Germany: Warning system for swine aggressiveness
The University of Veterinary Medicine (TiHo) in Hanover, Germany has announced to develop an early warning system in relation to swine aggressiveness, Top Agrar reports.
The TiHo will develop this in the next four years in cooperation with university staff and scientific partners. The system has to warn producers for aggressive behaviour and it also has to document to what degree of severity the animals are involved in the fighting and which animal started the fight.
Supervision
For that reason, the pigs will be continuously supervised and their behaviour will be described with mathematic algorythms.
Prof Jörg Hartung, TiHo, explained, „We would like to know whether there is a relationship between aggressive behaviour and housing conditions or specific environmental influences.” Eventual goal is, to structurally improve the animals’ life quality by developing prevention strategies.
Aggressiveness
In Europe, it is estimated that 5% of swine kept in commercial farms suffer from aggressiveness of penmates. In addition, veterinarians and animal scientists could learn from each other and thus transcend the boundaries of ther own disciplines.
For the project, the TiHo has received €210,000 from the European Union.
Related websites:
• European Union
• University of Veterinary Medicine (TiHo)
• Top Agrar
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
