Important animal terms glossary

An abnormal, redirected oral behaviour in intensively kept pigs whereby one pig manipulates or injures the tail of a pen-mate; it has a multifactorial etiology including overstocking, insufficient environmental enrichment, suboptimal microclimate, and nutritional deficiencies, and constitutes a major animal welfare and economic problem.

Removal of part of the tail (usually up to two-thirds) using a hot docking iron, sharp cutter (pigs) or tight rubber ring (lambs, cattle). Tail docking is usually done to reduce the risk of tail biting (pigs) or to ease handling and hygiene and health management (cattle, lambs). Routine tail docking is prohibited in the EU (but carried out on most farms).

Removal of the sharp ends of the needle teeth of the piglets to reduce damage to the sows’ teats during suckling and to other piglets. Teeth clipping is the reduction (cutting) of a piglet’s 8 sharp needle teeth shortly after birth using sharp clippers or pliers. Teeth grinding is another common form of teeth reduction where the piglet's teeth are reduced using a grinder. Routine teeth reduction (clipping or grinding) is prohibited in the EU (but carried out on most farms).

Tying of an animal (usually grazing animals such as cattle and goats, but also sows) to a fixed point; tethering prevents an animal from carrying out its normal behaviour. Tethering is no longer permitted in the EU for calves and sows.

A housing design in which livestock (usually cattle) are permanently restrained in a stall whilst they are kept in the house and so have restricted freedom of movement. The floors of the stalls may be:

• Level concrete with a channel covered by a grid at the rear of the animals to collect faeces and urine as slurry.
• Sloping concrete with bedding (e. g. straw, chopped straw, sawdust) and a shallow gutter at the rear of the animals to collect part of the faeces and the urine, whilst part is regularly removed as solid manure. In some cases the gutter is equipped with a drainage pipe to collect seepage.
• As above but with a deeper channel instead of a gutter to collect and store the liquid fraction.

Containing all the roughage and concentrate components of the ration mixed together.

Large poultry species kept for the production of meat.

This is very similar to a broiler house used for rearing turkeys for meat. Variations in design include:

• Closed house. The deep litter manure is removed at the end of the rotation, as for broiler. In special low emission systems the deep litter is removed from time to time (e. g. about nine times per rotation) and replaced with fresh litter.
• House with open side walls. Especially for male animals; manure removal like in closed houses.
• Partially ventilated littered floor. About 75% of the floor area is solid and 25% is a raised platform with a slatted floor covered with nylon cloth. Litter (wood shavings) is spread over both floor areas and air is blown through the slatted area to dry the manure. The system gives lower ammonia emissions than conventional systems.