PPILOW Final Conference!

– by Anne Collin (INRAE)

The PPILOW (Poultry and Pig Low-input and Organic production System’s Welfare) final conference, organized by EAAP, INRAE and INRAE Transfert, was organized in Tervuren on the 11^th afternoon and 12^th of June to present the main achievements of the project thanks to its multiactor approach over 5 years. The Conference gathered a total of 123 participants (61 online and 62 on site), 56 PPILOW partners and 67 external participants. The presentations focused on the PPILOW realisations in terms of welfare self-assessment tools for evaluating the welfare of pigs and poultry in low input outdoor and organic farms, the strategies to avoid feather pecking in non-beak-trimmed hens and the castration of male pigs, in ovo sexing and the use of dual-purpose breeds for avoiding the culling of layer male chicks on the first conference afternoon. On the 12^th of June, participants could exchange on PPILOW results concerning strategies to improve robustness, health and resilience in both species, in broilers concerning strains well adapted to the free range and the identification of markers or range use and concerning early life management levers such as incubation temperatures and on-farm hatching to improve welfare and resilience of outdoor chickens. Much interest was raised on the use of medicinal plants for improving the health of laying hens and pigs, and on the strategies to improve piglet survival in organic systems through selection and the co-design with practitioners of 4 countries of innovative farrowing huts for sows and piglets on the free range. The business models associated to the use of the PPILOW practices were presented, as well as consumer and practitioner views on the strategies proposed. The participants had the chance to follow the presentation of linked EU-funded projects, the aWISH project and the newly-launched European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare (EUPAHW). The connections of PPILOW with other initiatives of the EU-funded Research network were highlighted, before representatives of the PPILOW project, its European Multiactor Board, the European Commission DG AGRI and DG SANTE and of Organic production systems and Animal welfare associations debated on the main results and outputs of the project supporting animal health and welfare, especially in the currently difficult economic and sanitary context for organic and low-input outdoor farming systems. The PPILOW partners are grateful to external participants who accepted their invitation to exchange on the project outcomes and all the members of the project National Practitioner Groups who co-built with them the PPILOW innovations. The PPILOW final Conference videos and presentations are available on the PPILOW website.