Pig Flooring Welfare: The Case for Solid Floors and Bedding

Flooring type is one of the most significant determinants of pig welfare, with slatted concrete systems causing widespread lameness, skin lesions, and behavioural frustration.

Key Facts

Fully slatted concrete floors are standard in intensive pig production in many countries.
Slatted floors allow waste to fall through but cause foot and leg injuries from slipping and hard surfaces.
Leg lesions (bursitis, joint swelling) and foot lesions are significantly more prevalent on slats than solid floors.
Pigs on solid floors with bedding show reduced aggression, more lying comfort, and better limb health.
Concrete provides no thermal comfort — pigs on cold concrete in winter experience thermal discomfort.
Deep straw bedding allows rooting, nest-building, and comfortable lying, meeting multiple behavioural needs.
Straw systems require more labour for bedding management but produce demonstrably better welfare outcomes.
Some countries (Sweden, Switzerland) have mandated rooting material and restricted slatted floor proportions.

Welfare Considerations

Flooring is a welfare intervention point with enormous impact. Pigs housed on fully slatted concrete from birth to slaughter spend their entire lives on a substrate that causes physical pain through foot lesions and slipping, provides no thermal comfort, and prevents the rooting and manipulating behaviours that are central to pig motivation. The post-mortem evidence is stark: prevalence of joint and foot lesions in slaughtered pigs reflects years of substrate-induced damage. Deep straw bedding addresses multiple welfare needs simultaneously — thermal comfort, rooting opportunity, enrichment, and lying comfort — and its implementation consistently reduces aggression, lameness, and stereotypies. The economic barrier to straw bedding on existing slatted systems is real but should not obscure the welfare imperative.

What You Can Do

Support pork from certified systems with partial or full solid flooring and bedding access.
Advocate for regulatory minimum requirements for rooting material provision on pig farms.
Ask retailers about flooring standards in their pork supply chains.
Support research into cost-effective retrofit solutions that allow bedding provision on existing slatted farms.
Choose outdoor or free-range pork where pigs have soil access for rooting.
Engage with welfare certification bodies to strengthen flooring standards in their schemes.