PigSurfer- SURveillance, FEedback & Reporting within ProPIG for communication with 75 pig farmers

Christine Leeb (1) , Davide Bochicchio (2) , G. Butler (3) , S. Edwards (3) , Barbara Früh (4) , Gudrun Illmann (5) , T. Rousing (6) , Armelle Prunier (7) , G. Rudolph (1) , Sabine Dippel (8)

1 BOKU - Universität für Bodenkultur Wien = University of Natural Resources and Life [Vienne, Autriche]
2 CRA - Agricultural Research Council
3 Newcastle University [Newcastle]
4 FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture - Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau
5 Institute of Animal Science
6 Aarhus University [Aarhus]
7 PEGASE - Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage [Rennes]
8 FLI - Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut

The Core0rganic2 research project ProPIG is carried out in 75 organic pig farms in 8 European countries (AT; CH; CZ; DE; DK; FR; IT; UK) to improve animal health, welfare and nutrition using farm customised strategies. For future on-farm application (e.g. advisory/certification activities which are carried out during one day visits), an automatic recording and feedback tool was developed. This should allow on-farm data collection, import of data into a database and the possibility for benchmarking, including a printed output for the farmer to facilitate immediate discussion of results and improvement strategies. To document not only animal health and welfare, but also integrate diet composition and productivity data, it was important to choose key indicators from ali a reas, which would be available actoss ail eight countries. Based on existing on-farm welfare assessment protocols (e.g. WelfareQuality-, CorePIG) indicators were selected by the consortium, which were then transferred into a Software programme ('PigSurfer'). This Software is available as Desktop- or Android version to be used on Tablet PCs, so that on-farm data (interview with farmer; direct observations on weaners, finishers, sows; productivity and treatment records; feed) can be entered directly. During two visits a database was built and a 'Farm report' was printed for each farm including benchmarking of results for feedback and discussion with the farmer. After a year 'PigSurfer' was used to carry out the following complete process during one day visits across Europe: Surveillance of health and welfare, feedback of data in comparison with results from the previous year as weil as benchmarking with 75 other pig far ms and prin ting a report. 'PigSurfer' is a promising tool for communicating health and welfare, as it provides not only a database, which can be continuously extended, but is an important step to move from research to on-farm application across Europe.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Christine Leeb, Davide Bochicchio, G. Butler, S. Edwards, Barbara Früh, et al.. PigSurfer- SURveillance, FEedback & Reporting within ProPIG for communication with 75 pig farmers. 6. International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level (WAFL 2014), Sep 2014, Clermont-Ferrand, France. Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2014, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level: WAFL. ⟨hal-01210824⟩