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Siobhan Mullan presents Oral paper 36
In session 7: Stakeholders' views on animal welfare
Saturday, 13 September 2008 from 10h15-10h30 in the Aula chaired by Hans Hopster
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Oral paper 36
A CONSULTATION OF PIG FARMERS ON THE INCLUSION OF SOME
WELFARE OUTCOME ASSESSMENTS WITHIN UK FARM ASSURANCE
S. Mullan 1 , H.R. Whay 1 , A. Butterworth 1 , S.A. Edwards 2 , D.C.J. Main 1
1 Department of ClinicalVeterinaryScience, University of Bristol, UK
2 School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, University of Newcastle,UK
Farm assurance has been a part of the UK pig industry for more than a decade and provides
assurances to the market over food safety, animal welfare and environmental concerns. Current UK
pig farm assurance is a resource based assessment and assures 92% of pigmeat produced in the UK.
There has been a suggestion from the Farm Animal Welfare Council, a UK government advisory
body, and Compassion In World Farming that farm assurance could improve its level of welfare
assurance by inclusion of welfare outcome measures made on the animals themselves.
As part of a consultation process with the major stakeholders that would be affected by the
incorporation of welfare outcome measures into farm assurance, a questionnaire was designed to
elicit the opinions and attitudes of farmers to such changes.
Fifty six pig farmers who attended a pig health seminar completed the questionnaire. In answer to
open questions, the pig farmers were most commonly proud of the productivity (27.5%) and
welfare (23.5%) of the pigs on their farm, and the welfare of pigs in the UK industry as a whole
(26.1%). The most common thing the pig farmers wanted to tell consumers about was the good
welfare of the pigs (55.8%), followed by their own personal qualities such as being caring, the
quality of the meat and the safety of the meat (all 13.5%).
In answer to closed questions, 66% of farmers stated they would be either quite willing or very
willing to perform welfare self-assessments as part of farm assurance and 66% would be quite or
very willing to be anonymously benchmarked on the welfare of their pigs.
This support for welfare outcome assurance by farmers, who ultimately bear the burden of farm
assurance, is essential for the continuing success of a farm assured industry.
Contact information: Siobhan Mullan or email siobhan.mullan@bris.ac.uk
Complete address: Department of ClinicalVeterinaryScience, University of Bristol, UK
Species: Pig