PPILOW partners organized the participatory approach by setting-up nine NPG dedicated to pig or poultry in six countries. The NPG identified barriers to welfare and levers for improvement, and co-created with partners shared tools and strategies tested experimentally and in low-input outdoor and organic farms. The inventory of barriers to welfare and levers for improvement was built-up from focus groups of practitioners, citizens and EU policy makers, and from surveys for practitioners and consumers and a first economic study evaluated their potential economic impacts.
Standardized mobile apps for farmers to self-assess and benchmark on-farm the welfare status of the animals were co-developed (PIGLOW® for pigs) or refined (EBENE® for poultry) with NPG, and made EU-freely available in 9 and 7 European languages, respectively. They were uploaded by hundreds of outdoor and organic farmers and advisers and allowed progressing in some animal behaviour and welfare scores. Meanwhile, a data collection framework based on the One Welfare approach centered on both human and animal welfare has been co-created with NPG. The provision of covered and enriched verandas in laying hens allowed to limit feather pecking in laying hens with intact beaks while lower slaughter age in different genetics and additional straw bedding and dietary fibers in organic pigs allowed limiting boar taint in the meat from non-castrated male pigs. For finding alternatives to the elimination of layer male chicks, three experimental trials compared dual-purpose genotypes (DK, DE, FR). Results on both males and females showed a high variability of technical performance between genotypes and countries, with moderate to good egg quality for the different breeds. On-farm trials in the three countries enable the multicriteria evaluation of the use of genotypes, showing the resilience of the breeds if attention is paid on the first steps of their rearing. The economic viability of their use requires organizational adjustments between practitioners, feeding strategies to decrease feed costs, marketing strategies on the products, public support and higher price of eggs and/or meat. Concerning in ovo sexing, refinements on methodologies for electrophysical sensing have allowed determining embryo sex for 83% of 8 day-incubated eggs, and hundreds of egg sex biomarkers were identified in from 3 days of incubation. Finally, studies with different broiler genotypes (FR, IT) have allowed a better understanding of the determinants of ranging behavior, and its consequences on chicken performance and adaptability. Early management levers studying temperature variations during incubation (NL, BE, FR) induced behavioural changes during a heat challenge in slow-growing chickens, while on-farm hatching allowed improving chick health at start, provided thermal fine-tuning and organizational adjustments are made in the field (FR, DE). Partners working with layers (DK) and pigs (RO) developed strategies to limit intestinal parasitic and bacterial infections through different feed supplements, based both on in vitro and in vivo studies. Interesting effects of plants to limit parasite infections were obtained in pig farms (RO). Joint protocols were developed and implemented in FR and DK to improve the sow welfare and piglet survival through selective breeding (FR) and innovation within farrowing house design for outdoor rearing of sows and piglets (DK). These innovative devices tested in FR, BE and IT by NPG members allowed improving piglet survival on farm. PPILOW developed online tools, released magazine articles and interviews for communicating on its activities and results, and co-organized joint conferences with other EU projects, international workshops and national technical days. PPILOW released 24 EIP-AGRI and 4 practice Organic Farm Knowledge abstracts and 2 tools accessible on its website (www.ppilow.eu).
