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Managing diseased and injured pigs - Which criteria justify a veterinary medical and ethical responsible determination of the time of emergency killing? (CARE-PIG)
Project
Project code: 28N200801
Contract period: 01.05.2021
- 30.04.2024
Budget: 826,043 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: animal health, knowledge transfer/networking, pigs
Pig diseases and injuries occur in all housing systems. Intensive care or treatment does not always result in healing so that animals have to be killed to avoid further pain or suffering. The Animal Protection Act fundamentally stipulates the protection of animal lives and well-being. In the case of serious diseases or injuries, the decision which subject of protection needs to be preferred is inevitable. For pig farmers, the decision concerning killing an animal is considerably challenging. The aim of this project is to define simply collectable and valid criteria with which the well-being of diseased pigs can be accurately assessed and a responsible, justified decision can be made regarding the killing. The criteria should define the earliest possible time-point in the course of a disease at which an impairment of the well-being for protecting life is no longer acceptable and emergency killing becomes inevitable. The decision regarding the killing requires in addition an ethical evaluation which includes safeguarding interests of the pig owners. The project should depict the complex process of decision-making concerning the killing of diseased pigs exemplary for relevant diseases or injuries. Diseased or injured pigs of various age groups should be monitored during the entire course of disease by means of clinical examinations and supplementary photo and video documentation in order to generate data sets which make a decision regarding the killing understandable. Finally, practicable, illness-/injury-specific criteria catalogues should be compiled for livestock pigs and integrated in a training concept. A further aim of the project is to analyse the reasons why pig farmers have wrongly assessed the health status of affected animals. The training concept should therefore directly deal with these reasons. The project includes six work packages (WP) which lead to the analysis of the reasons resulting in wrong decisions being made in dealing with diseased/injured pigs and the compiling of disease-/injury-specific criteria catalogues. Finally, a training concept shall be developed for implementing the criteria catalogues in practice. WP1 Identifying relevant diseases/injuries. Relevant are those diseases/injuries which frequently lead to killing in practice or which are difficult regarding making a decision concerning emergency killing. WP2 Compiling preliminary criteria catalogues. Preliminary specific criteria catalogues shall be compiled for selecting diseases/injuries, which allow a veterinary medical and ethical responsible determination of the time of emergency killing. This includes literature research and consultation with experts. WP3 Using the preliminary criteria catalogues in practice. Diseased/injured pigs at the beginning of the disease/treatment shall be included in the study and monitored until being healed or killed. The course of the disease shall be documented based on ongoing investigations and, if applicable, the time-point of the killing using the preliminary criteria. In the event of a killing, further investigations (pathology etc.) shall be initiated. WP 4 Final evaluations of the criteria catalogues. Based on the material documented in WP 3, the preliminary criteria shall be subsequently evaluated. The diagnostic findings of the pigs which were affected by the same disease/injury, but were healed, shall be included in the evaluation. WP 5 Compiling practicable specific criteria catalogues for veterinarians and pig farmers. The comprehensive disease-/injury-specific criteria catalogues shall be finally changed to practicable criteria catalogues. WP 6 Training and public relations. The practicable criteria catalogues shall be compiled in target-group-specific informational and training material.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal health
