Activity financed through the 01.02.01 Technology Transfer Operation of the Rural Development Program of Catalonia 2014-2022
Breed tailless pigs
In recent years there has been increasing political pressure to implement the measures relating to the implementation of manipulable material on pig farms and the ban on routine tail cutting stipulated in Directive 2008/120/EC. Since 2016, the EU's interest in effective implementation of the regulations has been growing, and audits have been carried out. At present, several guides have already been published in the EU to avoid cattle eating, and thus facilitate the path towards compliance with the regulations. Among them we highlight the "Document on the management of pig farms to prevent cattle slaughter" (MAPAMA) and in Catalonia, "The technical report for the prevention of cattle slaughter" was published in April 2018.
Despite the growing legislative pressure, great difficulties are observed on the part of the producers to be able to implement these measures. The reasons why the vast majority of farms continue to raise pigs with their tails docked are diverse, but most converge on one common point: the fear of taking substantial risk. THE first risk is related to the nature of this behavioral problem: caudophagia (or tail biting) is a multifactorial problem, often sporadic and difficult to predict. The second risk is related to the supervision of the animals: to stop clipping the tails means to have a very good management and more time invested in the observation of the animals. The third risk is related to the financial costs involved in the prevention of caudophagy risks.
The lack of cases of successful farms in raising pigs without shields makes farmers, technicians and veterinarians skeptical about the implementation of these measures at the commercial level.
In this section we describe the follow-up and experience of commercial farms that have made the move to raise pigs without docked tails.