Although a few studies consider the sustainability of animal farming systems along the three classical main pillars (economy, environment and society), most studies on pig farming systems address only one of these pillars. The present paper is the introduction to a series of companion papers presenting the results of a study undertaken within the EU-supported project Q-PorkChains, aiming at building a comprehensive tool for the evaluation of pig farming systems, which is robust to accommodate the large variability of systems existing in Europe. The tool is mostly based on questions to farmers and comprises a total of 37 dimensions distributed along eight themes: Animal Welfare, Animal Health, Breeding Programmes, Environmental Sustainability, Meat Safety, Market Conformity, Economy and Working Conditions. The paper describes the procedure that was used for building the tool, using it on 15 contrasted pig farming systems and analysing the results. The evaluated systems are briefly described and a short overview of the dimensions is provided. Detailed descriptions of the theme-wise tools and results, as well as the results of an integrated evaluation, are available in the companion papers.

The sustainability of breeding activities in 15 pig farming systems in five European countries was evaluated. One conventional and two differentiated systems per country were studied. The Conventional systems were the standard systems in their countries. The differentiated systems were of three categories: Adapted Conventional with focus on animal welfare, meat quality or environment (five systems); Traditional with local breeds in small-scale production (three systems) and Organic (two systems). Data were collected with a questionnaire from nine breeding organisations providing animals and semen to the studied farming systems and from, on average, five farmers per farming system. The sustainability assessment of breeding activities was performed in four dimensions. The first dimension described whether the market for the product was well defined, and whether the breeding goal reflected the farming system and the farmers' demands. The second dimension described recording and selection procedures, together with genetic change in traits that were important in the system. The third dimension described genetic variation, both within and between pig breeds. The fourth dimension described the management of the breeding organisation, including communication, transparency, and technical and human resources. The results show substantial differences in the sustainability of breeding activities, both between farming systems within the same category and between different categories of farming systems. The breeding activities are assessed to be more sustainable for conventional systems than for differentiated systems in three of the four dimensions. In most differentiated farming systems, breeding goals are not related to the system, as these systems use the same genetic material as conventional systems. The breeds used in Traditional farming systems are important for genetic biodiversity, but the small scale of these systems renders them vulnerable. It is hoped that, by reflecting on different aspects of sustainability, this study will encourage sustainable developments in pig production.

The aim of this paper is to present an efficient tool for evaluating the economy part of the sustainability of pig farming systems.The selected tool IDEA was tested on a sample of farms from 15 contrasted systems in Europe. A statistical analysis was carried out to check the capacity of the indicators to illustrate the variability of the population and to analyze which of these indicators contributed the most towards it. The scores obtained for the farms were consistent with the reality of pig production; the variable distribution showed an important variability of the sample. The principal component analysis and cluster analysis separated the sample into five subgroups, in which the six main indicators significantly differed, which underlines the robustness of the tool. The IDEA method was proven to be easily comprehensible, requiring few initial variables and with an efficient benchmarking system; all six indicators contributed to fully describe a varied and contrasted population.

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Samenvatting NL Dit rapport doet verslag van een serie van vijf opeenvolgende pilotproeven met beperkt aantal herhalingen die zijn uitgevoerd met betrekking tot parttime groepshuisvesting van voedsters in de commerciële konijnenhouderij. Hokindeling en daarmee de mogelijkheid voor voedsters om van elkaar weg/uit zicht te kunnen komen (vluchten) lijkt een belangrijke bijdrage te kunnen leveren in het verminderen en tijdig beëindigen van rangordestrijd tussen voedsters. Daarom zijn in de pilots verschillende hokindelingen onderzocht. Er is geëxperimenteerd met verschillende hokindelingen in zogenaamde combi-parken door het plaatsen van schotten onder en op het platform.Dit leek geen effect te hebben op het optreden van huidbeschadigingen en daarmee rangorde strijd tussen voedsters. In de hokken waarin naast de tussenwanden ook de nestkastafscheidingen waren verwijderd werden geen ernstig beschadigde voedsters aangetroffen. Hokindeling lijkt daarmee van invloed op het optreden van huidbeschadigingen. De pilots zijn echter met een beperkt aantal herhalingen uitgevoerd. De uitkomsten dienen daarom met enige voorzichtigheid te worden gehanteerd.Summary UK In five successive pilot experiment different park layouts were tested with the objective to minimize skin injuries in group-housed rabbit does. Does were single housed in so called combi-parks. At 21 or 23 days of lactation the separations between six single parks were removed to create a group-park (combi-park system). The park layout was altered by changing the place of wooden panels underneath and up the platform. In this way different hide and escape routes were created. The panels between the nest boxes remained. In the fifth pilot also the panels between the nest boxes were removed creating a so called park that is also used in meat rabbits. In the parcs were the nest box panels were also removed no severe skin injuries were observed. Therefore, park layout seems to influence skin injuries. Results have to be treated with care, as the pilots were performed with small numbers and not repeated. Dit rapport is gratis te downloaden op https://doi.org/10.18174/545254 of op www.wur.nl/livestock-research (onder Wageningen Livestock Research publicaties). Dit werk valt onder een Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-Niet Commercieel 4.0 Internationaallicentie.