The wean-to-finish phaseāfrom weaning at 3-4 weeks of age through to slaughter at 22-26 weeksāencompasses the majority of a pig's life and the majority of welfare-relevant management decisions. Understanding the welfare challenges at each stage enables targeted improvement.
Weaning is one of the most stressful events in a pig's life: abrupt separation from the sow, loss of milk, unfamiliar housing, novel feed, and mixing with unfamiliar pigs all occur simultaneously. The resulting immune challenge and stress makes weaned pigs highly susceptible to post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) caused by enterotoxigenic E. coli. Welfare management focuses on: minimizing weaning age (below 4 weeks is high-risk), liquid diets or creep feeding to ease dietary transition, stable social grouping to reduce mixing stress, and maintaining warm, draught-free environments.
The growing phase (10-80kg) involves high stocking densities in commercial systems. Key welfare issues: Tail biting: Barren environments and competition drive tail biting cascades that cause pain, infection, and death. Enrichment provision (straw, rooting substrate) reduces incidence dramatically. Fighting: Mixing of unfamiliar pigs causes fighting until social hierarchies stabilize. Batch management (avoiding mixing) reduces fighting welfare harm. Environmental quality: Temperature, air quality, and space allowance all affect welfare continuously.
As pigs approach slaughter weight, stocking density effectively increases as body mass grows without space adjustment. Reviewing space allowances for heavy pigs is a welfare priority. Pre-slaughter handling, lairage, and transport all have significant welfare implications covered in dedicated welfare resources.
Part of the Animal Welfare Hub ā 2387+ pages of evidence-based animal welfare information.