Positive welfare assessment for pigs moves beyond disease and injury metrics to capture whether pigs are experiencing a genuinely good life. New tools enable practical farm-level assessment.
Positive welfare assessment for pigs represents an important advance beyond traditional welfare monitoring. A farm where pigs have low disease rates and low injury rates but spend most of their time in a dull, unstimulated state achieves a welfare floor without achieving good welfare. Positive indicators — particularly play behaviour and exploratory activity — capture whether pigs are experiencing something genuinely positive, not merely avoiding something negative. Practical tools including ear posture scoring and QBA are accessible to trained farm staff and can be integrated into routine monitoring. The goal is farms where pigs regularly engage in play, exploration, and social affiliation.