Italian Pork Producers “Kick The Tires” On Intact Tails, By George Charbonneau from South West Ontario Veterinary Service

In 1994, The European Commission (EC) introduced Directive 91/630/EEC which set out a plan to prohibit routine tail docking. This directive has gone through many updates since then as the EC tried to move forward on their objective. Animal Welfare groups continue to raise awareness about this issue. Research has shown that there are many production practices that can be helpful in reducing the incidence of tail biting. Despite all of these efforts the goal of eliminating tail docking has been rather elusive in Europe. There are some successes. Tail docking is no longer allowed in Finland and Sweden. In Norway and Switzerland less than 5% of pigs are tail docked. Based on audits that took place between 2016 and 2018 in countries such as Germany,  Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Denmark the practice of tail docking continues to be used in 95% to 100% of pigs. The Italian pig industry is committed to moving forward on raising more pigs with intact tails. These Italian researchers wanted to study the production and economic outcomes of eliminating tail docking on commercial pig farms.

Twenty-two farms were assessed during three phases: total tail docking (step 1), subgroups of undocked pigs (step 2), and fully undocked pigs (step 3).  Rather than a complete switch to undocked pigs step 2 allowed producers to “kick the tires” on a smaller batch of undocked pigs to see how things went. Producers were all volunteers and showed some motivation towards making the elimination of tail docking work on their farms. Producers received training in managing pigs with intact tails. The provision of straw as an “environmental enrichment” was mandatory on all farms although in some cases the straw was only provided if the pigs became “restless”. ( Not sure what constitutes a restless pig?) This recreational straw should not be confused with the amount of enrichment provided by continuous deep bedding in straw. The study involved 52,370 weaned piglets in batch sizes ranging from 615 to 1970 (avg 1455  piglets per batch. ) There were 16 batches of step 1, 8 batches of step 2, and 12 batches of step 3. There were 167,607 finishing pigs in batch sizes ranging from 340 to 6358 pigs (avg of 2019 pigs per batch) . There were 65 batches in step 1, 7 in step 2, and 12 in step 3.