WELF ▶▶▶ARE
What to do when tail biting occurs?
Almost all conventional pig producers will be familiar with tail bitten pigs. It’s called a tail biting outbreak when biting leads to multiple victims per pen, or even spreads throughout the barn. Outbreaks are hard to stop – here is how it is possible to overcome an outbreak successfully.
T
BY IRENE CAMERLINK, UNIVERSITY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, VIENNA, AUSTRIA AND JEN-YUN CHOU, TEAGASC, IRELAND
ail-bitten pigs are often noticed only at an advanced stage, when there is shortening of the tail. At this stage it is likely that most other pigs in the pen have noticed the blood and been attracted to it. That may
motivate them to bite and to create new victims. Ideally, tail biting is noticed at an early stage, before there is blood on the tail and before the tail length is reduced. This can be through either noticing the biter or noticing the vic- tim. When a pig is repeatedly biting tails, the pig can be
observed for ten to 15 minutes to see if it continues biting. If this is the case it might be better to remove the potential problem causer.
Tail posture as indicator Victims can be recognised at an early stage by looking at tail posture. A tail almost permanently tucked between the legs indicates it is being bitten. A briefly tucked tail can, however, be in response to other social interactions such as displace- ment. A good time to check tail posture is at the feeder. If the feeding is synchronised, it is easy to check all tails together. Even at an individual feeding station, if pigs are constantly seen with tucked tails when feeding, there may be a biting problem in the pen. A tucked tail should be inspected closely; if injuries are present, then it is better to act immediately rather than wait until it gets worse.
What to do? Action to address tail biting can be through providing distrac- tion to the group or by removing biters or victims when it is more severe. Almost anything can be used to distract pigs, but they easily lose interest. It is therefore more important to change enrichment regularly than to necessarily have the
Figure 1 - Step wise plan for overcoming tail biting problems in a pen. Outbreak Step 1. Add 3 ropes / 15 pigs 72 h
No blood Success
If blood
Step 2. Remove victims
72 h If blood
Step 3. Remove biters
72 h If blood Follow step 1-2 If obsessive biters found
No blood
Reintroduce pigs following protocol
No blood
Reintroduce pigs following protocol
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▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 35, No. 10, 2019
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