BUILDING A better understanding between farming, food production and the general public must play a major role in current animal research projects.

Speaking in Perth this week, Dr Emma Baxter from SRUC gave, as an example of joined-up thinking, the approach taken to tackling tail biting in pigs, which she described as a major welfare and economic problem for indoor pig producers, not just in this country but throughout the world.

In Europe, it is estimated that 80 to 90% of pigs can be affected and the solution, up til now, has been to remove the tail by cutting it off – tail docking – which, in turn, has raised animal welfare issues and opposition from the public.

A new SRUC project, called '3D Tails', has started looking into the problem with a range of partners including breeding companies, feed supply firms, farm cooperatives and one of the major food retailers.

This range of support, Dr Baxter told colleagues working in the college's advisory services, helped the public understand the industry was serious about doing something about it.

Through the use of regular monitoring and 3D cameras on a working commercial pig farm, under the lead researcher, Rick D'Eath, scientists have established that the problem can be identified by how the pigs hold their tails with high held tails being susceptible to biting and low held tails being largely immune.

Having established that, the research team are now moving onto the next phase of work; drawing up a range of measures for the pig industry to carry out without having recourse to cutting the tails off. These include field testing a prototype 'tail biting' early warning system for farmers as well as further refining the collection of data into how prone some pigs might be to the problem

Pig breeding companies will also be supplied with data from the research so they can use it in their genetic selection programmes.