Injurious tail biting in pigs: how can it be controlled in existing systems without tail docking?

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Veterinary Medicine
• Animal Welfare

Background:

• Tail biting is a major concern in pig production, leading to economic losses and welfare issues.
• Tail docking, a common practice to mitigate tail biting, faces restrictions in the EU and alternative farming systems.
• There is a growing need for effective strategies to control tail biting without resorting to tail docking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and evaluate measures for controlling tail biting in pigs, excluding tail docking.
• To identify knowledge gaps and propose future research directions for tail biting prevention.
• To assess the efficacy of different interventions based on quantified tail injury data.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of research focusing on quantified tail injuries in pigs.
• Analysis of epidemiological evidence for factors like temperature, season, and stocking density.
• Quantitative comparison of manipulable materials and review of practices in tail-docking-banned regions.

Main Results:

• Manipulable substrates and adequate feeder space show strong evidence of reducing damaging tail biting.
• The impact of temperature, season, stocking density, group size, nutrition, disease, and breed requires further investigation.
• Daily provision of small quantities of destructible, manipulable natural materials is beneficial.

Conclusions:

• Optimizing housing, management, and providing appropriate enrichment are key to reducing tail biting.
• Precision livestock farming offers potential for early detection of tail biting.
• Further research is needed on outbreak responses and genetic selection to reduce tail biting propensity, ultimately decreasing reliance on tail docking.