The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of tail biting in Finland and the relationship between tail biting and carcass condemnation

Ahlström, S.

Häkkinen, T.

Rintala, H.

Saloniemi, H.

Valros, A.

English

Organic Eprints

PROCEEDINGS OF THE37th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSOF THE ISAEJune, 24-28 2003Abano Terme - ItalyHotel TermeAlexander PalaceEDITO A CURA DELLA FONDAZIONE INIZIATIVE ZOOPROFILATTICHEE ZOOTECNICHE - BRESCIAVia A. Bianchi, 1 - 25124 BresciaUNIVERSITY OF MILANITALYFONDAZIONE INIZIATIVEZOOPROFILATTICHE E ZOOTECNICHEPREVALENCE OF TAIL BITING IN PIGS AND ASSOCIATIONS TO CARCASS CONDEMNATIONS – A FINNISH PILOT STUDYA. VALROS, S. AHLSTRÖM, H. RINTALA, T. HÄKKINEN, H. SALONIEMISection for Animal Hygiene, Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences, P.O.Box 57, 00014 University of Helsinki, FinlandThe aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of tail biting in Finland andthe relationship between tail biting and carcass condemnation. Tail docking as a wayof controlling tail biting is not allowed in Finland.The material consisted of 10852 pigs slaughtered during one week at a Finnish abat-toir. The quality of each tail was classified as healthy, healed tail biting or inflamedtail biting. The length of the tail was recorded as normal or short (< 10 cm). A tailthat was both inflamed and short was defined as severely bitten. Associationsbetween tail biting and risk of carcass condemnations were estimated using χ2–tests. Tests were performed with SPSS (8.0) for Windows. A total of 35% of the pigs had bitten tails. 12% of all pigs had inflamed tail bites,while 23% showed evidence of healed tail biting. 1.3% of the pigs had severely bit-ten tails. All kinds of tail biting increased the risk for both whole and partial carcasscondemnations (p < 0.001 for all). This was especially clear in pigs with severe tailbiting: 27% of these pigs had at least some parts condemned, while the correspond-ing percentage for healthy-tailed pigs was 5.1% (p < 0.001). Especially the risk forcondemnations due to arthritis and abscesses increased significantly in all kinds oftail bitten pigs (p < 0.01 for all).The percentage of tail biting was unexpectedly high and shows that tail biting is aserious problem in Finland. The result might by slightly exaggerated as healed tailbites possibly include some tails injured otherwise. Tail biting causes a highlyincreased risk of carcass condemnation, also in it’s less severe forms, showing that,in addition to being a serious welfare problem, tail biting causes big economicallosses.Oral paper - Friday 27/06/03Session: Free Communications - Padova Hall108

Prevalence of tail biting in pigs and associations to carcass condemnations - a Finnish pilot study

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