Animal welfare may appear a relatively simple issue – a matter of providing more space, enrichment or straw. Yet ongoing research shows that welfare is a far more complex topic than it seems – think for instance of the complexity of causes for tail biting. On Tuesday, October 25, it will receive full focus in 2 webinars.
Both webinars will be identical, yet they are aimed at different time zones, offering viewers across the globe to ask questions and get answers in real time.
Click here to register for either of the 2 webinars
The webinars will address both tail biting as well as ear biting, and will delve into the complex factors causing this phenomenon. As the vice also occurs in outdoor pigs with plenty of space, there must be more going on and exactly that is going to be addressed in this webinar, which is organised by Pig Progress in cooperation with Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. The webinar will feature the following speakers.
Dr Pol Llonch, MSc, DVM is attached to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. He will discuss the link between animal health and animal welfare, and states that this is an equilibrium that needs to be maintained. He will discuss both disciplines and describe the importance of the gut-brain axis for welfare.
Dr Cecilie Kobek-Kjeldager, attached to Aarhus University in Denmark, will have a presentation called “Abnormal diet, abnormal behaviour.” She will discuss how the difference between the diet in nature versus that in commercial systems can be a stressor – which in turn can contribute to stress-induced tail biting. Obviously she will present diet recommendations to mitigate tail biting.
Veterinarian Dr Franz Lappe, working for Vivet in Germany, will talk about an investigation to the causes of tail and ear biting using video technology. When doing so, his team noticed certain behavioural patterns that helped to recognise the causes or to initiate targeted further diagnostics. He explains the most common causes of this misbehaviour with the help of various video clips.
The webinar will be held twice on Tuesday, October 25. The broadcast is live from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The first webinar will start at 8am CET, whilst the second will start at 3pm. Those times correspond to:
Auckland, New Zealand: 7pm and 2am
Melbourne, Vic, Australia: 5pm and midnight
Tokyo, Japan: 3pm and 10pm
Beijing, China: 2pm and 9pm
Bangkok, Thailand: 1pm and 8pm
Kyiv, Ukraine: 9am and 4pm
London, UK: 7am and 2pm
São Paulo, Brazil: 3am and 10am
New York, NY, United States: 2am and 9am
Des Moines, IA, United States: 1am and 8am
Calgary, AB, Canada: midnight and 7am