New farm handbook for organic pig producers

The new handbook was developed in the framework of the international project «ProPIG». It combines the expertise of 74 pig producers, together with input from advisors and scientists from eight European countries. The recommendations provide support to farmers and consultants in the development of an optimal pig husbandry. Through the use of simple checklists, the manual identifies possible causes and behavioural disorders for the major problem areas and suggests measures for their correction.

In the CoreOrganic II project ProPig, scientists and advisors evaluated health, wellbeing and husbandry conditions of pigs on the above mentioned 74 organic farms in eight European countries with differing housing systems, including free range, partly free range and indoor housing (with outdoor access). Based on these assessments, improvement strategies were developed together with the pig farmers and compiled in this handbook.

Technical information

Holinger et al. (2015) Improving health and welfare of pigs. FiBL, INRA, Newcastle University (NU), Institute of Animal Science (IAS), BOKU.  First edition, handbook, 92 pages, language: English (also available in German, French and Czech), hardback. ISBN 978-3-03736-278-5.

How to get it

The handbook can be ordered for CHF/Euro 12 at www.shop.fibl.org - order number 1676. An electronic version can be downloaded in English, French, German and Czech.

Video about the introduction

For the introduction of the handbook we have produced a video that shows how a Swiss pig producer is using „Improving health and welfare of pigs“ in his daily work.
You can watch the movie at the FiBL-Youtube-Channel:www.youtube.com/user/FiBLFilm 

See the video in German       See the video in French      See the video with Czech subtitles

Further information

See the media release in German and French

National contact person for ProPig handbook