Fully confined indoor pig systems maximize production efficiency but impose significant welfare costs through behavioral restriction, poor air quality, and social stress.
Intensive pig confinement represents the intersection of multiple welfare compromises: behavioral restriction denying rooting and exploration, poor air quality causing respiratory damage, social stress from inappropriate groupings, and constant exposure to the sounds and smells of distressed conspecifics. The cumulative welfare cost of these systems is substantial. Moving toward systems with adequate enrichment, better air quality through improved ventilation, appropriate social grouping, and some bedding provision represents the most impactful welfare intervention available for the world's most numerous farmed mammal. Consumer demand for higher welfare pork is the most powerful lever for change.