Play behaviour in pigs is a reliable positive welfare indicator. Understanding what promotes pig play and how to measure it helps farmers and welfare scientists assess and improve pig wellbeing.
Play behaviour is one of the most reliable and easily observable positive welfare indicators in pigs. Animals in poor welfare do not play — play requires a surplus of resources and absence of threat that only comfortable, secure animals experience. Monitoring play frequency alongside negative indicators like aggression, stereotypy, and abnormal behaviour gives farmers and welfare assessors a more complete picture of pig welfare than injury and mortality data alone. The welfare implications are straightforward: management practices and environments that increase play frequency are improving pig welfare in the most direct possible sense. Providing rooting substrate, reducing stocking density, and maintaining stable social groups are the most evidence-based interventions for increasing pig play and the positive welfare states it reflects.