Moving beyond absence of suffering, positive welfare indicators for pigs measure active states of wellbeing including play, exploration, and comfort.
Traditional animal welfare assessment focused primarily on identifying and reducing negative states such as pain, fear, and hunger. Positive welfare science recognises that the absence of suffering does not equate to a good life and seeks to measure and promote active positive experiences. For pigs, positive welfare indicators include playful behaviour such as running and jumping, active investigation of the environment, comfortable resting in preferred positions, and social grooming between group members. Farms that score highly on positive welfare indicators tend to also score better on disease and performance measures, suggesting that positive welfare is achievable within commercial systems. Integrating positive welfare measurement into farm assurance schemes represents a significant advance in practical welfare science.