In 1994, The European Commission (EC) introduced Directive 91/630/EEC which set out a plan to prohibit routine tail docking. This directive has gone through many updates since then as the EC tried to move forward on their objective. Animal Welfare groups continue to raise awareness about this issue. Research has shown that there are many production practices that can be helpful in reducing the incidence of tail biting. Despite all of these efforts the goal of eliminating tail docking has been rather elusive in Europe. There are some successes. Tail docking is no longer allowed in Finland and Sweden. In Norway and Switzerland less than 5% of pigs are tail docked. Based on audits that took place between 2016 and 2018 in countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Denmark the practice of tail docking continues to be used in 95% to 100% of pigs. The Italian pig industry is committed to moving forward on raising more pigs with intact tails. These Italian researchers wanted to study the production and economic outcomes of eliminating tail docking on commercial pig farms.
Twenty-two farms were assessed during three phases: total tail docking (step 1), subgroups of undocked pigs (step 2), and fully undocked pigs (step 3). Rather than a complete switch to undocked pigs step 2 allowed producers to “kick the tires” on a smaller batch of undocked pigs to see how things went. Producers were all volunteers and showed some motivation towards making the elimination of tail docking work on their farms. Producers received training in managing pigs with intact tails. The provision of straw as an “environmental enrichment” was mandatory on all farms although in some cases the straw was only provided if the pigs became “restless”. ( Not sure what constitutes a restless pig?) This recreational straw should not be confused with the amount of enrichment provided by continuous deep bedding in straw. The study involved 52,370 weaned piglets in batch sizes ranging from 615 to 1970 (avg 1455 piglets per batch. ) There were 16 batches of step 1, 8 batches of step 2, and 12 batches of step 3. There were 167,607 finishing pigs in batch sizes ranging from 340 to 6358 pigs (avg of 2019 pigs per batch) . There were 65 batches in step 1, 7 in step 2, and 12 in step 3.
The researchers found the following:
- Step 2 with most pigs docked but a small number of undocked pens seemed to go quite well on most farms . Most production parameters and costs of production were similar to having all tail docked pigs. The results for step 3 were not so good.
- The cost of producing 1 kg of meat in step 3 was 33.9% greater than step 1 during weaning and 7.4% during fattening.
- Tail lesion prevalence at slaughter was greater in step 3 (41%), followed by step 2 (10%) and step 1 (1%).
- The hypothetical labour required to optimize straw management , ensuring its continuous availability, was estimated as 35 min/100 piglets/weaning cycle (EUR 4.37) and 10.5 hours /100 pigs/fattening cycle (EUR 109).
- Note: There were a large number of metrics recorded in this study and beyond what could be presented here.
Take Home Messaging:
- The “kicking the tires” step 2 period generally went quite well. The researchers commented that it may have been easier for producers to make sure management was “just right” for these first undocked groups of pigs as there was a smaller number of groups to pay close attention to.
- Despite having a motivated group of producers the transition to step 3 was generally more than the producers could handle. The researchers believed that the producers were busy managing things like straw and tail bitten pigs. Because of that their attention to detail on other management factors might have suffered to the point that it was generating even more tail biting issues.
- There should be some caution in interpreting these findings as Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3 results were not carried out at the same moment in time and therefore lacked a contemporary experimental control. The format was, however, very consistent with the real world implementation plan of this type of transition as recommended by the health authorities in Italy.
- The transition to 100% intact tails continues to be “easier said than done” in many but not all operations.
Reference: Francesca Menegon , Annalisa Scollo , Samuele Trestini , Rachele Urbani , Giuseppe Ru , Guido Di Martino The Economic Implications of Phasing Out Pig Tail Docking: A Pilot Study in Italy Animals (Basel) . 2025 Apr 29;15(9):1250. doi: 10.3390/ani15091250.
