An infrastructure for experimental research for sustainable pig production

Project Information

PIGWEB

Grant agreement ID: 101004770

DOI

10.3030/101004770

Project closed

EC signature date 8 March 2021

Start date 1 March 2021

End date 28 February 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures

Total cost

€ 5 733 787,21

EU contribution

€ 4 999 992,57

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PIGWEB (An infrastructure for experimental research for sustainable pig production)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

PIGWEB aims to strengthen the pig research community by providing and facilitating access to research infrastructures (RI), reinforce the culture of cooperation between the research community and industrial and societal stakeholders, and improve and integrate the services provided by the RI. This will contribute to develop innovative and ethical solutions for sustainable pig production systems.
PIGWEB fully embraces the European Green Deal to make Europe world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The strategy is to protect, conserve and enhance the environment, protect the health and well-being of citizens from environment-related risks and impacts. Research infrastructures like PIGWEB will play a key role in identifying the levers that can be used to attain the goals of the Green Deal to produce safe, nutritious, high-quality food with a minimum impact on nature, and also address citizens’ concerns about the welfare of farmed animals. PIGWEB contributes to all of these aspects by a “Pig to Pork” approach to provide:

Transnational access (TNA) to:
i) Ensure easy and transparent access to 28 experimental pig RI and associated laboratories in nine countries.

Networking Activities (NA) to:
ii) Create a community of pig RI by mapping installations beyond the partners of the project and identifying future research needs in the pig production sector.
iii) Harmonise protocols, best practices, and promote the use of standards to ensure high levels of expertise and ethics.
iv) Organise the collection, management, and accessibility of data generated by the project.
v) Ensure dissemination, exploitation, and technology transfer of results generated by the project.
vi) Provide graduate and post-graduate training opportunities to early-career scientists to ensure the succession of a new generation of highly trained experts in the fields of pig production.

Joint Research Activities (JRA) to:
vii) Develop non- or minimally invasive methods for digestion studies and blood sampling to replace current procedures requiring surgery and invasive sampling, isolation, fixation and/or spatial restrictions of pigs.
viii) Develop novel methods, tools, and technologies that provide indicators of welfare, behaviour, and body composition.
ix) Develop a research toolbox to phenotype pigs for traits relevant for sustainable pig production, using data obtained through non- or minimally invasive measurements and model algorithms.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The response to the three transnational access calls, where external users carry out their research in the research infrastructures of PIGWEB partners, exceeded the expectations. Also, an interactive map of research infrastructures in Europe was developed. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been developed for routinely measured traits in research facilities, and the development of SOPs for experimental procedures is on-going. Surveys have been conducted regarding national procedures and differences between local practices concerning ethical standards and ethical approval process for pig experiments, used to write a policy brief.
Different non- and minimally-invasive experimental methods were evaluated that may be used to replace the more invasive “gold standard methods”. This included the use of NIR scanning of feed and faecal samples to replace the ileal cannulation of pigs to determine nutrient digestibility, and the use of different techniques to obtain and analyse metabolites in blood, as possible alternatives to the catheterization of the animals. The activities on “Novel and refined methods to measure behaviour, health, and body composition” cover a wide range of methods that are complex by nature or complicated and/or laborious to measure. Indicators were sought in samples that are not too difficult to obtain (e.g. saliva, breath, faeces) and, when needed, using more invasive samples (e.g. blood, tissue). A joint experiment was carried out to evaluate different techniques to estimate body composition relative to the gold standard (i.e. dissection). The novelty of the approach is that skills and equipment (e.g. CT scanner) from different partners were brought to one location to carry out the measurements.
A research toolbox has been developed, based on non- and minimally invasive methods. This includes the use of existing (big) data to develop model algorithms that can provide information about growth performance, nutrient efficiency, carcass nutrient composition, and health and welfare status. This and other methodologies developed in PIGWEB are currently being tested under a wide range of conditions in different PIGWEB research facilities.
The PIGWEB community is a group a highly-motivated researchers in different stages of their career. Their motivation and enthusiasm greatly facilitate the management and coordination of the project as whole. The PIGWEB project runs very smoothly (as confirmed at different occasions by the Scientific Advisory Board) and it is expected to fulfil most of its expectations.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Animal production and its research are frequently questioned by society. PIGWEB is engaged in a dialogue with society using different media to bridge the gap between citizens and consumers, livestock scientists, and stakeholders from the pig production sector. A PigHack hackathon entitled “Where science and society meet creativity” is organized where teams in different countries address the issue of how we (as an animal science research community) talk about research, ethics and science in a way that everyone understands. The outcome of this and other PIGWEB activities will be presented and discussed at in the final PIGWEB conference to be held in Saint-Malo, France on February 5th, 2026.
PIGWEB develops non- and minimally invasive experimental methods that can serve as alternatives for more invasive “gold-standard” methods. This includes methods to estimate the (ileal) digestibility of nutrients and minimally-invasive techniques to sample blood. Also, novel and refined methods to assess “complex” traits (e.g. emotions, mood, health) have been developed. Metabolic and gut health will be assessed by identifying novel indicators in samples that can be obtained in a non-invasive way, such as breath, saliva, and faeces. The body composition of an animal is a “simple” trait, but complicated to measure. Different techniques have been used in a joint experiment to evaluate how results obtained from one technique can be compared with those obtained with other techniques. The outcome of the methods developed in the project will be used to develop a research toolbox of non- and minimally invasive methods, which will be tested in a multisite experiment with varying levers and conditions.

Logo of the PIGWEB project