Slatted concrete floors, which are ubiquitous in intensive pig production, cause foot and leg problems that represent a significant and underaddressed source of chronic pain in commercial pigs.
Slatted concrete floors represent a design choice made for ease of manure management that creates chronic welfare costs for the animals living on them. Pigs walking on slatted concrete develop claw lesions from the mechanical pressure and abrasion of the slats — injuries that cause pain with every step. Inflamed joints from standing on hard surfaces compound the problem. Lame pigs are less able to compete at feeders, compounding production and welfare harm simultaneously. The contrast with straw-bedded systems is stark — foot lesion rates in straw-bedded pigs are a fraction of those in slatted systems. The welfare cost of slatted floor systems is well-established and represents a strong case for regulatory reform.