Developing a system for the automated measuring of tail length and tail lesions of pigs at the slaughter line
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The main objective of Preparatory Actions is to prepare future EU actions in various priority policy fields.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The main objective of this call is to support the development of a system for the automated measuring of tail length and tail lesions of pigs at the slaughter line (at a large scale).
Detailed Call Description
The automated measuring system will serve as a systematic, comprehensive and tailored feedback system to assist farmers to:
- Make trials to shift from routine tail docking to raising intact pigs.
- Monitor episodes of tail biting in the holdings/batches of tail docked or intact pigs, in order to take appropriate corrective measures. Farmers encountering a high incidence of tail lesions could seek further assistance.
- Identify early signs of tail biting episodes in the holdings/batches of tail docked or intact pigs, in order to take preventive measures.
Farmers do not practice tail docking routinely and provides for the steps to take in order to eliminate any need for tail docking. To make
the transition from tail docking to raising intact pigs, farmers have to:
- Assess the risk of tail biting in their holding.
- Take any necessary measures to mitigate the identified risks in terms of applying changes in the environmental conditions and management practices.
- Make trials to raise batches of intact pigs under the altered husbandry conditions.
- Monitor the situation by recording tail lesions in the intact batches, with the aim to assess the effectiveness of the measures taken in mitigating the tail biting risks.
Monitoring of tail lesions should also take place in holdings/batches of tail docked pigs, as tail biting episodes can occur even in groups of tail docked animals.
In this case, it is particularly important to identify early signs of tail lesions, as the first stages of the process of tail biting is unlikely to be picked up by the passing observation of the stock people.
Finally, monitoring of tail lesions is very important in farms that raise intact pigs, given that tail biting has multifactorial causes and episodes may occur even if husbandry conditions are optimised.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
65%
Thematic Categories
- Agriculture - Farming - Forestry
- Rural development
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Farmers Unions
- Farmers, Agriculturalists
- International Organisations
- Private Bodies
- Semi-governmental organisations
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
Consortium composition
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium formed by at least three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following condition:
- minimum three entities from at least three out of the five major pig producer EU Member States, namely Spain, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Poland.
Eligible activities are the ones set out in section 2 above.
Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities (such as environment, social, security, industrial and trade policy, etc) as well as with the existing EU legislation on animal welfare and food safety, as regards slaughterhouse.
Financial support to third parties is not allowed
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
EU Contact Point
European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA): https://www.eacea.ec.europa.eu/index_fr
Non-IT related questions should be sent to the following email address: eaceasport@ec.europa.eu
(Publish Date: 09/09/2022-for internal use only)