Animal welfare science has moved beyond measuring the absence of suffering toward identifying positive welfare states in pigs, using behavioural and physiological indicators that capture when pigs are actively thriving.
Positive welfare science represents a fundamental shift in how we understand and measure animal wellbeing. It is not enough for a pig to be free from pain, fear, and disease — genuine welfare requires that the animal also has opportunities for positive experiences including play, exploration, social engagement, and the exercise of cognitive abilities. Pigs in systems that provide rooting substrate, space to move, stable social groups, and varied environmental complexity show a rich repertoire of positive behaviour that is entirely absent in barren, overcrowded systems. Assessing positive welfare requires different tools than measuring disease or injury: it requires observing play bouts, measuring optimistic judgement bias, and watching for the vocalisation and postural signatures of positive emotional states. Incorporating positive welfare indicators into farm assurance audit frameworks alongside traditional negative welfare measures provides a more complete picture of herd wellbeing.