Pigs are highly pain-sensitive animals that routinely undergo painful procedures on farms, often without adequate analgesia. Improving pain recognition and treatment protocols is one of the highest-impact welfare improvements available to the pork industry.
Pain in pigs is frequently underrecognised because prey animals evolved to suppress pain signals. Stockpersons trained specifically in pig pain recognition perform significantly better at identifying affected animals than untrained staff. The development of validated pain assessment tools like the Pig Grimace Scale has transformed research and is increasingly being adopted in veterinary and production settings. The main barriers to routine analgesia are cost and administration logistics — NSAIDs can be delivered via drinking water in group settings at modest cost. Regulatory pressure, particularly in Europe, is driving the adoption of anaesthesia and analgesia protocols for routine procedures. Eliminating non-emergency painful procedures entirely — such as through immunocastration or selective breeding — represents the highest-welfare outcome.