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Innovations pour améliorer le bien-être des porcs et volailles en élevages à bas-intrants de plein air et biologiques

Geographical location
France
Main geographical location (NUTS3)
Indre-et-Loire
Keywords
Animal husbandry and welfare
Farming practice
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research & Innovation programme)
Project Identification
Multi-actor project
Project type
Research project
Starting date
2019
End date
2024
Project status
Ongoing
Website
https://www.ppilow.eu/
Title (in English): 
Poultry and PIg Low-input and Organic production systems’ Welfare
Objective of the project (native language): 

Le projet PPILOW vise à coconstruire, grâce à une approche multiacteurs, des innovations améliorant le bien-être des volailles et porcs élevés en systèmes biologiques et de plein air à bas-intrants. Le projet crée avec les utilisateurs finaux des outils d'auto-évaluation du bien-être, des stratégies innovantes d'élevage améliorant la santé et la robustesse des animaux, favorisant les comportements positifs, évitant la castration des porcelets et l’élimination des poussins mâles de souche ponte. Il fournira des outils de décision et guides de bonnes pratiques suivant le concept Un seul Bien-être contribuant à la normalisation des règles des systèmes biologiques et de plein air dans l'UE.

Objective of the project (in English): 

The PPILOW project aims to co-construct through a multiactor approach innovations to improve the welfare of poultry and pigs reared in organic and low-input outdoor production systems. The project co-creates with end-users welfare self-assessment tools, innovative breeding and rearing strategies improving animal welfare, health and robustness, favouring positive behaviours, and avoiding piglet castration and the killing of day-old layer male chicks. A major output of the PPILOW project for end-users will be the provision of decision tools and guidelines for best practices following the One Welfare concept helping the standardisation of organic and outdoor system rules in the European Union.

Description of activities (native language): 

PPILOW:
1) dresse un inventaire des pratiques améliorant le bien-être et évalue les attentes des citoyens/consommateurs et professionnels
2) met en place avec les éleveurs des outils d'auto-évaluation du bien-être
3) co-crée et teste expérimentalement des pratiques de production innovantes
4) évalue par des analyses multicritères le potentiel d'application des leviers proposés.
Le projet PPILOW évaluera la contribution des leviers à un nouveau consensus social sur les pratiques d'élevage qui sera reconnu par les régulateurs en Europe. Il proposera une évaluation économique approfondie en productions porcine et avicole des leviers prometteurs et les modèles économiques associés.

Description of activities (in English): 

PPILOW:
1) Develops an inventory of welfare-improving practices and assess the citizen/consumer and production chain expectations
2) Builds up shared welfare self-assessment & benchmarking tools for and with farmers.
3) Co-creates and experimentally test innovative and/or bottom-up production practices
4) Evaluates through multi-criteria analyses the potential of proposed levers for application.
The PPILOW project will evaluate the contribution of the levers to a new social consensus on rearing practices to be recognized by regulators in Europe. It will propose a deep economic assessment in pig and poultry productions for promising levers and economically viable business models.

Project coordinator
Contact person: 
Anne Collin - INRAE
Address: 
147 rue de l'université, 75008 Paris
E-mail: 
anne.collin@inrae.fr
Phone: 
0033247427929
Partner category: 
Researcher
Practice summary
Further details
Description of the context of the project: 

The sustainability of animal production depends on economic, environmental and social criteria, implying to consider animal welfare and the well-being of practitioners and consumers. Among farm species, laying hens, followed by broilers and pigs are the species or strains for which rearing conditions in the EU are judged to need the highest improvement in terms of welfare. Consumers show an increasing demand for fresh and processed pig and poultry meat and eggs originating in organic and low-input outdoor production systems. PPILOW project is focusing on non-conventional rearing systems notably characterized by low (including drug) inputs that benefit from a high-quality image and reputation and have considerably spread recently. Nonetheless, there are still several challenging questions unsolved concerning these productions, and especially in relation to animal health and mortality problems. Some health concerns may be specific to organic housing systems, but some others will also be shared with low-input outdoor systems. For example, no use of synthetic additives and only very limited use of veterinary inputs is allowed in organic farming. Morbidity and mortality may also partly be due to a lack of robustness and disease susceptibility of poultry and pig flocks when kept in challenging outdoor conditions or with compromised nutrition. Besides, European citizens expect guarantees about improved animal welfare, safety and quality of poultry and pork meats as well as eggs. Consumers and practitioners of these production systems particularly disapprove of damage to animal integrity (beak trimming, piglet castration...) and of the killing of male layer chicks, practices questioning the ethics of poultry and pig production systems.