switzerland
Situation of tail biting in Switzerland
Actions to prevent tail biting
Actions that are taken when tail-biting occurs
Knowledge transfer
CH-Situation reffering on EU-Recommendations
Keynote

3. Swiss animal welfare legislation
Animal Welfare Ordinance
2001: Docking of the tail of piglets without anaesthesia vorbidden
2008: In pigs, the following are prohibited:
docking of the tail ….
Retailers' labels banned tail docking since 1997
In 2001 the docking of tails without anaesthesia was vorbidden. From then on tail docking stopped more or less.
With the new animal welfare ordinance in 2008 tail docking in pigs was prohibited. The retailers' labels banned tail docking since 1997.

4. Situation of tail biting in Switzerland
Cross-sectional-study in Switzerland (de Vries, 2010):
14'850 carcasses examined
97.7 % without macroscopic lesions
0.7 % with necrosis of the tail's tip
Survey in a slaughterhouse in Zurich (February 2016)
16'349 pigs  0.69 % with tail defects (112)
A cross-sectional-study with around 15'000 carcasses showed that 98 % of them had no macroscopic lesions and only about 1 % had necrosis of the tail's tip.
A not so scientific survey in a slaughterhouse in Zurich showed that only 0.7 % of the 16'000 examined pigs had tail defects

5. Situation of tail biting in Switzerland
Farm visits by Pig Health Service:
The Pig Health Service in which about 50 % of the farms with fatteners and about 80 % with breeding sows are members visits every farm at least once per year. In the years 2010 and 2014 they noted therby whether they have seen tail biting and whether it was more or less a problem in some pens or a problem on the farm. As you can see here they found 14 % and 19 % fattening farms with tail biting. 1.4 % and 2 % of the farms were highly affected. 6 % and 7 % of the breeding farms had tail biting and 0.5 % and 0.2 % where highly affected.

6. Actions to prevent tail biting
Legislation
Pigs shall have access at all times to straw, roughage or other equivalent foraging material.
Suitable occupational materials can be chewed and gnawed, and are edible and non-toxic, such as straw, miscanthus, bedding, dust-extracted wood shavings and coarse fodder such as hay, grass, whole-plant silage and straw or hay cubes. Softwood is permitted only if suspended in such a way as to remain flexible, if regularly replaced and if the pigs are fed at least three times a day with a ration enriched with coarse fodder or fodder is freely available.
Occupational materials can be provided in suitable equipment such as mangers, troughs or special machines. These must contain a permanent supply of usable occupational materials.
Sufficient long straw or other material suitable for nest building shall be provided in the (farrowing) pen some days before farrowing and sufficient litter during the suckling period
Actions to prevent tail biting take place on different levels. The legislation rules the highrisk-factor occupation. It is stipulated that all pigs shall have access at all times to occupation. It is more ore less the same prescription as the EU-regulation but it discribse in detail what occupational material must fulfill. I will come back to this point later. The legislation also stipulates that the animals in farrowing pens must already have sufficient litter.

7. Actions to prevent tail biting
Recommendations Pig Health Service
No overcrowding
Food and occupation
Food composition
Enough feeding places
Warmth
Climate (temperature, noxious gases)
Division of areas
Healthy pigs
Mycotoxins, Water, Cleanliness
The Pig Health Service advises the farmers with a leaflet with recommendations to prevent tail biting. They mention the following points as risk factor  Liste vorlesen.
At the end of this leaflet is a checklist to determine the cause if tail biting occurs and how it can be stopped. The Pig Health Service offers help if a pig farmer has constant problems with tail biting

8. Actions to prevent tail biting
Stated by farmers
Low stress at lairaging
No regrouping
Continuous verifying of feeding plans / feed composition
Control of climate (avoid low and high temperatures, high temperature differences within a day as well as draught)
No changes of daily routine (especially feeding times)
The animals are often unsettled some time prior to an outbrake  keep a great attention on such pens
Asking the farmers how to prevent tail biting they mention very often the following points:  Liste vorlesen

9. Actions that are taken when tail-biting occurs
Stated by farmers
Remove biters !
Additional enrichment material (straw, branches, sisal ropes, paper, cardboard)
It must be something that the pigs do not know yet
More mineral salts in the feed
Lickstone
Control of:
Feed composition (proportion of fibre)
Climate
If problem does not stop:
discuss with other practioners
consult specialists (ventilation, feed composition, health status, etc.)
Tail biting occurs and I think, every pig farmer has experienced it and will experience it in the future. They have therefore their strategies how to deal with it. Here are some points which are often mentioned by farmers  Vorlesen bis "If problem does not stop"
It is important that the farmers look for help if they can't solve the problem themselfes. This can be a colleague (what else would he do?) or consult specialists for ventilation or feed composition or the Pig Health Service for the health status

10. Knowledge transfer Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO)
Expert information
The FSVO provides information about enrichment materials which can be downloaded from the internet.

11. Knowledge transfer Pig Health Service Leaflet with checklist
As I already mentioned befor the Pig Health Service provides a leaflet with symptons of tail biting, recommendations for avoiding tail biting and a checklist.

12. Knowledge transfer Feed producers Leaflet with checklist
Most feed producers have leaflets with several aspects for successful pig fattening. In such leaflets they also mention what can be done to avoid tail biting and what can be done if tail biting occurs

13. Knowledge transfer Agricultural press
Articels how to avoid tail biting and actions to stop it
Even the agricultural press publishes now and then articles on avoiding tail biting and actions to stop tail biting

14. CH-Situation referring on the EU-Recommendations 2016/336
the enrichment materials provided
Special situation relating to the recommendation
cleanliness
thermal comfort and air quality
health status
Different from other countries in Europe
competition for food and space
Diet
Authorities, consulting services (e.g. Pig Health Service) and even farmers agree, that these recommendations are important
Now some remarks to the parameters mentioned in the EU- Recommendations 2016/336 that should be checked when carrying out the risk assessment:
As you have seen before, all these points have also been mentioned by different organisations in the pig-scene. Generally the situation in Switzerland referring to these points doesn't differ very much from other EU-countries. But we have different situations in two points of this recommendations: the enrichment material provided and the health status.

15. Enrichment materials in Switzerland
Suitable occupational materials:
can be chewed
can be gnawed
are edible
are non-toxic
Organic materials
Not allowed as only materials:
chains
toys
As already mentioned the ordinance describes in detail the requirements on suitable occupational materials  Liste vorlesen oben. These requirements are quite similar to those of the EU but are implemented very strictly. Only organic materials are allowed. The FSVO provides a list for the cantonal authorities with the tolerated materials. Chains, toys and so on are not allowed but can be applied if organic material is also available
COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 2001/93/EC
Not withstanding Article 3(5), pigs must 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, which does not compromise the health of the animals.

16. Enrichment materials often used in Switzerland
Compressed wheat chaff roll
Standard in pens with fully slatted housing
Straw as litter
Mandatory in the two governmental programs enforcing enhanced animal welfare (participation: ~60 % of the pig farms)
Straw rack, straw ball
Often used in pens with partly slatted floors without litter or even additionally to straw as litter
The compressed wheat chaff roll is not the very best enrichment material but the only one with which the farmers have no problems with the slurry system in fully slatted housing

17. Health status in Switzerland
Switzerland is free of:
M.hyo (Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae)
PRRSV (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus)
APP (Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia)
Rhinitis atrophicans
Mange
Health status in Switzerland differs from other EU-countries. Switzerland is free of  Liste

18. Keynote Management is the key to prevent / minimise tail biting
Prevent stress
Monitor the environment
Keep an eye on the animals
React at the smallest signs
Veit et al. (2016). Influence of raw material on the occurrence of tail-biting in undocked pigs. Livestock Science 191,
'The number of tail losses decreased with the number of batches and ranged from 98.6% in batch one to 8.5% in batch ten. This can be explained by enhanced and more precise animal observation by stable staff and points out the learning process in the course of the study.'
Statement of Pig Health Service:
Tail docking masks deficiencies in husbandry
It is easier to find sick animals if they have undocked tails (tail is hanging down)
Zuerst obere Auflistung über Management.
This statement can be underlined by a recently published article from Veit  vorlesen des Satzes  this means that management measures reduced tail losses by 90 %
The Pig Health Service stated that tail docking masks deficiencies in husbandry and that it is easier to find sick animals because they let hanging the tail