OneWelPig project event sets out roadmap for higher pig welfare
(Left to right) Dr Stephanie Buijs, AFBI lead project partner, Dr Keelin O’Driscoll Project co-ordinator at Teagasc, Dr Laura Boyle, project principal investigator at Teagasc, Professor Ilias Kyriazakis Queens University Belfast lead project partner and Professor Siobhan Mullan UCD lead project partner and chair of the roadmap for higher welfare Irish pig farming.
A new cross-industry roadmap for ‘Higher Welfare Irish Pig Farming’ has been launched.
The OneWelPig project event, which aimed to advance sustainable and high-welfare pig production systems across the island of Ireland, held in April, launched the roadmap.
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The event showcased key findings from the four-year collaborative project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland under the Competitive Research Funding Programme.
The project brought together researchers from Teagasc, University College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute.
The project's unique approach was to apply a ‘One Welfare’ framework, recognising the interconnected health and welfare of animals, people, and the environment they share.
The project evaluated alternative systems for producing pigs indoors and is the first on the island of Ireland to study pasture-based and agroforestry production systems. In all cases, the research was approached from social, animal, and environmental perspectives.
The most significant output for Ireland is the publication of a plan for transitioning parts of the industry towards higher welfare systems, which was co-designed with stakeholders.
The roadmap for ‘Higher Welfare Pig Farming’ presents a vision of an enlarged outdoor/free range pig production sector, a new higher welfare indoor sector and standard good welfare pig production. In addition, five-year and 20-year aims are presented, along with recommendations for how to achieve this change.
Teagasc, OneWelPig Principal Investigator, Laura Boyle, said: “The true cost of conventionally produced pigmeat is higher than what we pay at the till, with associated negative impacts on humans, animals, and the environment. These ‘One Welfare costs’ make it incumbent on us to investigate sustainable alternatives.
"OneWelPig demonstrated that these systems deliver One Welfare benefits, though there are some trade-offs. Our final event disseminated years of rigorous research, translating it into valuable lessons learned for producers, policymakers, and the wider supply chain.”
UCD lead project partner and chair of the Roadmap Working Group, Siobhan Mullan, said: “I’m delighted that representatives from DAFM, IFA, AHI, Bord Bia, Veterinary Ireland and Teagasc, as well as conventional and outdoor pig farmers, considered both scientific evidence and experiences of other countries, and reached a consensus in proposing this clear pathway to achieve an increase in alternative pig production in Ireland.
"We believe the mechanisms required are achievable through effective incentives and advisory support, and we hope that before too long, consumers will have ready access to higher welfare pork products across the country.”
