The neonatal period is the highest mortality phase in pig production, with significant welfare implications for individual piglets. Evidence-based management of farrowing and early piglet care reduces suffering and improves survival.
The neonatal pig represents a concentration of welfare challenges that begin before birth and intensify in the first hours and days of life. Breeding for extreme litter size has outpaced the sow's mammary capacity, creating a structural welfare problem: more piglets are born than teats can support, meaning the smallest piglets in large litters face hunger, competition, and often death regardless of management quality. Processing procedures performed without anaesthesia — teeth clipping, tail docking, and castration — cause acute pain in animals already experiencing the stress of birth and thermal challenge. Hypothermia in the first 24 hours is a significant welfare and mortality driver that heat lamps, creep areas, and appropriate insulation can substantially reduce. The welfare of newborn piglets is shaped by breeding decisions that no individual farm-level management can fully compensate.