Pain recognition in pigs is challenging because their stoic nature and the commercial farm context can mask obvious signs of suffering. Developing reliable pain assessment tools and ensuring routine analgesia for painful procedures are key welfare priorities.
Pain management on pig farms has historically been poor because financial incentives, lack of practical protocols, and the difficulty of recognising pain in a stoic prey species all discourage investment. However, the evidence that routine procedures cause significant, prolonged pain is now compelling. Piglets castrated without analgesia show elevated cortisol, reduced growth, and altered behaviour for several days. The welfare case for routine analgesia for all painful procedures is clear, and the cost — a few cents per animal — is negligible relative to the welfare benefit. Training farm staff to recognise pain using validated tools, establishing standing prescriptions with farm vets for analgesics, and building pain management into standard operating procedures are practical steps toward systematic improvement.