Funded by the European Union

The EU project SOWtrack identifies animal-based measures (ABMs) as well as relevant management-, resource- and environment-based context data. These are used to reliably and in a harmonised way assess the welfare of sows and their piglets in different housing systems on farms with sow housing. In addition, data from culled sows are collected in selected slaughterhouses in some EU Member States. The data collection takes place in and by several EU Member States, ensuring that the diversity of sow housing and management systems in the European Union is represented and that a robust data basis for further analyses is created.

On this basis, a freely accessible prototype database will be developed, which will allow analyses of correlations between ABMs and context data, support future quantitative risk assessment of animal welfare at farm level, and make changes in animal welfare standards visible over time in order to identify and mitigate welfare risks at an early stage. The data collection protocol is standardised and practical, and is based on existing tools and data sources (including the EFSA Pig Opinion, EFSA Roadmap, MatPrat, ClearFarm) as well as on the expertise of the project partners.

An essential component of the project is the training of partner organisations to ensure harmonised data collection in all participating Member States. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) is jointly responsible for the implementation of the training as well as for data collection on farms with sow housing in Germany.

Projekt partners:

• University of Helsinki (Finland) (Coordinator)
• Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
• Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain)
• University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
• BOKU University (Austria)
• Warsaw University of Life Sciences (Poland)
• The University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (Romania)
• French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (France)
• Estonian University of Life Sciences (Estonia)
• Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands)

Project participants:

Dr. Antje Schubbert (Project management)

N.N. (Scientist)

Kathrin Körner (Agricultural Technical Assistant)

Abdelhak El Amarti (Technical Assistant)