Tail Biting in Pigs : : A Comprehensive Guide to Its Aetiology, Impact and Wider Significance in Pig Management.

• Author: O'Driscoll, Keelin.
• TeilnehmendeR: Valros, Anna.
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Wageningen Academic Publishers,, 2024.; ©2024.
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (443 pages)

Tail biting is one of the most serious and devastating problems in pig production, and both results from, and causes, animal welfare deficiencies. This book provides a thorough overview of its causes, risk factors, and considers economic and ethical implications.

Table of Contents

Front Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Figures and tables -- Introduction -- 1 The legal prohibition on routine tail docking and the long road to achieving compliance: Compassion in World Farming: tail docking of pigs - where are we, and how did we get here -- 2 Anatomy and physiology of the pig tail: characterisation of tail biting injury and consequences -- 3 Why does tail biting occur? An evolutionary perspective -- PART 1 Risk factors associated with individual pigs and the social environment -- 4 Individual pig-related factors -- 5 Poor health and the brain: how the immune system can influence neurophysiology and behaviour, and how this relates to damaging behaviour in pigs -- 6 The social environment -- PART 2 Risk factors associated with the physical environment -- 7 The physical environment -- 8 Environmental enrichment -- 9 Feeds and feeding -- PART 3 Methods of addressing the problem -- 10 Risk assessment -- 11 The evidence of tail biting: where, when and how to measure tail lesions -- 12 Changing stakeholder behaviour -- 13 Precision livestock farming -- PART 4 The bigger picture -- 14 The tail as an iceberg indicator: interrelationships with welfare problems -- 15 The economic and legal aspects of tail biting and tail docking -- 16 The ethical aspects of tail biting and tail docking -- Conclusion -- Back Cover.