Providing enrichment materials to pig litters from birth through weaning sets positive welfare trajectories.
Providing enrichment to pig litters from birth represents a high-leverage, early-life welfare intervention with long-term benefits. Piglets given access to rooting and manipulable materials in farrowing pens develop richer behavioral repertoires and show less redirected oral behavior as they mature. The welfare benefit persists through the production cycle — enrichment-experienced pigs are less likely to engage in the injurious behaviors that plague barren commercial systems. The challenge is integrating enrichment into farrowing systems designed for hygiene and ease of cleaning, but solutions including suspended enrichment objects and contained substrate areas have been developed and tested.