Piglet welfare in the first days of life is critical. Neonatal care practices significantly affect survival, pain, and long-term health outcomes on farms.
Newborn piglets are highly sentient and experience pain acutely. Routine procedures like tail docking and castration without pain relief cause significant suffering. Crushing deaths represent both welfare and economic losses that better farrowing pen design can reduce. Crated farrowing systems restrict sow movement but reduce crushing; group farrowing systems allow natural behavior but require careful management. The EU has mandated pain relief for castration and is phasing out routine tail docking, pushing industry toward higher welfare standards.