Farmed Pig Environmental Temperature Welfare

Pigs are highly sensitive to temperature extremes. Heat stress and cold stress cause significant welfare harms in commercial pig facilities with inadequate thermal management.

Key Facts

Pigs cannot sweat effectively and rely on wallowing and shade to manage heat
Heat stress begins above 25 degrees Celsius and becomes severe above 35 degrees in adult pigs
Pregnant sows are particularly vulnerable to heat stress which reduces reproductive performance
Cold stress in young piglets below 30 degrees Celsius causes elevated mortality from hypothermia
Commercial facilities often lack adequate cooling for summer heat peaks in warm climates
Wallowing behavior — denied in most commercial settings — is pigs' primary natural heat management strategy

Welfare Considerations

Temperature management represents a fundamental welfare challenge in commercial pig production. Heat-stressed pigs experience elevated heart rate, reduced feed intake, and in severe cases, heat stroke and death. The absence of wallowing access — a primary natural thermoregulatory behavior — means pigs in warm climates depend entirely on facility cooling systems. When those systems fail or prove inadequate during summer heat waves, mass mortality events occur. Young piglets face the opposite challenge — their inability to thermoregulate means they depend on supplemental heating in the first weeks of life. Both failure modes represent preventable welfare harms.

What You Can Do

Support pig welfare standards that include specific thermal environment requirements
Advocate for mandatory cooling system requirements in commercial pig facilities in warm climates
Choose pork from farms with documented temperature management and welfare monitoring
Reduce pork consumption to decrease demand from intensive operations with thermal management failures
Support research into heat-tolerant pig breeds that reduce thermal stress vulnerability