Modern pig welfare science increasingly focuses on positive welfare states — not just preventing suffering but enabling pigs to experience good lives. Understanding what positive welfare looks like for pigs transforms farm assessment.
The shift from welfare as the absence of suffering to welfare as the presence of positive experiences represents a significant advance in how we think about pig farming. Pigs that are not in pain may still have poor welfare if they cannot express natural behaviours, make choices about their environment, or engage in social play. A pig farm that eliminates disease and injury but keeps animals in barren concrete cells has not achieved good welfare. Positive welfare requires environments that give pigs agency, novelty, and the opportunity for exploration and play. Farms that achieve positive welfare indicators typically show better productivity outcomes as well, suggesting that positive welfare and good farming practice are complementary rather than competing goals.