Dr Ramon Muns of AFBI Hillsborough recently attended the Horizon 2020 EU PiG innovation network in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
AFBI is a partner of the EU Pig network which aims to identify best practices employed by pig producers across Europe and disseminate the applied knowledge among the different regions. To this end, eight annual “challenges” focusing on four particular areas of pig production have been identified: health management; meat quality; pig welfare; and precision production.
Producers from around Europe have been encouraged to submit the practices that they implement on their farms against these challenges. The research and professional partners of the EU PiG project then evaluate the different practices in each category. The five best practices selected for each challenge will then be presented to wider audiences through technical reports.
AFBI is a partner in the precision production group and will be involved in the evaluation of the practices received and in writing the informative technical reports which will be published on the EU PiG website during the coming weeks.
Following the meeting an agreement was reached on how best the ambassadors will present best practices from the previous year. Both the Ambassadors and Technical reports will be presented on the project website during the upcoming weeks.