An evaluation tool for the sustainability of pig farming systems

Within the European programme Q-PorkChains, a tool for assessing the sustainability of pig husbandry systems at farm level wasdeveloped on the basis of the available literature and of the expertise of the participating scientists. Sustainability wasassessedviaeight themes corresponding to the demands and expectations of farmers, consumers and citizens: Genetic Resources,Animal Health, Animal Welfare, Environment, Meat Safety, Meat Quality, Economy, Working Conditions. The required Informationwas collected from breeding organisations and farmer surveys, observationsof animals in the farms and measurements on theslaughter line. The overall evaluation of sustainability was performed by taking into account a limited number of the mostsignificant primary indicatorsfor each of the eight themes. The tool was tested in five European countries on a total of 15contrasted systems. All eight themes contributed significantly to the observed variability and they were not redundant. The moststriking conflict of interest was observed between Economy and the remaining themes, particularly with Animal Welfare. Animportant output of the tool isthe establishment of patternsshowing the strengths and weaknesses of the systems. Because thetool was tested in highly contrasted systems, it is expected to be robust enough to accommodate all kinds of existing systems,from the very conventional to the most traditional. Simplifying the tool by deleting half of the primary indicators did not hamperits capacity to exemplify the strengths and weaknesses ofthe husbandry systems