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This deliverable present results for Task 6.3 “ex-ante impact assessment” which was conducted in five countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy and Vietnam) and aims at improving the construction of ROADMAP initiatives toward prudent antimicrobial use (AMU) by designing them in a strategic and participatory manner and laying out the mechanisms through which impacts will be generated. Task 6.3 activities were conducted between October 2020 and June 2022 through personal interviews, surveys and workshops. The process of ex ante impact assessment involved building a desired vision for the future, identifying problems preventing the desired impacts from happening, and designing strategies to address these problems. Activities sometimes underwent delays because of Covid-19- related restrictions but led to the construction of a large variety of impact pathways for ROADMAP initiatives. In Belgium, the main initiative was centered around an action lab to better establish the advisory role of veterinarians in the pig sector, whereas in Denmark a lot of efforts were put into discussing the link between AMU and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in a context of very low AMU and progressing towards mutual realisation and improved communication/sharing of experience. In France, an action lab will be set up to build combined indicators that report in a simple and optimal way information about the health of animals, their well-being, the use of antibiotics and bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Activities in Italy focused on updating the guidelines on the use of antibiotics in pig farms elaborated by the public health services of the Emilia-Romagna region, whereas stakeholders in Vietnam worked towards establishing training/awareness-raising programs for both animal/drug professionnals and consumers. The desired impacts these activities aimed to contribute to shared some common grounds: decreased or improved AMU, improved animal health and welfare, maintained (or increased) incomes for farmers and veterinarians, reinforced resilience of animal production and improved communication towards consumers. The next step of WP6 activities will be to perform a transversal analysis of these impact pathways and establish generic recommen

The overall aim of ROADMAP is to foster transitions towards prudent use of antimicrobials (AMs) in animal production in different contexts to manage antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Prudent antimicrobial use (AMU) will be achieved by enhancing antimicrobial decision-systems along the food and drug supply chains. ROADMAP will focus on supporting animal health and welfare through prevention and health promotion actions. AMR is recognized as a significant threat to global public health and food security. Overuse and improper use of AMs in many parts of the world contribute to the emergence and spread of AMR. Although human and animal health require AMs, it has been estimated that two thirds of the future AMU growth worldwide will be in animal production. Improving the management of AMU in farm animals is therefore a critical component of dealing with AMR and optimizing production in the livestock sector. Nevertheless, the variety of contexts of AMU in the livestock sector is a major challenge to managing AMR. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to improve AMU and strategies must be contextually developed (for instance, strategies used in the Danish pig industry are difficult to adapt and adopt in the French free-range poultry farming). Successful solutions must be combined and tailored to the production systems and the social and economic context in which they operate. ROADMAP will meet three general objectives, in line with the EU AMR Action plan: i) Rethink AM decision-systems and animal health management; ii) Develop options for encouraging prudent AMU in animal production; iii) Engage all actors in the food and drug supply chains in fostering a more prudent use of AMs.

In animal production, changes in antimicrobial use (AMU) are needed to prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, there is no “onesize-fits-all” solution to encourage and facilitate prudent AMU. Methods, strategies, actors, and monitoring systems must be contextually developed. Many decisions, actions and physical circumstances are involved when the use of antimicrobials should be changed, therefore altered AMU requires changes at several levels. From reviewing the scientific literature on interventions to change AMU, some key factors for successful change were identified.

ROADMAP - Rethinking of Antimicrobial decision-systems in the management of animal production

Summary on current practices and methodologies of Thematic Networks

Organic monogastric agriculture is challenged because of a limited availability of regional and organic protein-rich ingredients to fulfill the amino acid requirements. The development of novel feed ingredients is therefore essential. The use of starfish (Asterias rubens), mussel (Mytilus edilus), insect, green and brown seaweed, and forage crop extracts exhibits different approaches to increase protein availability in a sustainable manner through improving the protein quality of existing ingredients, better use of under- or unutilized material, or development of circular bioeconomy. This review assessed limitations and opportunities of producing, processing, and using these novel ingredients in feed. The use of non-renewable resources and the effect on the environment of production and processing the feed ingredients are described. Protein concentration and amino acid quality of the feed ingredients are evaluated to understand their substitution potential compared with protein-rich soya bean and fishmeal. Feedstuffs’ effect on digestibility and animal performance is summarized. With the exception of seaweed, all novel ingredients show potential to partly substitute fishmeal or soya bean fulfilling part of the protein requirement in organic monogastric production. However, improvements during production and processing can be made to enhance protein quality, sustainability of the novel ingredients, and nutrient utilization of novel feed ingredients.

Udgivelsesdato: Marts 2010 The experiment aimed to investigate the effect of type of rooting material and space allowance on explorative and abnormal behaviour in growing pigs. Thirty-six pens with partly slatted concrete floor were allocated to one of four treatments: (1) low space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (2) high space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (3) low space allowance and straw as rooting material, and (4) high space allowance and straw as rooting material. Pens with low space allowance had 17 pigs (0.64m2/pig), while pens with high space allowance had 11 pigs (1.0m2/pig). Behaviour was recorded by instantaneous sampling during 1 h before and 1 h after the daily allocation of rooting material at 10.00 h, as well as during 1 h in the afternoon starting at 13.00 h. Observations were conducted at 13 and 20 weeks of age. Pigs offered maize silage manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 19% of the pigs; P < 0.001) and manipulated pen components less (3.3% vs. 4.5% of pigs; P < 0.01) than pigs offered straw. Pigs housed at a high space allowance manipulated rooting material more (22% vs. 19% of pigs; P < 0.05) than pigs at a low space allowance. At 13 weeks of age, pigs manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 18% of pigs; P < 0.001), pen components more (4.8% vs. 3.1% of pigs; P < 0.01) and pen mates less (2.2% vs. 3.0% of the pigs; P < 0.05) than at 20 weeks of age. Manipulation of rooting material was lower before the daily allocation of rooting material than after (15%, 40% and 7% of pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001), while manipulation of pen components (6.4%, 3.5% and 1.9% of pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001) and pen mates (4.1%, 2.1% and 1.5% of the pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001) were higher before allocation of rooting material than after. In conclusion, pigs manipulated maize silage more than chopped straw and the level of explorative behaviour redirected towards pen components was lower when maize silage was offered as a rooting material. Pigs with a high space allowance manipulated the rooting material more. Finally, increased manipulation of pen mates and pen components just before allocation of new rooting material suggest that the amount available just before the next allocation was insufficient to maintain material manipulation.

The aim of this experiment was to investigate pigs’ preferences for rooting materials. Eighteen materials were allocated to six categories each of which consisted of three similar materials based on characteristics such as structure, size of particles, complexity, destructibility and digestibility. Twelve pairs of pigs chose among the three materials of each of the six categories in a balanced design. Within each category each pair was given four instantaneous choices among the three materials in a three-armed maze. ‘No choice’ was scored if the pigs did not enter one of the maze-arms within 90 s. Thus there were four options in each choice situation. The results were analysed using a random utility model incorporating random intercepts to account for the repeated testing of the same animals. The pigs expressed clear preferences within the category EARTH, where compost and peat were preferred to wood-shavings and no choice. In the category CHIP the most probable rank-order was spruce chip, willow chip, fir chip and no choice, while in the category ROUGH the most probable rank-order was maize-silage, grass silage, sugar beets and no choice. However, in these two categories none of the probabilities were sufficiently large to signify a preference for any of the three materials although the probabilities of the ‘no choice’ option were low. The pigs expressed no preferences among any of the four options including ‘no choice’ in the categories TOY (sisal robe, Bite-Rite, wooden beam), HAY (alfalfa hay mixed with straw, seed grass hay, barley straw with under-seed), and STRAW (long straw, chopped straw and straw pellets).

The intention of the new European legislation on rooting materials for pigs is to improve the welfare of pigs. The question is: which materials are suitable rooting materials for pigs? To answer this question the motivation for exploration in pigs is elucidated and the needs of the pigs in this context are discussed. The effects of different materials on the behaviour of pigs are listed and the preferences of pigs for numerous different materials are compared. Based on the literature on the normal behaviour of pigs and studies on pigs’ use of and preferences for various materials, we conclude that in order to be a suitable rooting material the material must stimulate the exploratory behaviour of pigs for an extended length of time. Exploratory behaviour in pigs is best stimulated by materials that are complex, changeable, destructible, manipulable, and contain sparsely distributed edible parts.

Rooting behaviour appears to be an important part of the behavioural repertoire in pigs. It is suggested that it is in fact a behavioural need. The present study investigated whether nose-ringed gilts, which are unable to root, can satisfactorily substitute rooting with other exploratory activities. The behaviour of 24 gilts in groups of three, half of them nose-ringed, was studied on undisturbed days as well as on days of exposure to four different tests: (1) delayed feeding; (2) double feeding; (3) removal to an unknown area; (4) removal to an unknown area supplied with a trough with stones. The gilts’ posture and their behaviour were recorded by 1-min scan samplings, whereas pawing, aggression, and comfort behaviour were recorded by all occurrence sampling. Observations took place for 2.5 h in the morning and 2.5 h in the afternoon. On undisturbed days no significant differences were found between ringed and unringed gilts as regards the percentage of scans in which the gilts were active and foraging or exploring. However, the unringed gilts rooted significantly more than the ringed gilts ( P

Influence of timidity (timid when approached by an unknown human vs. control) and social environment during lactation (single vs. group farrowing paddock) on maternal reactivity of outdoor sows was examined in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with nine replicates of four sows. Selection for timidity was carried out by a human approach test in the gestation paddock three weeks prepartum. During week 1 postpartum the maternal reactivity was tested once in each of three different setups mimicking potential situations of danger to the piglets: the play back of a piglet distress call (SP), disturbance of nursing (DN) and introduction of a human dummy (DT). Generally, timid sows were more reactive than controls; they had a higher first reaction type in DT (P < 0.05) and DN (P

The study investigated whether reduced accessibility to the sow and the presence of other litters could be a causal factor behind poor milk supply to the piglets. Thirty-five sows were distributed to one of three housing treatments: GS: 12 sows in groups of four in a `get-away system' where the sows could leave the piglets at their own will and where the litters were not able to compete for milk at foreign sows' udders; GG: 12 sows housed as GS sows but where the litters could compete for milk from foreign sows; IL: 11 sows housed individually with their litter in large pens. Observations of nursing frequency, duration of time spent in the farrowing pen and number of sows weaning their litter were made of all sows using 24-h video recordings day 8, 10, 14 and 21. Observation of teat fidelity, cross suckling, fights during milk letdown and number of piglets missing more than 20% of the nursings were made of the individual piglets using 12-h video recordings day 8, 14 and 21. The results showed a significant faster decrease over time in nursing frequency ( p p p p p p

We considered experiments where animals chose one of all possible simultaneously presented options. The animals might be observed at repeated occasions. In the ethological literature the analysis is often focused on testing the global hypothesis of no difference in preferences by non-parametric methods. This fails to address the estimation of a ranking. Often this approach cannot adequately reflect the experimental setting and the repeated measurement structure. Therefore, we propose to model the choice probabilities for the options with a multinomial logistic model. The correlation induced by repeated measurements is incorporated by animal specific random intercepts. The ranking of the options is taken as the order of the choice probabilities. Adopting a Bayesian approach samples from the posterior distribution of the choice probabilities provide directly samples from the posterior of the rankings. Based on this an estimate of the ranking and description of its variability can be derived. The computation was performed via Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling and was implemented using WinBUGS. We illustrate our approach with an experiment to determine the preference of pigs for three different rooting materials. The proposed method allowed deriving an overall ranking for different combinations of the materials and the spatial positioning.

The effects of pen design and group composition were examined with respect to activity, use of pen, floor conditions, health condition and immune competence for groups of 60 pigs. The experiment was designed with the two factors with zones/without zones and divided litters/intact litters . The experiment included a total of 1440 pigs from weaning at the age of 4 weeks to the age of 18 weeks after weaning. In pens with zones, the selection of different areas for different activities was improved. Pens with zones were more dirty in the elimination and open areas than pens without zones. In pens with zones, the number of lymphocytes was decreased, the ability to respond to an additional challenge by a model infection was decreased and the number of neutrophils was increased in intact litters. In week 9, the health condition was better with a group composition consisting of intact litters compared to divided litters. The health condition of the pigs was unaffected by pen design, but non-infectious health condition was improved in pens with zones.

Outdoor sows are nose ringed to maintain grass cover. Intact pasture insures the sows possibility to graze and is also assumed to reduce the nutrient leaching. However, no evidence of reduced leaching from fields with ringed sows is available. Rooting behaviour constitutes an essential part of the sows’ natural behavioural repertoire. In organic husbandry it is an established aim to consider the animals’ natural behaviour, and by allowing nose ringing in organic pig production the natural behaviour of the animals has been prevented in order to consider the environment. The purpose of this experiment was to relate grazing and rooting activity of sows to grass cover and nutrient leaching. Three treatments were tested on 78 sows in total: 1: sows with nose rings, 2: sows without nose rings, 3: sows without nose rings and with a gradual pasture allocation. All treatments were carried out with pregnant and lactating sows. The stocking rate was the same for all three treatments and the experiment was carried out May to September 2002. The behaviour of the sows, level of activity and position in the field were registered for one day each week during the entire grazing season. In July and September the grass cover was quantified by remote sensing and in September soil samples were taken in order to determine the nutrient leaching. Data were analysed using ANOVA. The incidence of grazing behaviour was the same in all three treatments. Grass cover was twice as dense in fields with ringed sows than in fields with unringed sows (p

Det er en almindelig antagelse, at tryneringning af udegående søer mindsker udvaskning af nitrat og andre næringsstoffer fra græsmarkerne, og at miljøet dermed skånes. Man kan se, at ringning forhindrer søerne i at rode, hvorved græsdækket holdes intakt på en stor del af marken det meste af året. Men fak-tisk ved vi ikke, om udvaskningen fra en mark med ringede søer er mindre end fra en mark, hvor søer kan rode. Det er vist, at der er væsentlig udvaskning fra områder omkring fodersted, sølehuller og hyt-ter fra marker, hvor søerne har været tryneringet. Det kan tænkes at denne punktforurening er værre for vandmiljøet end en jævn spredning af samme forurening. Fra forsøg med ringede og ikke ringede søer ved vi, at søerne ikke lider ved at have trynering. På den anden side foretrækker søer at rode og bruger 20-30% af deres tid på at rode, hvis de har mulighed for det. Rodeadfærden udgør således en væsentlig del af søernes naturlige adfærdsrepertoire. Ved at tillade tryneringning i økologisk svineproduktion er man, for at tilgodese miljøet, gået på kompromis med målsætningen om at tilgodese dyrenes naturlige adfærd. Så hvis vi vælger at ringe søerne, skal der være en god grund til det. I dette forsøg har vi taget det første skridt til at undersøge om belastningen efter tryneringede søer vir-kelig er mindre end efter søer, der har kunnet rode, og vi har sammenlignet med en simpel udgave af græsmarksstyring. I forsøget er afprøvet tre behandlinger: 1: søer med trynering 2: søer uden trynering 3: søer uden trynering udsat gradvis tildeling af græsmark Alle tre behandlinger er gennemført med både drægtige og diegivende søer. De drægtige har gået fem i hver flok, mens de diegivende har gået i enkelt farefolde. Belægningsgraden, beregnet over et år, har været den samme for alle tre behandlinger. For behandlingen med gradvis tildeling af græsmark har søer haft adgang til den ene halvdel af marken de første ti uger og adgang til den anden halvdel af marken de følgende ti uger. Arealtildeling er udregnet efter at skulle give 280 kg. N pr. ha pr. år. Samtidig er der for alle behandlinger gennemført flytning af fodersted og hytter. De drægtige blev fodret med 1, 75 Fe valset byg pr. dag. Da denne fodertildeling næppe har dækket mere end cirka 70% af deres behov, har søerne formentlig været motiverede for at græsse og æde ensi-leret grovfoder. De diegivende søer fik 9,7 Fe færdigblandet foder pr. dag. Forsøget er gennemført hos en privat landmand, som har søerne ude om sommeren og inde om vinteren. Forsøget er derfor gen-nemført i perioden fra maj til september. Søernes rodeadfærd, aktivitetsniveau og placering på marker er observeret én dag hver uge i gennem hele græsningssæsonen. I juli og september er græsdækket kvantificeret vha. telemåling og i september er der udtaget jordprøver til bestemmelse af potentiel næringsstofudvaskning. Forsøget er netop afsluttet i september og de første, dugfriske resultater præsenteres på økologikongressen.

Outdoor sows may be provided with a nose ring in order to prevent them from uprooting the grass. Under semi-natural conditions, sows spend 10–20% of their active time rooting. The welfare consequences of this rooting deprivation depend on the motivation of the behaviour. This experiment examines the motivation to root in gilts, in order to assess the welfare consequences of nose ringing. Sixteen gilts were housed in pairs in pens supplied with peat as rooting material, and moved to a neighbouring concrete pen thereby depriving them from rooting for 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 8, 24.5, 26 and 32 h. Deprivation was followed by 24 h in the earth pen, where the behaviour of the gilts was video recorded. Three measures, considered to indicate rooting motivation were calculated from the recorded behaviour: time with snout to floor, latency to first snout contact to floor and lengths of rooting bouts. Gilts deprived from rooting for longer than 24 h spent more time with snout to the floor (4.2 min/h) during the light hours of the first 24 h after returning to the earth pen, than pigs deprived less than 24 h (2.0 min/h), P

The use of antibiotics in Danish pig production was debated among a group of stakeholders from various professional backgrounds. The debate took place at Aarhus University, Foulum, in the spring of 2022. The meeting was organized as part of the Horizon-2020 project ROADMAP - Rethinking the use of antimicrobials in livestock production systems, with the focus on responsible use of antibiotics in livestock to reduce the risk of resistance-related issues in humans. The background for the meeting was a desire to examine how a wide range of stakeholders with knowledge and influence in pig production, resistance development, and market conditions assessed the use of antibiotics for Danish pigs now and in the future. The meeting had four themes: "Antibiotics and resistance," "Consumers, citizens, and antibiotics," "Use of antibiotics and alternatives," and "Breeding for robust pigs - is it the way forward?" The report reviews the debates of the meeting and clarifies the issues on which there was agreement and disagreement regarding each of the themes.