Training

To facilitate training, EURCAW-Pigs offers suggestions for training and continuing education courses for inspectors. These are specifically targeted towards the eight prioritized welfare areas along the value chain (on-farm, transport, slaughter).

EURCAW-Pigs provides:

(1) Examples of training plans and materials used in different Member States in English, to the extent possible.

(2) Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support. These are provided in English so that they can be used by all EU member states. Training and education suggestions may include, for example, calibration between inspectors, seminars, lectures on new legislation, lectures on the biological basis of legislation, and communication workshops.

(3) Training suggestions for improvement of communication skills and ways to support inspection-driven welfare improvement.

EURCAW-Pigs also supports the 'Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF)' training sessions on Animal Welfare. For an update on suspension of BTSF training sessions due to COVID-19, see BTSF website.

Training activities and materials

Examples of materials used in different Member States.

If you have access to training material from your own country that can be useful for training of inspectors, please sent your example to EURCAW-Pigs. If possible in English and with a short comment on why this example can be useful in training. See an example from Sweden here:

Evaluation of body condition and other parameters on pigs, Birgitta Staaf Larsson, Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare, SLU, 2020

This presentation is an example how training material in pig control assessment for animal welfare inspectors in Sweden can be conducted.

The training is performed with TurningPoint clickers and the results are shown after the voting on each slide.
The results are discussed and the participants asked to calibrate themselves according to what the majority of the group voted.

Standards for training

Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support.

EURCAW-pigs developed a preliminary set of recommendations for national training and specified learning outcomes for each of our eight prioritized welfare areas.

Minimum standards

Training on pig welfare in husbandry, transport and slaughter for inspectors: Recommendations for minimum standards and learning goals, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Anneberg, I., Sørensen, J.T., Overstreet, K., 2020

Training guides

In collaboration with national training bodies and national reference centers on animal welfare, training guides are developed for the different welfare topics as standards for national training in EU Member States

Climate control and space allowance - transport of pigs, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Farrowing housing and management, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Handling in lairage, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Group-housing and mixing of sows, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Fitness for transport, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
Tail biting and tail docking, EURCAW-Pigs, 2021
Pig stunning and bleeding, EURCAW-Pigs, 2021

Inspection-driven improvement

Communication to handle ambivalence and make changes happen on farm.

Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change. A Review (version 1.0), EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Overstreet, K., Anneberg. I., 2020

This review provides guidelines, organized around the following three categories: transparency and efficiency of inspection, communication, and step-wise approaches towards compliance.

Training

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Minimum standards

Training guides

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