Training
EURCAW-Pigs provides:
- Examples of training plans and materials used in different Member States in English, to the extent possible.
- Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support. These are provided in English so that they can be used by all EU member states. Training and education suggestions may include, for example, calibration between inspectors, seminars, lectures on new legislation, lectures on the biological basis of legislation, and communication workshops.
- Training suggestions for improvement of communication skills and ways to support inspection-driven welfare improvement.
EURCAW-Pigs also supports the 'Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF)' training sessions on Animal Welfare. For an update on suspension of BTSF training sessions due to COVID-19, see BTSF website.
Training activities and materials
If you have access to training material from your own country that can be useful for training of inspectors, please sent your example to EURCAW-Pigs. If possible in English and with a short comment on why this example can be useful in training.
Example from Sweden - This presentation is an example how training material in pig control assessment for animal welfare inspectors in Sweden can be conducted.
- Evaluation of body condition and other parameters on pigs, Birgitta Staaf Larsson, Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare, SLU, 2020
- The training is performed with TurningPoint clickers and the results are shown after the voting on each slide.
- The results are discussed and the participants asked to calibrate themselves according to what the majority of the group voted.
Standards for training
Quality standards, advice, templates, and technical support. EURCAW-pigs developed a preliminary set of recommendations for national training and specified learning outcomes for each of our eight prioritized welfare areas.
Minimum standards
- Training on pig welfare in husbandry, transport and slaughter for inspectors: Recommendations for minimum standards and learning goals, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Anneberg, I., Sørensen, J.T., Overstreet, K., 2020
Training guides - In collaboration with national training bodies and national reference centers on animal welfare, training guides are developed for the different welfare topics as standards for national training in EU Member States.
- Tail biting and tail docking, EURCAW-Pigs, 2021
- Farrowing housing and management (including free farrowing), EURCAW-Pigs, 2022
- Heat stress in pigs on farm, EURCAW-Pigs, 2023
- Hunger induced stereotypies, EURCAW-Pigs, 2023
- Group-housing and mixing of sows, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Alternatives sow stalls, EURCAW-Pigs, EURCAW-Pigs, 2023
- Euthanasia of suckling piglets on farm, EURCAW-Pigs, 2022
- Climate control and space allowance - transport of pigs, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Fitness for transport, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Transport of sows, EURCAW_pigs, 2023
- Handling in lairage, EURCAW-Pigs, 2020
- Pig stunning and bleeding, EURCAW-Pigs, 2021
Inspection-driven improvement
Communication to handle ambivalence and make changes happen on farm.
Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change - This review provides guidelines, organized around the following three categories: transparency and efficiency of inspection, communication, and step-wise approaches towards compliance.
- Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change. A Review (version 1.0), EURCAW-Pigs; Authors: Overstreet, K., Anneberg. I., 2020
- Related news item: Farmers, inspectors and animal welfare: possibilities for change, news EURCAW-Pigs, February 2020
Improving communication – relevant tools and resources - This document provides suggestions for communication methods that could be incorporated into ongoing inspector trainings. See also newsitem
- Improving communication – relevant tools and resources, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors Overstreet, K., Anneberg, I., 2020
- Related news item: Communication training for inspectors, news EURCAW-Pigs, September 2020
Review on responsive approaches to inspection processes - This review suggests different approaches that inspectors and competent authorities can use to develop the inspection procedures. It aims at rethinking and developing responsive approaches to the communication part of the inspection process.
- Review on responsive approaches to inspection processes, EURCAW-Pigs; Authors Anneberg, I., Rousing, T., 2021
- Related news item: Responsive approaches for improving inspection processes, news EURCAW-Pigs, February 2022