Five Key Swine Welfare Themes Identified as Part of Canada's Pig Code of Practice Update

The Division Director for National Farm Animal Care Council says five main swine welfare themes were identified by participants of a top-of-mind survey, conducted this past spring to gather stakeholder input for the planned update of Canada's Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs. The update of Canada's Pig Code of Practice was officially launched in mid-May with the introduction of a top-of-mind survey to gather stakeholder input on key animal welfare issues.

Members of both the Pig Code Committee and the Scientific Committee, a total of 14 representatives, got their first look at the results of that survey when they met for two days in Ottawa in October. Jackie Wepruk, the Division Director for the National Farm Animal Care Council, says the survey, which ran from mid-May to June 4th, attracted responses from across Canada with the largest number of submissions coming from British Columbia followed by Ontario and then Alberta as well as from the United States, Europe and Singapore.

Quote-Jackie Wepruk-National Farm Animal Care Council:

Participants are asked one  simple questions, "what are your top-of-mind thoughts around pig welfare?" In other words, when you think about pig welfare, what thoughts come to mind as topics that need to be addressed or covered in the Pig Code's update? There were five main welfare themes that were identified and none of them are particularly surprising.

The first one was confinement to gestation stalls and farrowing crates.That's not a surprise that that's a welfare theme.Painful procedures and pain management came up as another welfare theme, euthanasia methods, providing enrichment and general living conditions.You might notice that several of those are captured within the topics of priority welfare issues that the scientific committee will be addressing as well.

Wepruk says codes can take upwards of two and a half to three years to complete.She says, once an updated draft Pig Code of Practice has been created, possibly in a year and a half, it be released for a 60-day public review and comment period.