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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Organic pig husbandry in Europe: do welfare and environmental impact go hand in hand?

Résumé

Organic pig systems are diverse, ranging from indoor pens with concrete outside run to outdoor systems all year round. It is often discussed, that husbandry systems common in organic farming enhance animal health and welfare (AHW) but impair environmental impact (ENV). However, the level of AHW and ENV has never been quantified for those systems using onfarm data. In total 74 pig farms in 8 countries were visited in 3 different systems: indoor (IN; n=34), partly outdoor (POUT; n=28) and outdoor (OUT; n=12). Animal based parameters including exploratory behaviour of pregnant sows (SO), weaners (WE) and fattening pigs (FA) were assessed by trained observers using an adapted Welfare Quality® Protocol. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for 64 production chains (PC), combining piglet production and finishing stage to quantify ENV for the criteria greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), acidification (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP). Across systems, prevalences of most AHW areas were low; exceptions were respiratory problems (IN, POUT), diarrhoea (IN), short tails (IN, POUT) and total suckling piglet losses (IN, POUT, OUT). Regarding GHGE, no differences were found between systems. POUT showed lower AP than IN and lower EP than OUT. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three clusters: a ‘low ENV’ cluster; an ‘intermediate ENV’ cluster and a ‘high ENV’ cluster. No significant association was found between AHW and ENV when comparing the ENV clusters with regard to an overall AHW summary score (GOOD%), summary scores per animal category (GOOD%_SO, GOOD%_WE or GOOD%_ FA) and single animal-based parameters or correlations between GHGE, AP, EP and GOOD%. The lack of association between AHW and ENV found in this study is promising, but does not necessarily mean that no associations exist. The main reasons for a lack of associations may be the fact that LCA includes impact areas (e.g. manure storage), which do not relate to AHW. Still, this study generated a starting point to explore associations between AHW and ENV to be tested either on a larger number of PCs or between specific AHW and ENV areas.
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Dates et versions

hal-02740638 , version 1 (02-06-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02740638 , version 1
  • PRODINRA : 369741

Citer

Christine Leeb, Gwendolyn Rudolph, Sabine Dippel, Davide Bochicchio, Gillian Butler, et al.. Organic pig husbandry in Europe: do welfare and environmental impact go hand in hand?. 50. Meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE), Jul 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-02740638⟩
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