TY - GEN
T1 - PIGLOW - a welfare self-assessment & benchmarking tool for outdoor and organic pig farms
AU - Vanden Hole, Charlotte
AU - Graat, Evelien
AU - Warin, Laura
AU - Tuyttens, Frank
AU - Collin, Anne
PY - 2021/11/17
Y1 - 2021/11/17
N2 - With PIGLOW, a new mobile application was developed by which outdoor and organic pig farmers can assess the welfare of their own animals. The app focuses on animal-based indicators, covering all four Welfare Quality principles of Good Feeding, Good Health, Good Housing and Appropriate Behaviour. During the step-by-step assessment (that takes approximately one hour and requires no internet connection), the app provides useful information and pictures that guide the farmer through the process. After completing the welfare assessment with the app and uploading the answers, farmers can immediately view their results on the PIGLOW website. These results include a (completely anonymous) comparison of his/her own scores for each welfare indicator with the scores of other farmers using the app. When using the app multiple times over a prolonged period, it also shows the change of scores within the farm over time, making it easy to see if a certain score has improved since the previous assessment. For each welfare indicator, the results contain automated feedback, explaining its meaning and importance as well as risk factors that could explain a possible low score. If relevant, this information can be discussed with a veterinarian or other advisors in order to investigate the feasibility of actions to continuously improve animal welfare status. Besides the direct advantages of using the app, pig production systems could also use it as a marketing tool to let the consumer know that they value animal welfare highly. The PIGLOW app is now freely available in three languages (English, French, Dutch) in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. More European languages will be added in 2021.
AB - With PIGLOW, a new mobile application was developed by which outdoor and organic pig farmers can assess the welfare of their own animals. The app focuses on animal-based indicators, covering all four Welfare Quality principles of Good Feeding, Good Health, Good Housing and Appropriate Behaviour. During the step-by-step assessment (that takes approximately one hour and requires no internet connection), the app provides useful information and pictures that guide the farmer through the process. After completing the welfare assessment with the app and uploading the answers, farmers can immediately view their results on the PIGLOW website. These results include a (completely anonymous) comparison of his/her own scores for each welfare indicator with the scores of other farmers using the app. When using the app multiple times over a prolonged period, it also shows the change of scores within the farm over time, making it easy to see if a certain score has improved since the previous assessment. For each welfare indicator, the results contain automated feedback, explaining its meaning and importance as well as risk factors that could explain a possible low score. If relevant, this information can be discussed with a veterinarian or other advisors in order to investigate the feasibility of actions to continuously improve animal welfare status. Besides the direct advantages of using the app, pig production systems could also use it as a marketing tool to let the consumer know that they value animal welfare highly. The PIGLOW app is now freely available in three languages (English, French, Dutch) in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. More European languages will be added in 2021.
M3 - Online publication - Web publication
ER -