Tail biting is one of the most pressing welfare problems in modern pig production and damage due to tail biting has a considerable financial impact. Its highly multi-factorial nature makes this behaviour hard to target: a multitude of different stressors can increase the risk of tail biting at the level of the farm, batch, pen, or individual pig. Because of this, remediating strategies need to target the specific stressor that caused the behaviour: there is no ‘silver bullet’ that will reliably eliminate tail biting under all circumstances.
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AFBI recently concluded a review of recent international literature on tail biting. The results are reported in the document: ‘A review of new knowledge on tail biting and tail docking - Update on the 2015 report ‘Practical solutions to reduce tail biting in NI pig herds’
Buijs and Muns 2019 - A review of new knowledge on tail biting and tail docking